A few hours had passed since their disagreement, the siblings taking time to cool off. No one was winning their dispute with how stubborn they both were. Neither was willing to give in even the slightest to the other. So Katara decided to keep herself busy with knitting a hat, and Ayaan with training, as usual.

In the distance, one could see Aang and Momo again playing with the ziplines. They were too much fun to ignore, the Airbender sliding down the many different routes the Freedom Fighters had set up. His newest friend, The Duke, had shown him the best places to zip from.

If they were ever to make their own hideout, having ziplines would be a must. They were too fun! He'd been having a great time since he got there. Because he was on the zip lines, he was the first to see Sokka's return from the patrolling. Being himself, he flew off to greet him.

"Sokka!" Eagerly, he digs into a bag he was wearing, "Look what The Duke gave me!" He pulled out a small pellet, and with a sly grin, he tossed it next to Momo, where it exploded with a pop.

Momo puffs up like a startled cat. The moment the lemur realized what happened, he was furious. He hisses and lunges for the bag. Taking out all the pellets he could hold, Momo sits on Aang's shoulder an tosses them at his feet, making the Airbender dance about wildly.

"Ow! Quit it!"

'Payback isn't fun, is it?!' The lemur hissed, not stopping at all.

Ayaan, getting up from doing his sit-ups, was greatly amused. Mildly, he smiled, "I believe that's "karma", Aang. I taught Momo about vengeance."

"Vengeance? What kind of terrifying things are you teaching him?!"

Ayaan just smiled, a small but telling tilt of his lips. Still forced to dance, Aang felt a shiver down his spine. As nice as he was, Ayaan was a pretty vicious guy, too.

Despite all of that happening, however, Sokka is oblivious to it all. He walks past them and sits with his back to the trunk of the tree their huts rest on, staring at the ground, glaring. Ayaan notices his strange mood immediately, but Katara speaks first.

"Hey, Sokka." She greets, before simply asking about her most recent interests instead of about her brother, "Is Jet back?"

Sokka doesn't look away from the ground, guilt swirling in his gut. The more he sees, the more worried Ayaan gets. "Yeah, he's back. But we're leaving."

"What?" Aang was confused, having only had a bunch of fun since arriving. What could have brought this on? In his mind, staying for even a day more wouldn't have been a problem to their schedule. Thanks to the map the Phantoms had given them, they were making an excellent time on their journey to the north. "What's wrong?"

Katara was flustered by the sudden decision to leave, holding up the object she'd been fiddling with. "B-But I made him this hat." She shows a cap made out of stitched leaves and a flower on top for added effect. It was droopy with a few gaps here and there. In short, it looked laughable.

"What happened? Are you hurt anywhere?" Ayaan, seeing that his brother was obviously distressed, asked the important questions. In the back of his mind, he was a little miffed. It was a question that Katara should have asked him first too, as his demeanor was far from the norm.

But all she wanted to know about was Jet. She didn't even realize how dismissive she was currently being. Even Aang asked Sokka what was wrong.

This, he was starting to see an ill pattern with her.

"I'm fine. But Jet's not normal!"

Aang, ever the peacekeeper, thought that this was simply a case of culture shock. Having been around plenty of cultures, he thought he could help Sokka feel better. "No, He's just got a different way of life, a really fun way of life." Meaning zip lines. Maybe if Sokka went on one he'd feel a little better?

Sokka shook his head, though, trying to explain, "That's not it, Aang. I mean something is really wrong with him up here." He tapped his head, signaling he was calling Jet crazy. Turning to Katara, he stresses his point. "Your boyfriend Jet's a thug."

Katara, shocked, immediately goes to defend Jet. "What? No," She ignores the subtle pit in her stomach, the question whispered in the back of her mind of why her brother would be saying this, "Jet's not like that!"

Sokka, annoyed, paces around, a hundred thoughts behind his eyes. "He beat and robbed a harmless old man! Yes, he is!"

Just hours prior, the 'patrol' group was hiding in the treetops. Jet and Sokka were in branches of the same tree, keeping watchful eyes on the then empty trails leading through the woods. While this was a common trial, since the Fire Nation had taken the area years back, Sokka didn't think it strange to send a patrol here.

He hadn't known the Fire Nation to be subtle after they'd taken an area for themselves. They'd use the main roads just to prove they were dominant. He'd seen in it Haru's village, too.

Jet cups his hands and makes a birdcall to Pipsqueak and Smellerbee, who were several trees down from them. They replied with another birdcall a few moments later. Despite his distrust of the rogue, they had a tight system going. Sokka could respect that. With a way of communication, organized planning, and a good dose of fun, they were a solid group.

But he was capable too. Sokka, with trained ease, jams his jawbone knife into the trunk of the tree. Jet curiously looks over at him, "What are you doing?"

The watertribe warrior raises a finger to his lips, shushing Jet quietly as he closes his eyes to focus. "It amplifies vibrations. I can hear if anyone's coming."

The rogue was visibly impressed, "Good trick. Where'd you learn something like that?"

Sokka, still with his ear to the handle of his knife, answers with pride. "My brother. He showed me this trick while teaching me to hunt." Smiling, he continues, "He... taught me almost everything I know."

There was hardly a moment where Sokka wasn't by Ayaan's side, and the boy would always answer his questions the best he could. Hunting was Ayaan's favorite thing outside of training, and he was more than happy to give Sokka some tips. In a way, his brother taught him more than even their father did.

Jet nods, no stranger to the pride in Sokka's voice, "Your brother is a pretty amazing guy, huh?"

"Yeah, he is."

"Is there any way for me not to be on his bad side?"

"Now that I couldn't tell you." But Sokka knew that the answer was leaning toward "no".

They both go silent, letting Sokka listen to the vibrations. As he does, he whispers, "Nothing yet... Wait!" He heard the slight buzz of the blade, a sign that something was approaching. The bigger they were, the bigger the something.

This was definitely a person. "Someone's approaching."

Jet, alert, makes a birdcall to the others. Sokka guessed that he was telling them the new information. Turning, he asks, "How many?"

Sokka listens more intently, remembering everything Ayaan taught him. "I think there's just one."

A bit odd for a Fire Nation soldier. Usually, they were in groups, a way of protection and intimidation. This person seemed to be walking at a leisurely pace, too. That, or they were just slower. Soldiers usually walked more briskly, being stronger and naturally being faster even when just walking.

Jet, oblivious to Sokka's thoughts, makes another birdcall, preparing his weapon to attack, "Good work, Sokka. Ready your weapon."

"Right." Sokka takes his knife out of the tree, ready to fight a fire nation soldier. Even if they were slow, they could still be one. But who he sees is just an old man, not a warrior at all. Sokka, after a moment to ponder and view the man, had a good feeling that he was just a civilian who most likely lived nearby.

Of course, some experts kept their weapons skillfully hidden, like the Phantom Unit. But they also gave them tips on what to look for. The way they walk, their hand positions, or odd bulges in their clothing that signify hidden weapons. Little details to pick out civilians from soldiers. Going through his list of things, he was certain this was just a traveling old man.

So he told them. "Wait, false alarm. He's just an old man."

But to his shock, Jet ignored him and launched his attack on the old man anyway. Leaping to the ground in front of the elderly man, Sokka watches with horror as they all assail the poor guy, Jet's words as he does raising even more alarms.

"What are you doing in our woods, you leech?"

The old man, terrified, pleads for his life. "Please sir, I'm just a traveler!" Upon even closer inspection, Sokka was affirmed right about his assumption. Even if he was a fire nation native thanks to the fashion of his worn clothes, he had no weapon, only food rations for his trip, a few knick-knacks, and some money.

He and Ayaan had a discussion a while back about the difference between soldiers and civilians. Should they put them in the same category as the soldiers who raid towns and separate families when they are just like them, just trying to take care of their own?

Not everyone was actively a part of the war, just living their lives. What he answered was this:

"I'll fight a soldier even if they are as young as Aang, have children, or are old. I won't just attack a child, a parent, and an elderly. Even if they are the family of that Fire Nation soldier, they aren't them. This is the line I draw."

His eyes revealed the anger within him as he whispered, "I'd only cross it for one person. It doesn't matter to me if they have children, are old, or have a child's mind." Ayaan said nothing afterward, but the air grew cold enough to see breath, and the ground around him froze solid.

Jet takes a step and sends the old man's cane flying from his hand with a swipe. Backing away from the violent rogue, he tries to flee the way he came, visibly limping due to his weary and strained joints. But he runs face-first into Pipsqueak's chest, the force knocking the poor guy to the ground.

The giant of a teen looms over him as the old traveler tries to crawl away, but before he can get anywhere he's pinned to the ground with a foot. If Pipsqueak pressed down any harder, he would break the man's ribs. By the painful groan Sokka heard, he'd probably already done so.

Jet, vicious and angry, yells at the pinned man, "Do you like destroying towns? Do you like destroying families? Do you?!"

The old Fire Nation civilian pleads, his voice strained under Pipsqueak's heel. "Oh... Please, let me go... have mercy..."

"Does the Fire Nation let people go?!" The rogue instead snaps down on him viciously, seemingly taken aback that the old man would ask such a thing of him. "Does the Fire Nation have mercy?!"

Just when he was about to kick the man, his foot is snagged by Sokka's club. If he'd been any slower, Jet would have broken the old man's fragile neck with that blow. Jet would have killed him!

Jet, caught off guard for a moment, angrily looks at Sokka as the boy releases him. "What are you doing, Sokka?!"

"Jet, he's just an old man!"

"He's Fire Nation!" The rogue spat, as if that justified everything they were doing. Looking at the other two, he ordered, "Search him!"

Pipsqueak holds the prisoner as Smellerbee steps up to search the poor man. There was a look in her eyes that held a small bit of remorse, but it was carefully hidden by her anger. Even if he was an old man, Jet was right that he was fire nation. They took everything from her, so this was justified in her eyes.

"But he's not hurting anyone!" Sokka was appalled that they would go through with this. This wasn't a patrol or some secret mission to thwart Fire Nation, this was just a robbery by a bunch of criminals, them!

"Have you forgotten that the Fire Nation killed your mother?"

Gutted by the reminder, Sokka was left stunned. His voice faltering, he asks. "H-how'd you know that?"

Jet's anger lessens at the visible hurt he sees, but his voice remains firm. "Katara told me. The fire nation killed my parents, too. They burned my whole village to the ground! This? This is justice. You gotta remember why you fight!"

Smellerbee, gathering everything the man had, turned to them. "We've got his stuff, Jet." She holds up the old man's bag, almost everything the man had on him. There wasn't a weapon in sight, just as he thought.

This was wrong. So wrong.

The old man was thrown back on the ground by Pipsqueak, painfully laying there as he'd likely earned bruises and probably fractured something thanks to how forceful it was. "This doesn't feel right."

Jet was cold in his response, remorseless and cruel. "It's what has to be done. Now let's get outta here."

Sokka was rooted in place, pitifully watching as the old man struggled to get up from the ground. Blood dripped from his scraped skin. He was just left there to cry in pain. Sokka was shaken by the scene. Hearing his name, however, he reluctantly followed the others back to base. He needed to tell the others about this.

Sokka was starting to understand how accurate his brother's 'feelings' were, the sudden aches in his scar more than just phantom pains. How often did he get these feelings before he told him about them? How bad did they get when he got them?

From now on, he'd trust his brother wholeheartedly. Though he was certain he did already. Now, he was here, relaying everything he'd just been through to them. He knew he could depend on Ayaan, letting all of his emotions be seen. "He's messed up, Ayaan. Your feeling was right. These guys are bad news and we need to leave."

"Alright," Immediately, Ayaan's guards were up. "Let's go."

"What?" Katara, shocked by how quickly Ayaan was willing to just leave, was full of doubt. She crosses her arms, voicing her thoughts, "We haven't even heard Jet's side of the story yet!"

Ayaan doesn't even look at her, still putting their things away to leave. There was no reason for Sokka to lie, and he could tell easily when he was. He'd learned to pick up the queues when someone was lying.

He had to when no one wanted to tell him what was really wrong with his body after he'd been burned. They wanted to spare him the heartache that he'd never heal completely. They didn't want to tell him at all that he may never pick up his spear again during the first torturous months of healing. They tried to get his hopes up, to keep his spirits high when the wind could have blown too hard and killed him from the pain.

"I trust Sokka."

"Ayaan..." Sokka, hearing this, felt warm. It was empowering to have his brother's full trust like this. Even if he wasn't there to see it, he took his side. When Ayaan said he trusted him, he'd meant that.

"What if there was something Sokka wasn't seeing that made him attack him like that?" Still, Katara refused to believe it. "There has to be more to this. Let's hear Jet out, at least."

And that is how they somehow ended up in Jet's room at the base. Jet was calm as he sat on his hammock-bed, he most likely had been waiting for them. "Sokka, you told them what happened, but you didn't mention that the guy was Fire Nation?"

Katara, however, gave Sokka a look, as if her thoughts had been proven right. "No, he conveniently left that part out."

Ayaan's eyes narrowed. "That doesn't justify beating up an old man, Katara."

Her own eyes narrowed. "Soldiers can be old."

Sokka repeats. "He was a harmless civilian!"

"He was an assassin, Sokka." Jet pulls out a knife and thrusts it into a nearby stump. It is a sinister-looking curved blade, with spikes evenly spaced along the grip. There was a ring on the butt of the knife that Jet begins to untwist, revealing a small vial of suspicious red liquid. "See? There's a compartment for poison in the knife. He was sent to eliminate me. You helped save my life, Sokka."

Katara looked relieved, believing Jet's every word. "I knew there was an explanation."

Sokka was suspicious immediately, "I didn't see any knife!"

"That's because he was concealing it," Jet responds. But Ayaan finds it odd. It's like he's trying to convince himself that it was true, too.

Katara, wanting to ease the situation, puts a hand on her second brother's shoulder, "See, Sokka? I'm sure you just didn't notice the knife."

"There was no knife!" Sokka looked at her. She was fully taking Jet's side, and the notion that she trusted Jet more than him, her brother, hurt. "I'm going back to the hut and packing my things."

Sokka stomps away, too angry to hear anymore. Ayaan left after him, but stopped when a jolt of pain went through his burn. It was a distinct jab that made him openly wince and instinctively grab for it, as if that would make it go away.

When it went away, he thought deeply. Never had the pain been like that. Sure, sometimes it was a dull ache that annoyed him, but never a pain enough to stop him from moving.

Wait... It stopped him from moving. Silently, he found a place to hide himself just outside Jet's hut. Hidden from view, he could hear Jet speaking to Aang and Katara.

"Tell me you guys aren't leaving yet. I really need your help." His voice took on a pleading tilt, different from his normally overconfident, sure tone. The first tell that whatever he was saying was a lie.

Aang never turns down someone in need. Ayaan knew that Jet used that trait Aang openly displayed against him to get his attention. Both him and Katara, his righteous sister. "What can we do?"

Jet, with a twitch of his lips that Ayaan knew was a hidden smirk, continues, "The Fire Nation is planning on burning down our forest. If you both use waterbending to fill the reservoir, we could fight the fires. But if you leave now, they'll destroy the whole valley! I'd ask Ayaan to help, too. I know how amazing of a waterbender he is, but as you know... your brother and I don't mesh well."

Aang and Katara look at each other. That was the whole truth, everyone knew it. Ayaan openly displayed that he didn't like Jet, most taking it as overprotectiveness, including Katara.

She knew Jet wasn't a bad guy. He was brave, and ambitious, and had helped them. He'd lost just like they did and was doing things to keep tragedies like that from happening again. It was only right that they help him out, too. It was a simple thing for them to fill a reservoir by redirecting water from the nearby river.

Outside the hut, Ayaan was already gone. Not a sound made, not a thing disturbed, as if he was never there at all.

When they get to their hut, Sokka is tying up a mat on the floor, already mostly done packing since Ayaan had already done a fair bit of it before they left on that useless venture.

Katara, with an angry, virtuous heart, tries to convince Sokka. "We can't leave now with the Fire Nation about to burn down a forest!"

But her brother was done with the issue. He wasn't going for it. "I'm sorry, Katara. But we're leaving."

Ayaan appears behind them, shocking them, "Let's pack quickly."

"Ah! Where did you even go?" Katara asks, startled by his sudden appearance.

"How can you move so silently like that?" Aang was just impressed, "I'm light on my feet, but you're like a ninja! That's cool!"

Katara, however, didn't want to concede to anything else. She was focused on what Sokka had said. Regaining her bearings, she exclaimed, "How can we leave when we know what's about to happen?! We can't do that!"

"We can't trust Jet. He suspicious." Ayaan revealed, getting everyone's attention, "That story could be a lie he fabricated to keep you here. When he was telling you about the knife, too, I think he was lying to us."

Ayaan was very good at discerning lies based on body language. He'd done it many times before in the South Pole and on his journey thus far. Their stance, their hand gestures, their gaze, their expression, there were subtle movements that the body makes when they lie. Though everyone is different, he'd been watching Jet for almost two whole days because he was always suspicious of him. He knew odd movements by now.

Jet was a good liar, but not when someone was actively looking for the lie like he was. There was a profound hate for the fire nation, one that Ayaan could understand. But it wasn't focused anywhere, instead pointed at every living thing that ever lived in that nation.

Complete racism. That's what this was. Everything fire nation was to be eradicated in Jet's view. His hatred and anger weren't like their own.

"I don't trust this situation." Plus, Ayaan had made his own observations about that "assassin's knife". The timing was too convenient. Things just didn't add up.

If the old man had been an assassin, why would they be out in the open? He wasn't hidden within a group of common travellers, or dressed up in earth kingdom clothing to hide himself. He was just walking. Why not fight back at all when being robbed of his belongings, including his weapon? If his target was Jet, why didn't he go for the attack after being compromised, since it was likely he wouldn't get away?

And why didn't he have any means of escape if he really was an assassin? If they were an assassin and their cover was blown, they would have attempted to fight or escape with other means on their person. A smart assassin doesn't go anywhere without a whole list of escape plans, that's what he'd learned from the Phantoms.

"We think we should go." His story was too weird. It had too many holes that made anyone who knew their stuff suspicious.

Ayaan wasn't a kid Jet could fool, and Sokka was smart, the next oldest in their group. He knew his brother well, and sided with Sokka on this. His scar was aching now. Something bad would happen. It always did.

"You know what I think?" Katara, incensed and indignant, ran with her beliefs, "You're jealous that he's a better warrior and a better leader!"

Ayaan just looked perplexed at her. Where had that comment even come from? There are things he's envious of, certainly, but Jet is far from one of them. The very thought sent a shiver of disgust through him, his face scrunching up like he'd tasted something sour. Saying he was jealous of Jet was in the same vein as saying he was best friends with King Bumi.

"Hell no."

Sokka had the same expression on his face, "Jet is in no way, shape, or form in any reality better than Ayaan as a warrior, and I'm not jealous of Jet about leadership. I'm a great leader." He said defensively.

"It's just that my instinct—"

"Well, my instincts tell me we need to stay here a little longer and help Jet." She didn't even want to hear the rest. Her brothers truly did seem to share a brain cell they were so alike at times. If they believed she'd leave someone asking for help, they were dreaming.

The small pit in her stomach didn't matter because she was in the right. She had to be. How could her brothers be so heartless? "Come on, Aang."

"No." Ayaan's voice was firm, keeping her from leaving with a confused Aang in tow, "This place isn't safe. Sokka's been with Jet and saw what he did. I've been watching him for days and don't trust him."

"You aren't the only ones that have spent time with Jet. Have you ever spoken with him outside of a threat? He's a good person!"

"Good people don't beat up elderly civilians."

"That guy was an assassin! He said so himself, he showed us the weapon!"

"Jet isn't trustworthy. You don't know if he's lying to you or not, but we grew up with Sokka and know all of his tells, he was being truthful. Something is off with Jet."

"You aren't much better, Ayaan!" She yells, finally breaking, "Ever since the incident with the pirates, something's been off with you, too! You're losing control of everything, your emotions, your waterbending. You can't even go one moment after meeting Jet before you put your spear to his neck! I'm going to help Jet and save this forest, even if you won't help me."

"I'm trying to!" Ayaan snapped, his eyes a vibrant blue as icy mist filled the hut, "I'm always trying to, but you're not hearing me! Why don't you trust us?"

"I could say the same thing to you, Ayaan! Why can't you trust that I'm right about this? It's like my thoughts don't matter to you!"

"You do matter to me! But every time you go on a tangent you put yourself in danger!" Taking a step toward her, not noticing how cold it had gotten, he continued, "It's the scroll incident all over again. I don't even remember what happened afterward, and that terrifies me! Why can't you just listen when we're telling you something's wrong!"

His voice failed him, remembering the horrific pain the Asrani inflicted on him vividly. The glaring gap in his memory no one was speaking of. He knew. He felt it. Ayaan was someone that had excellent memory. He hated that he could remember the smallest details. So for there to suddenly be something missing scared him.

It scared him.

So he'd been doing his best to be better. Train harder. Be more vigilant. But then Jet comes in, suspicious and bad news, obvious to anyone else, and she likes him. All of this because she likes him and anyone with eyes can see it.

He wanted to protect her. She was his youngest sibling. His only sister. He didn't want any of them to get hurt, and this was going to hurt her. He knew it. He could feel it. But here she was, not listening to any warning he was giving.

They grew up together. Their word should mean more to her than some crush. So why didn't it? The fire in her eyes told him she wasn't going to back down. Stubborn to a fault until life blows up in her face.

Taking a breath, he continued, "You think that doing what you believe is right makes everything okay, too prideful to admit when you're wrong. It's a pattern with you. Aang when we first met, Haru and the prison, though you had help, the waterbending scroll, and now."

Ayaan was right, she didn't want to admit she was wrong. She didn't want to admit that the person she had a crush on was that horrible. That didn't feel right. It couldn't be right. So she denied it, until she saw undeniable proof, she would, and Ayaan knew that.

"Fine then." His eyes were a shade of blue that matched the morning sky, clear and beautifully vibrant. But they could just as clearly see a storm brewing within them, "I'm done with arguing with you. Even I have a limit to my patience. Go if it means so much to you."

"You're... letting me help him?"

Ayaan said nothing, returning to pack the rest of their things. Throwing the bag of supplies over his shoulder, he walked passed her, whispering to Aang as he did.

"You can go too, Aang. Keep each other safe. I'll be with Appa." He knew Aang would want to stay with Katara, but the Airbender could also read the room. He looked conflicted, but he wouldn't be him if he abandoned someone in need. Right now, however, both Katara and Ayaan needed a friend.

"Are you sure?" He asked, his voice much smaller than usual. It made him uncomfortable to witness such personal arguments. Anyone would be.

Ayaan nodded to him. So with a last look towards him, Aang followed after Katara, whose expression sat between regret and disgruntled resolve as she left the tent.

With them gone, the hut was eerily quiet. Sokka, for the first time since the argument started, voiced his thoughts, "Are you really sure about this, bro?"

"No." But if she wasn't going to see reason, then that was it. He wasn't going to try speaking with her anymore. She'd find out for herself. Some children must learn the hard way. He sometimes loathed how similar they were.

"So when whatever problem comes, we need to be ready." Ayaan could sense there was a fight coming, continuing his way to Appa so they'd be flight-ready at a moment's notice. As he stepped, rigid frost coated the wooden planks, his face bearing a rare expression.

Rage.