Chapter 12: Sleepless Night

(A/N: Sorry that this is a pretty useless chapter. Its basically a set up to the next one., which will be released Monday. ☹️)

(Warning: Not proofread.)

After flying for a little while, Aang lands Appa on a clearing best the edge of a forest.

Everyone gets off, and I let go of Toph and stretch.

Toph steps off of Appa and lands on a clump of fur.

"Hey! This is a great campsite, the grass is so soft!"

Sokka looks down at Appa's fur scattering the ground.

"That's not grass, it's Appa's fur. He's shedding."

Katara looks visibly disgusted.

"Gross!"

"It's not gross, its just a part of spring!"

"Ah, the beauty of spring..."

As I get down from Appa as well, he starts to breath in sharply then lets out a huge sneeze, releasing a huge amount of shed fur from his body.

Now my back is covered in fur.

"Ah! Stop, Appa! Sto-ugh! *cough*"

Katara got some in her mouth and started coughing.

"It's not that bad Katara, Appa's fur makes for a great set of hair!"

Sokka bent down and puts a tower of fur on his head.

"And a great beard!"

Aang come up into the conversation with a big goatee of fur on his face.

"It could also make a good costume!"

I appear before the boys covered head to toe in fur.

"""Ahahahahah!"""

Aang, Sokka, and I all laugh at each other.

I can see Toph put some fur in her sleeves.

"Well, I'm glad we have another girl on our team, because you guys are disgusting.

"Hey, does anyone have a razor? 'Cuz I got some hair pits!"

""""Hahahahaha!!""""

"Achoo!"

Aang, in his laughter, sneezes and blows himself backwards and causes a strong wind to knock off the fur Sokka, Toph and I had on.

""""Pwahahahah!""""

We break out in laughter again.

"Haha"

And Katara chuckles a bit.

----------

This is the day where Azula confronts the Gaang for the second time.

I think I'm done with following cannon now that Toph promised to teach Aang earthbending.

The only reason I did so far, is because I didn't want Toph to feel like she doesn't need to have freedom since she has me to play with.

Forcing Lao to be more protective would make her want freedom again.

As I was thinking these things I gathered some fire wood.

I see Katara already speaking to Toph about helping out in setting up camp.

"I don't see what the problem here is!"

"Nevermind."

Katara walks away, a frustrated look on her face.

Toph earthbends a tent for herself.

I put the firewood I gathered on the floor near Katara.

"Thanks, Lu Chen, at least you're helping out."

"Uh, yeah. Just don't worry too much, earthbenders like us can get pretty stubborn."

"I can see that."

Later that night, I helped clean some of the dirty luggage on Appa while Aang and Sokka clear the saddle on Appa's back.

I look over to Katara attempting to apologize to Toph, then walking away angry again.

They're almost here.

I get as much sleep as I can, even if I don't need to.

...

*rumble*

Toph opens her earth tent and starts shouting.

"Something is coming!"

"What do you mean? What is it?"

Toph puts her hand to the ground.

"It feels like an avalanche, but at the same time not?"

"Your powers of perception are frightening."

Sokka responds sarcastically.

"I think we should leave. Better safe than sorry."

Aang brings most of the luggage onto Appa.

"I agree with Lu Chen. We have to go."

Everyone gathers the rest of the things and hops on Appa.

As we get into the air, everyone looks at the thing that's chasing us.

"What is that?"

A giant plume of smoke can be seen in the distance.

"I don't know, but good thing we left."

Aang responds to Katara's question.

We fly for a few more minutes before finding another clearing.

"Finally! Some land! See you guys in the morning! Goodnight, Lu!"

I'm just gonna ignore the ensuing fight with Katara and Toph.

I don't really want to meet Azula.

Psychotic people are entertaining in shows, but in reality, they are scary.

Utilizing my increased stamina, I can just outlast her in battle, if I don't get hit by lightning in the process.

That's boring though.

It's also the reason why I slacked a little in training after getting stronger than Toph.

I don't want to end up like a certain baldy.

Not many people in the Avatarverse are 'OP' so it'll get boring real fast if I get stronger too fast.

I hear Toph 'slam the door' on Katara's face after calling her Sugar Queen.

"Maybe you should help tell your... girlfriend to help around, so Katara doesn't tell her head off?"

Sokka suggests for me to help calm them down.

"And get my arm ripped off? Heh, no thanks."

"Eh, true."

Sokka agrees with my statement. Good man.

Aang, being the pacifist he is, goes over to try and calm Katara down but fails.

"Hey, let's just go to sleep now. We don't know for sure if that thing we saw earlier will appear again. Better to get some rest in case it does. Let's just skip setting up camp for now. "

I suggested to sleep and everyone agreed, Katara hesitated but accepted.

As everyone gets more sleep, I can faintly hear the rumble again.

"Everyone, wake up! It's the thing again, it's back!"

I wake everyone up, and we once again get on Appa and start flying.

We turn and see the smoke cloud again.

"Seriously, what is that?"

"Bounty hunters? The Avatar's bison, considering how big he is, should be known to them if they're after the bounty."

"Maybe it's Zuko..."

Toph enter the conversation and asks,

"Who's Zuko?"

Sokka, barley awake, answers her.

"Just some angry freak with a ponytail who's been tracking us all over the world."

"What's wrong with ponytails, Ponytails?"

"This is a Warriors Wolf Tail."

After a few more minutes of flying we land on top of a flat part of a mountain.

"No unpacking just sleep."

"Good, because Toph wasn't going to help anyways."

Here we go again. I just block it out again.

Instead of the Ember Island Players depicting Katara as a crying girl yelling about hope, they should've had her screaming and yelling profanities.

While they're fighting and Sokka trues to get everyone to sleep, Momo, who hasn't really warmed up to me yet, started getting agitated.

Sokka looked at Momo and buried his head in his rolled up sleeping bag.

"Oh no, don't tell me..."

I broke the silence and told Sokka straight up.

"Yep, they're back. Think we can take whoever they are?

A few seconds later, the tank stopped a few hundred meters in front of us, and blew out more steam.

From the inside, 3 mongoose lizards appear with girls riding on them.

"It's the girls from Omashu!"

Katara immediately recognized the girls chasing them.

Everyone assumed a battle stance, and Toph became excited at the thought of battle.

"Yeah, we can take them! 4 on 3!"

"But, there's 5 of us?"

"Oh, sorry, Sokka, I didn't count you. Cause you don't bend in all."

"I can still fight!"

"Fine. 4 on 3 plus Sokka."

Toph immediately earthbends multiple pillars and rocks in an attempt to block the girls, while I launch some rocks at them.

The mongoose lizards, faster than expected dodge all the rocks and clamber over Toph's pillars.

We escape and continue to fly on the sleepy Appa for much longer this time. Sokka is devastated that the sun had come up and he missed sleep.

"Well, we wanted to find out who's been chasing us, and now we know."

Suddenly we begin to descend rapidly.

"What's happening!?"

Toph, understandably afraid of flying, grabs onto me.

Aang looks at Appa and tells us he's fallen asleep as he tries desperately to wake him.

Aang manages to wake Appa just as hit hit the tops of some trees.

Although he's now awake, Appa still descends fast, and crash lands on a small clearing.

After the crash, Aang explains that Appa fell asleep again.

Katara, irritable due to lack of sleep, argues with Toph again, while Aang tried to diffuse the situation.

Toph, also angry starts blaming Appa, and Aang, not liking that his best friend got insulted, yelled at Toph as well.

Toph picks up her bag and starts to leave.

"Let's go, Lu--?!"

I grab her arm to stop her a few meters away from the group.

"Listen, Toph. Right now, we have some crazy girls chasing us, and I don't want us to abandon Aang, Sokka, and Katara. Especially when they're this tired. You also said you were gonna teach Aang earthbending. Teaching him earthbending is more important than some petty argument."

I look at both Katara, and Toph when I mention their argument. I continue.

"Right now, we have to stick together, Toph. I know you wanted to be free from your parents, but that came at a cost."

"What cost?! I gave up almost everything!--"

I interrupt her.

"Yes, you gave up your easy life, and in return you got freedom, but the kind of freedom you chose, going with Aang, comes with respect and responsibilities. You have to be responsible, Toph. I have to be responsible. We all have to be responsible!"

Toph looks down, her expression hidden.

I earthbend a wall to hid us from the others.

I crouch down to get a better look at Toph's face. She looks mad. I can see tears of anger and frustration.

"I love you, Toph. That's why I'm saying this. I want you to be free, but I want you to make good friends too. Arguing with Katara and Aang like that isn't gonna make any friends. I don't want to be the only friend you have."

Toph rubs her eyes to get rid of the tears in her eyes.

I grab her head and bring it to my chest in a hug.

Toph hugs back after a few seconds.

"Sorry I was acting like a jerk, Lu. Sorry for always dragging you around too."

"Hey, don't apologize to me. Apologize to them."

I remove the wall covering us.

Toph walks back to Aang and Katara with her head down.

"...Sorry, Katara. I was being a jerk."

Katara looks around apologeticlly and somewhat awkwardly.

"I'm... I'm sorry too, Toph. I shouldn't have pressured you into doing camp chores the first day with us. I'm also sorry for blaming you earlier."

Toph nods her head and turns it to Aang.

"Aang, sorry for blaming Appa, I didn't mean it."

"No, it's okay. I'm sorry for lashing out like that, I should've known better."

I come up to the apologizing trio and spread my arms open.

"Now, for a group hug to top it all off!"

They laugh a little and accept, and I bring everyone into a hug, including Sokka, since I'll feel bad for leaving him out.

I let go and look at everyone with a serious face.

"Alright, I got a plan. We need to get rid of Appa's shed fur. We need to find someplace where we can clean him."

Aang looks at me, nodding his head.

"Right, we gotta get to a river. Come on guys, I think I saw one just a little ways away, while we were crashing."

We take Appa to a nearby river a few meters away, and we start to clean him.

Cue the cleaning montage.

----------

After cleaning Appa of all his shed fur, we dry ourselves off.

Katara comes up and waterbends the water off our clothes.

"There, now that he's clean, no more fur."

Aang looks down at the scattered white fur on the ground.

"Yeah... Toph was right about it leaving a trail."

"Will Appa be good to fly now?"

Aang bods his head.

"He should be fine if we leave the saddle and our stuff here. I'm going to take some fur and leave another trail. You guys get on Appa and escape."

I agree with Aang.

"Yeah, sounds like a plan. Katara, Sokka, and Toph, you get on Appa and go, while Aang goes a different way. I'll stay here and slow those three down."

Everyone looks at me like I'm crazy.

""""What?!""""

Toph come up to me and grabs my arm.

"Are you crazy?! It'll be 3 against one! What if you get hurt?!"

I look at her and smile.

"Oh, don't worry, I'm stronger than you, and I'm not tired like you guys are. Haven't you noticed?"

They all look at each other, then at me.

"You do look on top of your game."

Sokka chipped in.

Toph still looks unconvinced.

"Don't worry, Toph. I'm strong. Very strong. Probably stronger than you now. Do you want a kiss for reassurance?"

Toph blushes, then punches my arm.

"I'm good."

She grabs my collar, pulls me down and looks at me with a stern face.

"You better come back in one piece, otherwise..."

Toph trails off, not wanting to finish her sentence.

"Don't worry, Toph. I'll come back with even more pieces of myself. Somehow."

Toph smiles at my dumb joke, let's go of my collar and hops on Appa.

Katara calls out to me an warns me of Tai Lee's ability to take away bending.

I thank her for the info and that I'll be extra careful.

I turn to Aang and nod. He flys up on his glider and starts leaving a trail of fur.

"Crash*

While Appa crashed on some tree tops.

I sit down in front of Aang's fake trail, waiting for my battle with Azula.

I know her priority is Aang, so I'm hoping she'll be confident in battling me alone and sends Tai Lee and May to chase after Appa.

I focus on the earth around me and earthbend myself some near-skin tight rock armor, completely encasing my entire body in rock, leaving only my eyes visible.

I then harden it using the technique I trained for. Turning the rock armor into quartzite armor.

It's a bit difficult to earthbend while also bending the armor around me, so I use this little time before Azula arrives to adjust the armor on my joints.

----------

By the time Azula and the girls arrive, I got used to my armor.

"What's this? A friend of the Avatar?

I can't see her face, but I recognize the condescending voice.

I lower myself into my stance, right arm raised next to my head, left hand bent forward, fist facing the ground.

The stance you see Toph adopt throughout the show.

"Looks like he's trying to stop us."

That was May.

"He looks cool. All shiny!"

That was most definitely Tai Lee.

Then a short silence.

"The Avatar is trying to trick us. Tai Lee, May. You follow the bison down that way. I'll follow the trail, and deal with this stone buffoon."

Looks like I won't have to fight the three of them.

"Won't you surrender? I don't exactly enjoy chipping my nails."

I just stand there, waiting for her to strike first.

Azula sighs and speaks in an uncaring tone.

"Fine. Have it your way."

===============

Cannon diverged *slightly* more here, with Toph not running away, and MC fighting Azula. This does not affect what's gonna happen in the future by much if at all, though.