Soldier's Boy
Twelve

"How far are we from the tunnel?" Sokka asked after a minute or two.

"Actually, it's not just one tunnel," said Chong.  "The lovers didn't want anyone to find out about their love, so they built a whole labyrinth."

Sokka spun around. "Labyrinth?"

"Ah, I'm sure we'll figure it out," was Chong's careless reply. 

Sokka glared suspiciously at him, then turned around and kept moving.

"All you need to do is trust in love," Lily said, looking at Chong.  Kouji gagged on cue.  "According to the curse."

Sokka stopped short, and all the others flowed past the. "Curse?!"

"You couldn't have mentioned this earlier?" Lee asked, almost wearily, setting his bunny-cygnet on his shoulder.

Chong ignored them both.  "Hey, we're here!" he announced.  Given that they were in front of a large cave mouth, this was rather unnecessary.

"What exactly is this curse?" Sokka pressed.

"The curse says that only those who trust in love can make it through the caves.  Otherwise you'll be trapped in them forever."

"And die," Lily added.

Lee frowned a little, watching the cave entrance with a hint of wariness.

"Oh, yeah," said Chong.  "A-and die."  Inexplicably, he brightened.  "Hey!  I just remembered the rest of that song!"  He took a few steps forward, struck a chord (and a pose), and sang in a deep voice, "And die."

"…That's it," Sokka said. "There's no way we're going through some cursed hole."

On cue, one of the nomads looked back.  "Hey!" he said, pleased.  "Someone's making a big campfire!"

"That's no campfire, Moku," Katara said, face set.

"It's Fire Nation," Sokka agreed grimly. "They're tracking us."

"So, all you need is to trust in love to get through these caves?" Aang asked Chong.

"That is correct, Master Arrowhead," the older man replied.

Aang stared longingly at Katara's back. "…We can make it."

"Everyone into the hole," Sokka said, leading the way.

"They've sent out the tanks!" Kouji cried, losing what little colour his face had regained.  "Go faster!"

Chong stared at him.  "How do you know that?"

But Kouji had grabbed Lee by the wrist and was towing him past Sokka.  The bunny-cygnet squawked indignantly, and Lee pulled back. "Kouji, I'm going to bring up the rear. Hold onto her for me, okay?" He handed his brother the animal, and ran back behind Appa.

Not long after Kouji's announcement, the mouth of the cave collapsed, shaking the ground and trapping them inside.  The wanderers, thankfully, had torches, so they weren't left in total darkness. Appa, in a near panic, was trying to get back outside.

"It's okay, Appa," Katara said, stroking him. "We'll be fine."  She looked down, and muttered in an undertone, "I hope."

"We will be fine," Sokka said, decisively. "All we need is a plan. Chong, how long do those torches last?"

"Oh… about two hours each." was the reply.

"We have five torches," Lily said, "so that's…," she lit them all at once, "ten hours!"

"It doesn't work like that if they're all lit at the same time!" Sokka said, exasperated, tossing the torches down and stamping them out.

"Oh, right…"

"Is she for real?" Kouji muttered.

"I think her brain melted from all the whatever-it-is they're smoking," Lee whispered back.

"I'm gonna make a map to keep track of exactly where we've been," Sokka said, climbing up to rummage through their packs for paper and ink. "Then we should be able to solve it like a maze and get through." He then proceeded to pick a random direction and start off.

After the fifth dead end, Kouji began begging them to let him make a new way out.  This was vetoed by the rest of the group; every time the boy tried to do a big project, he overextended himself.

After the tenth dead end, Katara started complaining, too.

"This doesn't make any sense, we already came through this way!" Sokka insisted, glaring from his map to the blockage and back again.

"We don't need a map," Chong said, with the air of one imparting knowledge to the ignorant.  "We just need love.  The little guy knows it."  He pointed to Aang.

"Yeah… but I wouldn't mind a map also," Aang admitted.

"There's something strange here…" Sokka muttered, wandering around the space. "There's only one explanation," he continued, a little louder, and very grim. "The tunnels are changing."

"That's impossible," Kouji told him.  "I would have felt it if they were!"

On cue, the entire cavern rumbled.

Lee frowned. "Sounds almost like a stampede…" he muttered, too quietly for any of the others to overhear.

"The tunnels!" Chong cried.  "They're changing!  It must be the curse!  I knew we shouldn't have come down here!"

"They're not changing!" Kouji insisted, but he was very pale in the torchlight.

"Right," Sokka said, sarcastically, to Chong. "If only we'd listened to you."

"Everyone be quiet," Katara said, suddenly, holding up a hand. "Listen."

Distantly, they could all hear high-pitched growling. Momo and the bunny-cygnet both panicked and fled from their respective shoulders to find a safer place to hide from the noise. Lee barely had time to draw his swords before a winged, fanged, furry, red-eyed thing flew out of the darkness, straight at Sokka, who did the smart thing and ducked.

"It's a giant flying thing with teeth!" screamed Chong.

"No, it's a wolfbat!" Lily corrected as it landed briefly.

Snarling not unlike the animal, Kouji launched a rock at it, but it avoided the blow.

Lee tried to stay between the wolfbat and Kouji, lashing out at it with his swords. Sokka, too, tried to drive it off, with the torch he was holding.

Then some of the embers landed on Appa's foot. The bison, already wound very tight from simply being underground, roared and panicked, running around in circles, slamming into walls. The wolfbat ran off.

"The roof!"   Kouji planted himself and threw his arms up, trying to hold the crumbling rock in place.  There was simply too much for the boy to hold up, however, and the ceiling collapsed.

Lee yanked Kouji back and out of the way just in time to keep him from getting crushed, but not quite quick enough to keep him from getting knocked out. While Sokka and the nomads were discussing this new development, he wrapped his arm where the wolfbat had managed to claw him in a strip from the bottom of his shirt — so much for making it last a month — to slow the bleeding, then checked Kouji over to see how badly he was hurt.

Luckily, the younger boy had mostly suffered cuts and bruises, but he'd taken a blow to the head as well and that gash was bleeding.  Lee checked the bump over as best he could in the dim light, not daring to make his own, then wrapped it in more of his shirt, pressing to get the blood to stop flowing.

There was a minor avalanche as Sokka's frenzied digging destabilised some of the rubble, but the nomads dug him out, leaving Lee able to tend to his brother.  The teenager finished tending Kouji, then picked him up, ignoring the way this made even more blood start flowing from his arm. "Which way?" he asked, grimly.

Moku shrugged.  "Who knows?  Only one way to go now."  He pointed into the dark.

Lee nodded, and, with Sokka leading the way and the bunny-cygnet bringing up the rear, their portion of the group headed off.

It didn't take long for the nomads to start singing and dancing, Chong leading the group in a rousing rendition of Don't Let The Cave-In Get You Down, made up at precisely that moment.

The look on Sokka's face clearly showed he wasn't listening to the song. Lee was trying to keep to his feet and not drop Kouji. He knew he was leaving a blood trail, and irrationally hoped the wolfbats would ignore it.

After awhile, Lee could no longer ignore them.  Moku was too loud.  "Oh, great!" the man snapped at Sokka.  "Your plans have led us to another dead end!"

"At least I'm thinking of ideas and trying to get us out of here, Moku," Sokka snapped back.

"Whoa, now, wait a minute," said Chong.  "We're thinkin' of ideas?  'Cause I've had an idea for like an hour now."

"YES!" Sokka fumed. "We're all thinking of ideas!"

"Well, then listen to this," Chong said, undeterred.  "If love is the key out of here, then all we need to do is play a love song."

Sokka's hand met his forehead. Lee would've done the same, were he not carrying Kouji.  However, since nobody had any better plans, they headed off down another tunnel, the nomads leading and Chong singing a love song.

After about twenty minutes of this, they heard wolfbats again.

More of them.

Lee swore, and tried to shift his hold on Kouji so he could draw at least one of his swords.

The ignored him, flying straight past him and a screaming, flailing Sokka.  As the last of the wolfbats vanished, Chong sat up.  "Hey, you guys saved us!"

"No," Lee said, shortly, and Sokka finished the thought for him.

"They were trying to get away from something."

"From what?" the nomad leader asked.

And then the wall behind him burst inward, and a huge furry creature came into view.  It was almost as big as Appa.

Lee yelled and backed up a few paces, clutching Kouji protectively, only to stumble back forward when a second creature broke through the wall behind him.  In seconds, the animals had separated Lee, Sokka, and the unconscious Kouji from the nomads with earthbending.

One advanced rather menacingly on Sokka, who backed away — right into Chong's pipa.

The animal stopped and tilted its head.  Sokka picked up the pipa and plucked at one of its strings again, over and over.  The second animal turned away from the nomads and moved over to Sokka, too.  Thinking the danger was over, Chong rose to his feet.  "Hey!  Those things are music lovers!"

The teenager kept plucking his same note, and choked out what he clearly thought was an approximation of a tune. "Badgermoles… coming toward me… come on, guys… help me out!"

Chong pulled a domra from his robes — where the hell had he been hiding it? — and began playing a low, rough tune on it.  At least he was good at improvising.

Lee ignored the singing and the instrument from nowhere, and cautiously approached the nearest badgermole. If it was rendered passive by the music, maybe it would be willing to carry him and Kouji. He was starting to get a little dizzy and he'd forgotten what his back felt like when it didn't ache from carrying a healthy ten-year-old around for hours.

Sure enough, the badgermole let him climb on — though not after turning its head and sniffing deeply at Kouji for a few moments.

"Not for you," he growled at it, glaring. The bunny-cygnet followed him up there. He stared at it, blinking, thinking it was a pain-and-bloodloss-borne hallucination. "…you've been following us all this time?" It squawked at him.

The badgermole licked Kouji and then proceeded to ignore Lee entirely; by then the nomads had climbed aboard the other one.  Riding the badgermoles, they burst out into sunlight to find that Aang, Katara, and Appa had already found their way out.

Lee, still carrying Kouji, slid off his badgermole, bowed as best he could while holding his brother, mumbled a thank you, and stumbled over to Appa to sit and put Kouji down for a minute.

"No, Dad…"

"S'okay, Kouji," he mumbled. "Safe now." Then he shook his head to clear it. "You're awake?!"

Apparently not.  The boy whimpered and curled up, crossing his arms over his chest.  "Dad, please…"

Lee considered a moment, then reached out with his uninjured arm and gently shook Kouji, trying to wake him.  The boy came to with a yell of fear and stared at Lee, not really seeing him for a moment. 

"It's okay. You're safe now. I promise."

With a muffled sob, Kouji threw himself at his brother and clung, trembling.  Lee hugged him, rocking back and forth slowly, repeating assurances that he was safe now.  Thus occupied, they missed the nomads' departure.

Katara noted the blood on Lee's clothes, but he glared at her when she tried to pull him away to fix wherever was bleeding. It could wait until Kouji had calmed down.  Finally, the boy let go of Lee and moved out of Katara's way so she could heal him.

Luckily, the cuts were clean and not too deep, and only took her a few minutes. That having been sorted out, they headed up the hill to Omashu.

"The journey was long and annoying," Sokka said, as they neared the top of the hill, "But now you get to see what it's really about: the destination. I present to you the Earth Kingdom city of O — oh, no…"

Smoke drifted up from the city. The wall bore a Fire Nation banner.

Kouji's grey eyes were wide.  "They've got this far…"

Lee just stared at the city, somewhat bleakly, saying nothing.

"I can't believe it," Aang said, sadly. "I know the war has spread far, but… Omashu always seemed… untouchable."

"Up until now, it was," Sokka said. "Now, Ba Sing Se is the only great Earth Kingdom stronghold left."

Kouji looked up at Lee, then reached out to take his brother's hand silently.  Lee squeezed it lightly, still staring at the banner.

"This is horrible," Katara said, walking up to stand with Aang, "but we have to move on."

"No," Aang replied, almost snapping. "I'm going in to find Bumi."

"I don't think that's a good idea," said the youngest of the group softly.

"Yeah," Sokka agreed with Kouji. "We don't even know if Bumi's still…"

"What?" Aang asked, turning back to the others. "If he's still what?"

"A-around," Sokka hastily edited.

"Not to mention that this place is bound to be heavily guarded," Kouji added.  "Omashu has a reputation.  It wouldn't surprise me if a new governor has already been imported to 'maintain order'."  His eyes were hard as he stared at the flapping banner.  "This place won't be like New Sozin.  It's too important, strategically speaking."

Katara nodded her agreement. "I know you had your heart set on Bumi, but there are other people who can teach you and Kouji earthbending."

"This isn't about finding a teacher," Aang informed them. "This is about finding my friend."

The younger boy sighed. "I've got a bad feeling about this one…"

Lee, still silent, followed the others back onto Appa and around and under the city to…

"A secret passage?" Sokka said, incredulous. "Why didn't we just use this last time?"

Aang broke open the cover on the passage, and a deluge of filthy, sludgy water spilled out. "That answer your question?"

Kouji covered his nose and mouth.  "Yes," he said, his voice muffled.  Lee didn't reply, just drew his swords and pulled himself into the pipe ahead of the others. For once, he didn't seem intent on playing rear-guard. Aang followed, then Katara, then Sokka, and then Kouji at the very back.  Between Aang's airbending and Katara's waterbending the sludge out of the way, Sokka and Kouji were drenched from head to toe.

Lee fared slightly better, only drenched from the waist down from trudging along in the water. They emerged onto an empty street.

"That wasn't as bad as I thought," Katara commented.

"Speak for yourself," Lee muttered, as Sokka and Kouji emerged. Katara quickly rinsed them off with help from a nearby barrel, and Aang dried them.

"Thanks," mumbled Kouji, looking a little ill.  A pink creature with purple suckers was attached to his left hand; three more were attached to Sokka.

"You okay?" Lee asked, stroking the creature lightly until it let go, leaving little reddened dots where the suckers had been.

"AAAH!" Sokka yelled, yanking on the pink things. "They won't let go!"

Aang pinned Sokka to a wall. "Stop making so much noise!" he hissed. "It's just a purple pentapus." Like Lee had, he stroked one of the creatures. It giggled and released Sokka's face, leaving the same marks the one on Kouji's hand had.

"What is it with you and sewers?" Kouji asked Lee, closing his eyes and leaning into the taller teen while he fought for control of his stomach.

"They're not checked for trespassers nearly as often as they should be," he murmured back, as a patrol came around the corner.

"Hey!" the leader said, glowering. "What're you kids doing out past curfew?"

"Sorry," Katara said, hastily, as Aang put on a hat to hide his tattoos and Kouji hid his face in Lee's side — Ichiro's wanted posters could easily have spread this far. "We were just on our way home!"

The patrol seemed to accept this, until they started walking away, and the head caught site of the marks the pentapi had left on Sokka's neck. "Wait. What's the matter with him?"

Kouji froze, and tucked his left hand into his tunic.

"Uh… he has… pentapox, sir!" Katara improvised, putting her hands on her brother's shoulders and turning him around. "Um… it's highly contagious!"

"Oh, it's so awful!  I'm dying!" Sokka, never one to shirk a chance to be overdramatic, said, complete with facial expressions and bizarre hand gestures.

"A-and deadly," Katara added unnecessarily.

"Hey, I think I've heard of pentapox," the man said, backing away from Sokka, who kept advancing and moaning. "Didn't your cousin Chang die of it?"

"We'd better go wash our hands."

"And burn our clothes!" the two other men added in quick succession. The patrol fled.

"Thank you, sewer friend!" Aang said, petting one of the pentapi.

Lee, however, frowned. "That was too easy," he muttered.

Kouji slipped his hand from his tunic.  "Well, if they want proof of contagion…"

"The marks'll fade after an hour," Aang pointed out.

"Hopefully, we'll have found Bumi by then," Sokka said, rubbing at his neck.

Lee didn't look hopeful, but nodded. "Let's take care of this quick as possible." He headed off in the opposite direction from where the patrol had gone.  Kouji was hard on his heels, keeping the hood of his cloak low over his face to obscure his features.

They slipped through quiet, dark, empty streets, managing to avoid other patrols, heading for the city centre.

"Let's find Bumi and get out of here," Katara said, after one close call.

"Where would they be keeping him?" Sokka asked.

"Somewhere he can't earthbend," Aang said, logically. "Somewhere made of metal. Here, let's try up this way." Without waiting for the others to reply, he ran off.

Kouji sighed and followed, knowing the other three would be behind them.

They hid again from a group of torch-bearing soldiers, escorting two women. Lee froze, watching the younger one, hoping none of the others noticed.

"Lee?"  Kouji tugged on the sleeve of his robe.

"What?" he whispered, just barely keeping his voice steady.

"Who is she?"

Lee was spared from answering by a large boulder running down a mail slide, heading straight for the party below. Aang shot it out of the way with a blast of air. The older of the two women shouted something. The younger flung several knives at Aang. The five of them fled. The knife-wielding girl and two of the guards followed.

Kouji put on a quick burst of speed, then leapt, whirled, and as he landed once more, slammed both his hands into the ground.  Cracks raced towards the two guards, then the stone beneath them flung them into the air.

Lee grabbed him and ran, while Katara and then Aang brought up the rear and blocked all of the pointies. Just when it seemed they were cornered, the ground abruptly gave out underneath them, dropping them into an underground cave, where they were surrounded by grim-looking earthbenders.

Startled, Kouji clung to Lee, breathing heavily.  The controlled earthquake had been new, and the knife-throwing girl had frightened him.  Lee, also visibly shaken, clung back, not really paying attention as Aang and the head of this group — apparently, those who were resisting the occupation — discussed the fact that Bumi had surrendered.

Kouji kept his voice low as he looked at his friend.  "Who was she, Lee?  You looked like you knew her."

"I may have been wrong," he said, as if he was trying to convince himself. "She just… reminded me of someone."

In the background, Aang was trying to persuade the head of the resistance that fleeing the city, and living to fight another day, was the best possible course of action.  Kouji ignored that debate, watching Lee worriedly.  Lee, too, ignored it, trying to calm down so Kouji wouldn't worry so much.  The boy, at least, dropped that line of questioning.  Lee relaxed slightly at that, then further, when Aang successfully persuaded the resistance leaders to evacuate the city — with help from the pentapi.

The next day, with Sokka leading and reminding them to act sick as well as look it, the entire population managed to escape the occupied city.  Aang stayed behind, alone except for Momo, to keep looking for Bumi.  Kouji had wanted to help, but Lee had very firmly vetoed that notion.  By the time they all reached the plateau where Appa had been waiting, the marks had begun to fade. Katara did a quick headcount, and found an unexpected addition.

"A baby…," murmured Kouji, picking up the little boy with care and examining his features.  "Fire Nation, too."  The baby squalled and pulled at Kouji's hair.  "Oi!  That's mine, not yours!"  With surprising deftness, Kouji prised his braid loose and substituted his belt.

Lee joined him in babysitting. Playing with the kid helped calm him further.

Aang didn't rejoin them until well after dark, accompanied by a large furry monster with angry-looking tusks. Katara and Sokka didn't seem particularly alarmed by the creature, so Lee mostly ignored it, though he did shift position to be between it and Kouji and the baby.

"I looked everywhere," Aang said, wearily. "No Bumi." Katara hugged him, then the head of the resistance came over and informed Aang of the numbers problem.

"I wonder whose he is," Kouji said to Lee.  "The clothes seem to indicate the nobility, but it could just be that his family is rich, whoever they are."

"Probably the governor's," the teenager said, decisively, as Katara and Sokka and the resistance leader argued over whether or not they should treat him like any other baby. "No one else will have brought their families in yet, not if the city only got taken over within the last three or four months."

"Good point," Kouji said, grabbing the baby before he could get hold of Sokka's club.  Dangling the belt worked as a distraction.  "So the girl would be this little guy's sister, right?"

"Probably," Lee answered, as a messenger hawk flew in.

Aang unrolled the scroll. "It's from the Fire Nation governor," he announced. "He thinks we kidnapped his son. So, he wants to make a trade: his son… for King Bumi."

"…that's remarkably easy," said Kouji. looking up.

"Everything about this has been too easy," Lee muttered.

"I say we do it," Sokka said. "I mean, Kouji and Aang need an earthbending teacher, and we can't exactly cart a baby around with us."

"I refuse to babysit more than I have to," Kouji added.  "I got enough of that at home, thanks."

"Plus, the governor and his wife are probably really worried," Katara pointed out.

Aang nodded. "He wants to do the exchange tomorrow afternoon. Kouji, why don't you hang out here, see what you can pick up from these resistance guys, while the four of us go take care of it?"

Grey eyes narrowed as Kouji stared at Aang.  "Why can't I go?"

The Avatar looked puzzled. "I didn't say you can't go, just that we're probably not going to hang out here very long after, and you might learn something from these people.  Plus, it'll be really boring. We'll be there and back in like an hour."

"I don't care," Kouji said.  "We're a group, aren't we?"

"Okay, okay, you can come," Aang said, still looking a little confused as to why Kouji was making such a big issue about this.

The boy nodded, then returned his attention to the baby.

Next Chapter

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