CHAPTER FOUR
( PRISON BREAK )
"THIS SUCKS," SOKKA VOICED as he and Flo walked through the woods.
Hours ago, after waking up from a much needed nap, Flo decided to have a look around and search for some food. Sokka gave her no choice in the matter about him tagging along, something about hunting buddies that she didn't exactly listen to. She hoped that hunting and searching for nuts and berries would give her alone time away from the group. That wasn't the case, obviously. Either way though, not much was found. Other than a few nuts, they came up empty handed. Not many animals were around, from what Flo could see, and the tree's branches weren't the best for staking out on, let alone climb, so she couldn't get a good view from above. Even Sleemo came back with nothing from her flight around the area.
Flo simply nodded, agreeing. She walked beside him down the stream path. Above them, Sleemo flew from branch to branch, from tree to tree, and occasionally paused to look around. It was quiet between the two teens after Sokka's comment, and neither of them spoke as they got closer to Katara and Aang.
Aang quickly noticed them both. "Great, you're back! What's for dinner?" He moved from the overturned tree he lied on and came over to them.
Sokka started emptying the sack he had onto the natural stone patio. "We've got a few options. First, round nuts and some kind of oval shaped nuts, and some rock shaped nuts that...might just be rocks." He threw the rock over his shoulder. Momo went after it. "Dig in!"
Aang glanced at Flo after he shared a look with Katara. "Uh..."
"Seriously, what else ya got?" the sister asked, unimpressed
"I couldn't find any ripe winter berries," she said. "This is it."
Sokka peered into the sack again. Flo sat on the slab of stone, and set her bow near her bag. Sleemo flew from one of the nearby trees and landed right beside the girl. The hawk-cat meowed, agitated at the lack of food.
Aang sighed and reached over to pet Sleemo. "I feel ya," he muttered to her.
Suddenly, a load abrupt noise sounded throughout the Forrest, disrupting the calm atmosphere of the area. The group of them looked up at the noise, and so did Appa from where he laid in a clearing close by. Flo grabbed her bow and stood on the stone without hesitation, slotting an arrow in place with ease. She held onto her weapon, ready to shoot if needed, and she looked around.
"What was that!?" Sokka yelled.
It happened again a couple seconds later. Flo looked to her left, and right after, Aang pointed in that direction. "It's coming from over there!"
"I'll go check– hey, come back!" Flo shouted at Aang as Katara as they ran towards the sound.
Sokka waves his arms. "Shouldn't we run away from the huge booms – not towards them?"
Annoyance overcame Flo. They certainly weren't making it easy watching out for them – or babysitting, as Sokka said over and over again. She quickly followed Katara and Aang, and Sleemo flew into the trees to watch and follow too. Sokka wasn't too fair behind her, either. They came up to a fallen tree in the dried up river bed. The four stood behind the tree, crouched to stay hidden; Flo stood between Aang and Sokka, her dark eyes locked onto the boy not too far away. An earthbender, a teen not too much older than them. He was obviously practicing his bending, and moved a large boulder from place the place. It was what caused the booming sounds.
"An earthbender," Katara said excitedly from the other side of the youngest.
"Let's go meet him!" Aang suggested.
"He looks dangerous, so we better approach cautiously," Sokka said to him.
Flo shook her head. "Not dangerous. He's an earthbender, yes, but he's not much older than us, if at all. If he's not practicing at home, then there's a reason he's out here. But we should still be careful, we don't know who else might be around." She put the arrow back in the quiver but held tightly onto the handle of her bow. Her eyes finally caught sight of Katara. The younger girl had walked away from them and now stood farther into the dried up river bed, but still a good distance away from the earthbender boy. Flo rubbed at her forehead. She was seriously starting to regret coming along.
"Hello there, I'm Katara! What's your name?"
The boy looked at Katara in surprise and dropped the boulder one final time. He ran down the river bed instantly and didn't look back. Rocks fell into the riverbed. It blocked them from him easily. Flo stepped away from the fallen tree the rest of them were still behind, and the other two followed suite.
"Nice to meet you!" Aang shouted loudly to the stranger.
"We just wanted to say 'hi'," Katara mumbled.
Aang's face suddenly lit up. "Hey, that's guys gotta be running somewhere, maybe we're near a village and I bet that village has a market!"
Katara's excitement came back. "Which means no nuts for dinner!" The two started to run off again, and Flo went to shout for them to stop, but closed her mouth instantly. It was no use, at this point.
"Hey! I worked hard to get those nuts!" Sokka offendedly yelled at his sister and friend. Momo suddenly flew by, chittering, and Sleemo was right behind him, a squawk leaving her as a response to the lemur. The teen deflated, downcast. "Yeah, I hate 'em too."
Flo sighed and started to follow the younger ones and the pets, and when Sokka was being too slow, she grabbed his sleeve to make him walk faster.
+++
There was, in fact, a village and a market place in said village. Because of her lack of money, Flo didn't get anything. She just looked and walked around and let the others buy stuff if they wanted. Sokka smiled at her, blue eyes shining, and she just gave a tiny one back to acknowledge him. It was barely even a smile, really. She then let Aang pull her over to some hats. He placed a hat on her head with a pleased smirk. She rolled her eyes but let the twelve year old have his fun, and soon enough placed it back just as Aang tried on a hat for himself.
"Great hat. I'll trade you some nuts for it," Aang said to Sokka, and laughed when he turned to him.
"Hey!"
Flo turned around in an instant, and quickly noticed that Katara was running off, again. She groaned in annoyance and ran after the other girl. The two boys were quick to follow. They made it to one of the nearby buildings in no time, just seconds after Katara walked inside to follow the boy from earlier.
"—the kid! Why did you run away before?" Katara asked, just as Flo stepped and stood beside her. The older girl quickly noted that there was a woman in there too, and she was most likely the boy's mother.
The earthbender looked at them. "Uh, you must have me confused with some other kid," he said.
"No she doesn't," Aang said. He walked in with Sokka. "We saw you earthbending."
The woman was quick to shut the door and the windows. "They saw you doing what?" she asked her son.
"They're crazy, Mom, I mean, look at how they're dressed!" he defended himself, and motioned to the four of them. They all collectively looked down at their clothes; Flo thought she looked relatively normal compared to the other three. Normal for the Earth Kingdom, at least.
"You know how dangerous that is!" the mother chastised. "You know what would happen if they caught you earthbending!"
Flo's eyes widened, suddenly understanding the situation. Dread filled her gut and it only grew when there was a knock on the door, followed by, "Open up!"
"Fire Nation! Act natural!" Sokka told them after peeking through the window.
They all moved into the least normal poses possible, and after the soldier walked in, Aang's hand that was on the barrel slipped into the water when the lid shifted because of his weight. Flo moved between Katara and Aang, and stood a bit behind them. She couldn't peel her eyes away from the man. The dread she felt morphed into anger, and her grip on her bow tightened.
"What to you want?" the woman asked the soldier. "I've already paid you this week."
"The tax was just doubled. Wouldn't want an accident, would we?" The soldier smirked and his hands made a large ball of fire. They all instinctively took a step back. "Fire is sometimes so hard to control."
The woman's defiant expression turned into fear. Soon enough, she placed a small chest on a table and she opened it. Not much was in there. Still, she took it all out and gave it to the soldier. He dropped the smaller ones to the floor.
"You can keep the copper ones." He stopped by Flo, amber eyes locking onto the arrows on her back before they looked over her face. He stepped closer to her. "You haven't heard of a person who killed some of my nation's soldiers for sport, have you?" he asked lowly. "Who shoots an arrow right through their eye socket?"
Flo didn't look away. "I have." As he looked at her bow and arrows again, she frowned. "It's not me, if that's what you're getting at. I use these to hunt animals for food."
The soldier hummed. "Well. The person has been all over the Earth Kingdom, and some believe they're a young woman, always killing with a weapon like yours. A group of men traced her down, apparently, but almost all of them ended up dead. She vanished. The guy who lived wasn't able to give a description." He loomed over her in a threatening manner. "If you know what's best for you and your friends, you'll tell us if you hear of her again."
Flo had no choice but to nod; she didn't want find out what would happen if she refused. The soldier smiled smugly and finally left. All the while, her eyes were trained on him, dark and angry and filled with hatred. Katara was looking at her, blue eyes narrowed slightly, clearly thinking. Flo ignored the girl and schooled her features once the man was out of the building, and kept herself from moving to the window, grabbing an arrow and shooting it into the unexpected man's back. She couldn't. Not now, not again, not ever. Not unless it was for protection. She's done with that.
"Nice guy," Sokka said sarcastically. Then he asked, "How long has the Fire Nation been here?"
"Five years," the woman answered. "Fire Lord Ozai uses our town's coal mines to fuel his ships."
"They're thugs; they steal from us, and everyone here is too much of a coward to do anything about it," the boy bitterly spoke. "Maybe if that woman he spoke about were here, she'd scare them off. They don't act like it but they're scared of the woman with the deadly aim."
Flo looked away from him and lowered her head. Despite not exactly liking that part of her past, she did feel a bit proud knowing grown men and firebenders were scared of her. She didn't dwell on that though, and focused back on the current situation.
"Quiet, Haru. Don't speak like that," she scolded. "The archer hasn't attacked them in six months."
"But, Haru's an earthbender, he can help," Katara said.
"Earthbending is forbidden. It caused nothing but misery for this village. He must never use his abilities," Haru's mother told her.
"How can you say that? Haru has a gift. Asking him not to earthbend is like asking me not to waterbend. It's part of who we are."
"You don't understand."
"I understand that Haru can help you fight back. You don't need the archer. What can the Fire Nation do to you that they haven't done already?"
"They could take Haru away!" the woman shouted. She looked heartbroken then, hurt and scared too. "Like they took his father..."
+++
Haru and his mother took the group of four to their farm shortly after. They were letting them stay in the outbuilding for the night, and the only condition the woman gave was that they had to leave in the morning. Flo didn't mind, she thought the earlier they left the better, and not just because soldiers were looking for who she used to be. She frowned. She looked over the arrows in the quiver as she sat on one of the barrels of hay. Aang was lounging on Appa as he and Sokka talked about mundane things, and Momo and Sleemo were chasing one another around, leaving Flo to her own devices since Katara went on a walk with Haru.
Flo counted twenty arrows. Ten she made; ten she bought (re: stole). She should probably get to making more soon though, since she wasn't only hunting for herself now but three others too. Her fingers brushed over the ends of the nicer ones. Months ago, those were used on the Fire Nation soldiers. Now, she just kept them for protection, to use in a fight if necessary. She set the quiver at her side as a few memories popped up of purposefully killing those men and women. She wondered if any of them were innocent people.
"None of them are innocent! They're Fire Nation."
Shut up, Jet.
"Hey."
Flo looked up from staring intently at the ground. Her eyes quickly met blue ones, and with how much concern were held within them, she had to look away almost instantly.
"You've been...more quiet," Sokka said. "Uh, y'know, more than usual."
She shrugged. She caught sight of Aang playing with the flying lemur and hawk-cat, and finally managed to look at Sokka directly as he stayed in front of her. "I'm fine."
Sokka didn't looked convinced. "Alright. Well, hey, can you help me get our stuff out of Appa's saddle for the night? Aang is–."
"Being a kid," Flo muttered her interruption. She was back to looking at the boy. She couldn't help but fail to remember the last time when she actually ran to play with Sleemo; she did play, of course, mostly for the hawk-cat's benefit more than her own, but never to the degree of what Aang was currently doing.
"...Yeah," Sokka whispered. He then stuck out his hand to help her up, and gave her a goofy grin when she looked up at him. He hoped it would at least get some sort of happy reaction from her. Instead, Flo ignored the offer of help and the smile, and stood up herself. She walked straight passed him. His grin fell, though he awkwardly chuckled, and he moved his hand to scratch the back of his head. Then he noticed Aang had stopped to watch the little interaction, and Sokka dramatically groaned at the wide, teasing grin sent his way.
+++
Flo began to really regret her decision of joining the other three. Not necessarily because of them, though it did play part, but more so because of the current situation. The night went relatively smoothly – for them. But before, during their walk, Haru used earthbending to save an old man with Katara, and said old man blabbed to the Fire Nation soldiers. It was now the next day, the younger girl realized that they took Haru during the night, and after panicking, Katara made an impromptu plan that had her getting arrested for earthbending so they could break out Haru out of the prison they took him to.
The plan actually ended up being really smart though, she had to admit. When a group of soldiers came marching up, the two siblings fake fought – though Sokka easily got offended when Katara said something about his ears and the acting was terribly over exaggerated – and at a certain cue, Aang sent a gust of air through a ventilation shaft, air going from one to the other, hard enough to lift a boulder. After a dumb mistake of thinking that Momo was the one bending the rock, the soldiers finally arrested Katara and took her away. The other three followed closely, but not too closely, behind on Appa to track them.
All the while, Flo felt completely and utterly stressed.
"Your sister is crazy," Flo spoke up. "She makes it extremely hard to keep her out of danger."
"Trust me, I know," Sokka muttered. They sat across from one another on each side of the saddle as they stayed hidden behind some clouds while they followed the ship. "Being the big brother isn't always easy... Do you have any siblings?"
Flo had multiple answers. Yes; no; they're all dead; The Duke (as much as she didn't want to see him that way, she did). She didn't know which one to give. She didn't want pity, she didn't want either of the boys to pry, and she definitely didn't want the conversation of family to continue. This was why she rarely spoke up willingly around people. It easily turned into conversations she didn't want to have. Finally, she nodded. "I'm the youngest," she answered. It didn't give away their deaths, and it wasn't a lie. She just hoped he wouldn't ask another question.
Sokka looked genuinely surprised. "You don't act like it. I mean, it's not bad, but you act mature and I just assumed you've always had to look out for someone younger than you."
"Being alone for four or five years matures people."
"...Oh," she heard Aang mumble from his spot on Appa's head. So, he had been listening. It didn't surprise Flo that he listened to them, but she hadn't been expecting him to say something.
"The Fire Nation killed my entire people," Aang told her solemnly.
Sokka stared at his lap. "They took my mother away. My dad's been gone for two years fighting in the war. I only have Katara, and our Gran-Gran back home. And Aang now too."
The Avatar perked up. Not completely, but she could tell he was smiling some by the tone in his voice. "Yeah! I have Katara and Sokka now, they're my new family. Obviously, Appa and Momo are part of the family too."
Flo suddenly got déjà vu. She went through this before, but instead of two boys trying to save one's sister and a stranger they met barely twenty-four hours ago, it had happened with a group of kids who attacked Fire Nation soldiers under the order of a teen not much older than most of them. She had been a lot angrier then. Now, she was just sad and tired, and more emotionally distant than ever, yet still held resentment and fury towards that one Fire Nation general.
"I just have Sleemo," Flo said quietly, barely audible. Sleemo's ears twitched at the mention of her name, but she didn't move from her spot in her owner's lap.
+++
Twelve hours. That was how long they gave Katara until they went to the prison rig to save her and Haru. Then, on Appa, they went there in the middle of the night. Aang went to wake up Katara, while Flo and Sokka stayed on Appa and waited for their return. Flo was crouched some to stay hidden with the other teen but she was ready to take action if any of the guards caught them, bow and arrow held securely in her hands. Much to Flo's relief, Aang and Katara returned shortly. Much to her stress, Haru wasn't with them.
"Your twelve hours are up, where's Haru?" Sokka asked. "We've got to get out of here."
As Aang hopped off of the platform and onto Appa, Sokka held out his arm to help his sister. Flo kept surveying the area. Her stress levels were high, and the nerves ran wild through her. She kept a hard expression though.
Katara didn't move from the platform. "I can't."
"Katara," Flo urged.
"We don't have much time, there are guards everywhere. Get on," said Sokka.
"Katara, what's wrong?" Aang asked.
"I'm not leaving. I'm not giving up on these people."
Flo was pretty sure she sprouted gray hairs right then and there. But then she thought of Haru's mother, alone. They were expecting them to come back with her son. If there was any way to get Haru back, they needed to do it. She climbed onto the platform, and the two boys watched her with varying very confused looks while Katara seemed surprised. Sokka and Aang followed suite after a short moment.
"What do you mean you're not leaving?!" Sokka whispered-shouted.
"We can't abandon these people," Katara replied. "There has to be a way to help them."
"And I'm not leaving without Haru," Flo stated. "The woman can't lose both her son and her husband. If possible, we should bring them both back."
"Maybe they're right," Aang said. "What do you say, Sokka?"
"I say you're all crazy!" The search light made everyone quiet down. The four of them ducked down even lower as they sat on the platform. "Last chance, we need to leave – now!"
"No."
Sokka shook his head. "I hate it when you get like this," he muttered. They ducked as another search light came near. "Come on, we better hide."
+++
The four of them, plus Momo and Sleemo, crouched behind one of the crates on the loading dock. The two animals peered over the crate in curiosity. Flo caught sight of a fish-mouse in the corner of her eye; it scurried by them in a flash and splashed into the water once it got to the edge. She swiftly caught Sleemo before the hawk-cat could pounce as a second fish-mouse went by. She held Sleemo with a tight grip.
"We don't have much time. What are we gonna do?" Sokka asked.
"I wish I knew how to make a hurricane," Aang said. The other three looked at him, displeased. "The Warden would run away and we'd steal his keys!"
"Wouldn't he just take his keys with him?"
"I'm just tossing ideas around."
"I tried talking the earthbenders into fighting back, but it didn't work. If there was just a way to help them help themselves," Katara said.
"For that they'd need some kind of earth, or some rock," Sokka told her. "Something they can bend."
She touched the platform. "But this entire place is made out of metal."
Aang looked up and pointed above them. Flo turned a bit so she could look in the right direction, still securely holding Sleemo. She quickly noticed the smoke stacks on the upper part of the rig as he started talking. "No, it's not. Look at the smoke. I bet they're burning coal – in other words–."
"Earth," Flo muttered. "Good thinkin', Aang."
He blinked and then preened, proud and loving the one and only compliment she had given out during her entire time with them.
She saw his look and rolled her eyes.
They soon moved from behind the crate. Aang went into the rig, while Katara, Sokka, and Flo stayed up top on the prisoner deck. The three stood by a ventilation shaft. This one was much larger than the one back on the land, and Flo couldn't help but peer down it. She looked back up to the sky and saw that it was getting lighter. It was beginning to be easier to see around them.
"It's almost dawn," Flo said from her place beside Katara.
The blue eyed girl's brows pinched together in worry. "We're running out of time," she told her brother. "Are you sure this is going to work?"
"It should," Sokka replied. "These vents reminded me of our little trick back at the village. We're gonna do the same thing, but on a much bigger scale. There's a huge deposit of coal at the base of the silo, and the whole system is ventilated. Aang closed off all the vents except one. When he does his airbending, the coal only has one place to go – right back here."
Flo only half listened. She understood the main idea – the coal was about to come up through the vent – but her ears were more focused on the multiple feet behind them. Once he got done talking, Flo didn't hesitate. She spun around and during that same moment, she grabbed an arrow from the quiver and drew it back on the bow, ready to let go at a moment's notice as she pointed it at one of the many soldiers. The brother and sister startled at her movement, and even more so when one of the soldiers spoke up.
"There's the intruder!"
Sokka turned around as well, and so did Katara. He held his boomerang in one hand. "Stay back, I'm warning you!"
Flo pulled back even more on her bow. A few or so of the men became less at ease, subtly shifting in their spots. She bit back a smirk. A bunch of firebenders were scared of a girl with bow and arrows; funny. Katara cut her eyes over at Flo for a short moment before looking away again.
"Katara, stop!" One of the prisoners came forward. An older man with white, long hair and a mustache and beard. Next to him, Flo saw Haru; that must be his father. "You can't win this fight!" At the man's words, both Haru and Katara looked stunned.
"Listen to him well, child," the Warden spoke as he walked up to them. "You're one mistake away from dying where you stand."
Flo subconsciously raised a dangerous, challenging brow. The soldiers started to close in on the teens and she was ready to let the arrow go. But then, air began to come from the vent. Next, a few dark pebbles, and suddenly the coal erupted from the vent. Flo moves so she didn't get buried by a pile of it, and so did Sokka and Katara. The pile formed between the earth- and firebenders, and all the prisoners did was stare at it. Aang then came up from the vent next and landed on top of the pile, covered in coal dust until he coughed it off. Soon enough, Katara ran up and stood there as well.
"Here's your chance, earthbenders!" she yelled. She picked up a lump of coal and held it above her head. "Take it! Your fate is in your own hands!"
Haru started to step forward but his father held him back. Flo watched with disappointment as some the prisoners shrunk back.
The Warden laughed. "Foolish girl! You thought a few inspirational words and some coal would change these people? Look at these blank, hopeless faces. Their spirits were broken a long time ago. Oh? But you still believe in them?" Shocked, Katara lowered the lump of coal she still held. "How sweet. They're a waste of your energy, little girl. You've failed." As he turned and walked away, a chunk of coal hit the man in the back of his head.
Flo blinked, and at first thought that Katara had thrown it until she noticed that she still held the one she picked up. Her eyes then landed on Haru; his brows were lowered and he twirled two lumps of coal in the air above his left hand. The Warden shot a blast of fire at Haru. A wall of coal kept it from reaching him thanks to his father. The soldiers, including the Warden, got into a line, getting ready to fire at them all.
"Show no mercy!" the Warden ordered.
And then everything fell into chaos. The earthbenders fought back against the firebenders. Various walls of coal blocked and absorbed the fire aimed at the prisoners. Flo could only watch for a moment before she kicked into action. A few soldiers charged her way, and she put the bow on her back with the quiver of arrows. She dodged attacks and blocked a few punches, and did a kick spin in the air once she gained enough momentum, knocking one soldier out cold. She tumbled to the ground to dodge a blast of fire, then swiped the other soldier's feet out from under him. He fell to the ground, and she kicked him in the head to knock him out as well.
Panicked seized her as large arms wrapped around her neck and lifted her off the ground. Flo slipped her dagger out of the place on her belt, and jammed it into the guy's bicep. He let go instantly. The soldier staggered back away from her but she followed him and yanked the dagger out. She then punched him across the face and kicked him in the gut. After wiping the blood off on her pant leg, Flo sheathed the dagger and looked around.
Haru's father was up against one soldier but another was right behind him, sneaking up on him, ready to strike the man down. Flo drew her bow and arrow, and jumped onto the pile of coal that wasn't currently being bent away. She steadied her breathing. Just as Haru's father pushed the soldier he fought with into the water, she let the arrow go. It whizzed across multiple heads before it landed right in the left eye of the soldier attempting to sneak up on Haru's father. The former prisoner spun around and watched as the soldier fell. Then, he looked to her. Realization crossed his features before he bent down, plucked the arrow out of the man's head, and threw it into the ocean.
"You're her."
Flo looked up in surprise as she got off of the pile of coal. Haru stood there. "I'm...who?" She knew it was no use, but she acted confused anyway.
"You know," he stated simply. "Thank you."
She let the act go, and shrugged. "I don't think I should get thanks for killing someone," Flo admitted.
Haru shook his head. "Probably not," he agreed. "But you did save my father. So, thank you."
The battle started to end around them. Haru's father dumped the Warden and a couple other soldiers into the ocean below. And with that, they were free.
+++
Flo physically collapsed into Appa's saddle. She laid face down, tired mentally and physically. Because of Katara's little plan, she didn't get any sleep waiting for the twelve hours to be up, and then they broke out prisoners on a Fire Nation rig, and then they fought some soldiers. To sum it all up, she didn't want to move. But she did. She had to. She moved out of the way for Katara and Sokka, and the lemur and hawk-cat soon joined them on Appa's saddle as well, Aang on the bison's head as usual.
Wherever they went next, she really hoped they could actually rest without something dramatic happening.
***
A/N— So, some of Flo's past got revealed and, yes, she was a Freedom Fighter at one point but not for too long. Obviously, she's not apart of them anymore and doesn't like Jet. That episode is going to interesting, to say the least (I've prewritten up to chapter 7 and I'm working in 8 now which is the Jet episode, and it's...chaos lmao). Oh & yeah, she's killed people; that will be explained more in future chapters, but she does regret it
Now Flo just wants to rest and keep these disasters alive the best she can but the Gaang being the Gaang make it really hard to do, so Flo's in a constant state of stress lmao
That's all! Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and please don't forget to vote and comment!! xx