56 Between Autumn Leaves

"GRAB THE GIRL!" Shouted the Pirate Captain right before receiving the most painful kick to the face that he ever got.

Zuko moved like a shadow, with fast and precise strikes always aiming to incapacitate in a single strike.

A punch to the throat here, an elbow to the liver there.

After training his martial arts with Madara, his usage of firebending diminished considerably, he still used it quite a lot, but he didn't mainly depend on it to fight like before.

As Zuko was knocking out every pirate within his reach, one of them managed to sneak past him and grab Katara in a chokehold.

"Argh!" she shouted trying to fight back, it was then that she focused on the puddle of water on the ground, and with hasty but incredibly focused movements, she created a perfect water whip that quickly moved towards her captor's face.

!! the man was startled; he didn't know she was a waterbender and was caught completely off-guard and was also forced to let go of her.

Taking advantage of that, Katara kept using the same water whip again and again, striking different parts of the pirate's body and dropping him to the ground like a ragdoll.

Iroh on the other hand was just chilling, doing minimal movements to take care of the very few pirates that aimed at him instead of his nephew.

The old General saw the girl finally using her bending in combat and couldn't help but smile, he then saw her running away in haste after her victory, with the scroll in hands, and couldn't help but shake his head wryly, focusing back on his nephew's fight, though an item left on the ground caught his attention.

Zuko, who was kicking ass, seemingly in the zone, finally stopped when he realized that every potential threat was laying cold on the ground.

Looking around he asked with a raised eyebrow "Where's the girl with the scroll?"

Scratching his beard, Iroh answered, "She ran away… after winning her battle beautifully, may I add, she decided to escape…."

A thick vein popped on Zuko's forehead "And you in all of your wisdom didn't think of stopping her?!"

The old General laughed awkwardly "Don't be like that Prince Zuko, I am old… and…" he placed his hand on his round, bloated belly... "Not in the best of shape to chase down young people…"

As he was patting his belly, he noticed a weird thing in one of his inner pockets, and after checking inside, he couldn't help but shout excitedly.

"PRINCE ZUKO!"

"What? Did you get her trail?!"

".. No… even better than that!"

"The Avatar's Trail then?!" Hope could be seen in the young Prince's eyes.

"No... even better than that, Look!" He shouted as he pulled an item from his inner pocket "My Lotus Tile! It was in my pocket all along!" He said with a huge beaming smile.

..

..

Zuko's eyebrows trembled, and heavy breaths that had wisps of flame came out of his mouth.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!" He couldn't handle it, moving in fast speed he grabbed the damned tile and tossed it towards the jungle with all his strength!

"…." Iroh just stood there, with a shocked expression that became tearful… "My… my lotus tile…"

As the duo of Fire Nation Royals went back to their ship, Zuko was so pissed that he ended up burning parts of the jungle with his firebending.

Seeing their Prince in such anger, one of the ship soldiers couldn't help but ask Iroh.

"Why is the Prince so angry today, General?"

Iroh just coughed and scratched his beard, yes, he has a habit of doing this. " Well… he seems to be in a bad mood, let's go eat something shall we?" he grinned awkwardly.

The rest of the day went practically silent inside the fire nation ship, with only the guards exchanging some banter and jokes as they finally set sail again.

Knock Knock Knock.

"Come in," said a calmer Zuko as he sat in a meditative position while facing a wall of his bedroom that had his twin scimitars mounted on the wall right above a fancy black kimono with red clouds which also was on display.

"Prince Zuko, here's your dinner," said Iroh while carrying a tray with a healthy meal and some juice to his nephew.

"Thank you, Uncle." He said as he stood up and went to eat.

"You are not mad at me anymore?" Asked Iroh a bit curious.

"I was never mad at you, some of your actions indeed drive me crazy .. but…"

"But?"

With a loud sigh, Zuko explained "Teacher once told me that you usually use your antics to teach me something… even though I fail to understand what that thing is other than driving me mad…"

Iroh couldn't help but chuckle, a warm smile appeared on his face as he heard Zuko's explanation. 'It was the best idea to take Zuko there back then…'

"But you don't seem very worried about their escape..." Added the General.

"Well, I am pissed, but not that worried… I got this…" Said Zuko as he presented a finely crafted waterbending necklace. "The girl dropped it, probably during battle, and didn't pay attention to it…"

"Oh!!" Iroh was impressed as he also saw the item on the ground as Katara left, but also confused "When did you get that?"

Zuko smirked "When you were crying about your damned lotus tile... sorry about that anyway" his last words were filled with sarcasm.

Cough…

"It's no big deal, Prince Zuko.." After rummaging through his pockets, Iroh brought out another Lotus Tile, and with a huge beaming smile he said "I got another one in the port, just in case!"

Another vein popped on Zuko's forehead, and this time Iroh was quick enough to hide the tile.

'WHY CAN'T I WIN ONCE!?'

"Anyway…" said Iroh, trying to diminish his nephew's anger a bit. "What do you plan on doing with that necklace?"

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, at least a bit, Zuko explained "There are some good mercenaries around the Earth Kingdom that worked for the Fire Nation years back, one of them is notorious for having a domesticated Shirshu that can track scents."

"I see! Very smart Prince Zuko, we will track that mercenary so they can help you find the owner of that necklace!"

"Precisely… and considering how close that girl always is with the Avatar, I will capture him and reclaim the scroll at the same time!" Said Zuko with a smile.

"Very impressive planning… I am curious what that waterbending scroll has that got you all worked up and instantly turned on those pirates…"

"I heard the girl saying that the owner of the Scroll is named Kaliya…"

"Kaliya eh?... like... Mr. Uchiha's subordinate?"

"Exactly, I can't allow people to steal things from Teacher, it would be a great dishonor as his disciple." Said Zuko with conviction.

Iroh couldn't help but smile happily at that "Good, that's very good…"

….

Dawn finally graces the land of the Earth Kingdom, and inside a red Maple Tree Forest, a flying lemur could be seen chasing a bug. In his pursuit, he lands on the ground to see a neatly stacked pile of lychee nuts. When he runs towards it, Momo is pulled into the air by a cage trap, joining two other caged animals.

"Where's Momo?" Aang asked his traveling companions after hearing Momo's screeches from afar.

Deciding to check it out, the trio moved through the forest until they spotted three animals in their cage traps, hanging by ropes on tree limbs.

"Hang on, Momo!" Aang shouted and used his airbending to fly to the top of the tree, jumping from trunk to trunk to get higher. Once he found the traps' mechanisms, he quickly undid them and carefully lowers Momo to the ground where Katara and Sokka are waiting.

Seeing the sad expression of the other two trapped animals, Aang couldn't resist and gave them a reassuring smile "Alright, you too!"

After the hog monkeys run away and Aang slides back down from the tree, everyone gathered around the traps to examine them.

"These are Fire Nation traps." Says Sokka while narrowing his eyes. "You can tell from the metalwork. We'd better pack up camp and get moving."

As they gathered their things and begin to pack them into Appa's saddle, Sokka interfered.

"Uh-uh! No flying this time." He said.

Aang was confused "What? Why wouldn't we fly?"

After taking a sleeping pack from Aang's hands, Sokka explained. "Think about it... Somehow Zuko and the Fire Nation keep finding us. It's because they spot Appa, he's just too noticeable."

"What? Appa's not too noticeable!" interjects Katara.

Pointing dramatically at Appa, and turning his condescending tone on, Sokka replies "He's a gigantic fluffy monster with an arrow on his head! It's kinda hard to miss him!"

The bison in question yawns as Aang pats his head "Don't worry buddy, Sokka's just jealous 'cause he doesn't have an arrow."

Their banter continues, with Sokka finally naming himself Leader while Katara defended Aang's right to be the Leader since he is the Avatar… but proving her wrong, Aang just kept playing with Momo and making funny faces to Appa, not paying attention whatsoever, which makes her reluctantly accept Sokka's Leadership… for now….

After walking through a bush, Sokka spotted a Fire Nation campsite with a lot of soldiers; most of them were seated or crouched near the fire with bowls in hand and a couple of them sat close to the tents, which had the Fire Nation emblem on the doorflap.

A soldier with an eyepatch over his left eye noticed the group and got up.

"Run!" yelled Sokka as they tried to escape, but another firebender blocked them off by setting the bushes behind them on fire…

"We're cut off!"

Narrowing his eyes towards the firebender, Sokka spoke in a somber tone "If you let us pass, we promise to not hurt you."

"What are you doing?" Katara whispers

"Bluffing…" Sokka whispers back.

"You promise not to hurt us?" Asked the eye-patch soldier condescendingly before a whooshing sound is heard and the soldier is knocked out by an unseen tranquilizer dart on his back.

"Nice work, Sokka!" Shouts Aang in excitement "How'd you do that?"

Shrugging, Sokka replied while clearly confused. "Uh…. Instincts?"

"Look!" Contrary to the duo, Katara was keenly looking around to understand what happened, and she did just that after looking towards a tall tree.

On top of a branch of said tree, a young man with tanned skin and dark brown hair, tossed down his blowpipe and unleashed his two hook swords. He jumped down, taking down two soldiers on landing, and ran forward, taking down two more.

"Down you go," he says with a confident grin, leaving Katara amazed, Aang shocked, and Sokka even more confused.

The fight continues as more young men join the dual wilder's side and after not too long they manage to take down the whole camp and prepared to take all the spoils.

"You just took out a whole army almost single-handed!" Said Aang in excitement.

"Army?! Pff… There's only like… twenty guys…" Sokka said disdainfully.

"My name is Jet, and these are my Freedom Fighters. Sneers, Longshot, Smellerbee, The Duke, and Pipsqueak."

Aang laughs as he looks at the tiny one. "Hahaha! Pipsqueak, that's a funny name!"

"You think that my name is funny?" The largest man in the area responds instead, towering over all of them like a tall tree.

He kept staring menacingly at Aang who, against all their expectations, just laughed louder and said "It's hilarious!"

Everyone started laughing out loud, well… everyone except Sokka who was a bit confused about this whole ordeal.

The two groups eventually became harmonic with one another and Jet invites them to their hideout after looting the camp.

Once they arrive by a tall tree, the group climbs up while using ropes until they reach a complex of treehouses, hidden between the red tree leaves of the forest, a perfect place to hide and rather cozy too.

After the group went to the "Main Building" Everyone took a seat, while Aang in all his wisdom decided to take a seat on one extremely clean and pristine chair that was left on a higher spot than the rest.

"NO! Don't sit there!" Said Jet with a serious gaze.

"Uh… Why? I mean… it's just a chair…" Said Aang clearly confused, but respected their wish regardless.

Seeing the bald kid moving away from the chair, every Freedom Fighter calmed down, and Jet, who can clearly see the Team Avatar's confused visages, explains.

"That's a seat of honor for our honorary member."

"Uh.. there's no one else here… or are they away?" Ask Aang.

Shaking his head, Jet explains "He isn't one of us in presence, but he is one of us in spirit and heart."

"And who is he?" asked Katara.

"There are many names that he is known by, we don't know his real name, but around here he is known by… Ghost…"