The Lunar Warrior [ATLA FF]

Book 1: Water | 35 | Awry Plans

Art Drawn By Me! I'm surprised I hadn't used this here yet, it's one of my older doodles.

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"Have you calmed down now, Mrs. Hala?" Ayaan whispered.

"I'm s-sorry for this, Lord Ayaan," She said, picking herself up from the floor. Ayaan was quick to assist her.

"It is fine." He said. He wasn't sure how to truly comfort the distraught woman.

"What do I do?" She whispered to herself, "First my husband, and now my son... everyone I love has been taken from me. What do I do?"

Her worst fear came true today. She had been so careful... only to still lose him in the end. "What do I do?"

The house was too empty, too quiet. It was unbearable. It was as if the silence was attempting to consume her. All of the what-ifs of their plan played on repeat in her mind. What if they failed? What would happen to her husband and son? Would those empty threats cease to be empty? What if they're hurting them in there? What were they forcing him to do?

Ayaan was quiet as he watched her recede into her own mind. The scene was too familiar, painfully so. He was very intimate with helplessness, a feeling he wished to forget.

'There was another? Interesting. I'll just kill you both!'

He tried to ignore the phantom pain that shot through his arm, a sigh or a hiss escaping him as he made his way to the door. "Please, wait here. I will return," He said.

Hala could only nod as tears began to fall again. It was too sudden, too soon, too much.

"I'm sorry, my baby... My Haru... I couldn't protect you after all..."

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Ayaan got straight to the point when he got to gremlins one and two, "Explain. Now. Where is Katara?"

Sokka was sweating enough to fill buckets, and Aang wasn't much better. They'd never seen that expression directed at them before. His lips were thinned into a narrow line and the crease in his brows was deep, his eyes blazing with emotion.

Aang sighed, looking away from Ayaan in shame, "Some days ago, before you started training the villages, Katara convinced Haru to earthbend. An old man was trapped due to a rockslide and earthbending was the only way to save him." He explained.

Something in his eyes was unreadable as he continued, gripping onto his staff, "That old man sold Haru out, and came with that Tax Collector to take him!"

Aang felt ashamed that he'd been so trusting. All of them did. Katara was hit with it the most, and not hours later came up with the plan to go to the prison to rescue him. Being reckless and in the moment, both of the boys agreed with her.

"She had Aang get some rocks on a hill, and with a little bit of 'perspective magic', made it look like she was earthbending at the fire nation soldiers." Sokka explained, "Just as we thought, she was arrested on sight."

As Sokka was going through how they thought through the plan, Ayaan was silent.

They'd felt like shit since it was their fault that Haru had been compromised. After thinking about what they could do over and over again, they remembered something.

Ayaan had shown them the map with the location of the prison on it. After he scouted for it, he'd marked it on the map they had. He'd given them the gist of the plan to get the prisoners out, though there were obvious holes here and there. He did not know the layout of the prison or the route of the ferries to and from the rig. He only had the framework of a plan, which he'd explicitly said they needed more information for.