After Aang Vanished

The Comet

Shuhei and Hotaru spent the following morning keeping tabs on Monk Tashi and Monk Afiko, convinced that one them, though they disagreed about whom, was a traitor. At the moment, it was mid-afternoon, and they were watching Monk Tashi picking fruit.

"See? He's just picking fruit, there's nothing weird or traitorous about that." Shuhei whispered.

"On any other day I'd agree with you, but isn't it at least a little weird that he's acting like everything is fine when the Great Comet is hours away the Fire Nation navy is about to descend on this place." Hotaru pointed out. "Why isn't he helping build fortifications or take supplies to where the little kids are hiding? Face it, he's a traitor."

"Or, you only think that because you're still mad at him. Maybe there's a perfectly reasonable explanation." Shuhei suggested. "I still think it's Afiko if anyone, he's always seemed a little," he paused, "off."

"Ok, Afiko does seem a little shifty, but as far as we know, he hasn't done anything wrong. We know Tashi's a jerk, we know that he doesn't care who he hurts when it comes to getting what he wants."

"I'm not so sure he saw it that way, but that doesn't matter now. We have less than two hours before the comet gets here and we still don't have any hard evidence that either of them told the Fire Nation anything. Why would they want to anyway?"

"Money, safety..." Hotaru began.

"Safety? Wouldn't the Fire Nation just use the info and either kill or capture them anyway?"

"Most definitely, but people like them never seem to realize they're about to be double-crossed until it's too late. They might be deluded into thinking that if they help the Fire Nation they'll be spared. I seriously doubt that but they might not." Hotaru replied. "This is futile, we'll never figure out who the traitor is before the attack starts at this rate, and I'm not so sure it would make much of a difference anyway. Come on. We'd better go get into position.

***

A few hours later, the comet was about to reach them. The Air Nomads and their allies had waited all day, spent the few remaining hours fortifying the temple in every way they could think of, setting traps, using Bumi's earthbending to make the terrain more difficult and build extra walls around the temple itself. The younger children were safely hidden away in a cave, the entrance was blocked and their air shaft was invisible unless you already knew it was there. When they were as prepared as it was possible to be, they had, had nothing to do but wait. Now it was just about time. Everyone who was going to fight to defend the temple stood just inside the fortifications, ready to spring into action.

Even though they couldn't yet see the comet, Hotaru, Master Fumio, and Kuzon could already feel it enriching them with its energy, their power as firebenders swelling up within them in a way that made Hotaru's whole body surge with adrenaline. It was like nothing she had ever experienced in her fourteen years, it was so invigorating, but the realization that the navy's firebenders were experiencing the same incredible power boost, one that would get even stronger when the comet finally came into view, was terrifying.

"Brace yourselves, everyone. It's almost here!" Master Fumio Bellowed.

Then it happened, the Great Comet appeared in the sky, and with it, the Navy sent a large, flaming projectile flying at the temple, blasting a hole through the rock wall Bumi had placed around the temple. Within minutes the navy's ships were on the beaches all around the Patola Mountains. The airbenders positioned themselves at strategic points above the winding path leading up to the temple, creating powerful blasts of wind to keep the soldiers back but there were just too many of them. There was no way they could fight them off.