Mokuno Kimiko got off the bus in yet another dusty little town in the middle of nowhere. She stared around her, then at the bus schedule, then back at the town. “And… I’m lost again.” She turned back to the ticket window, and tapped on it.

“What?” the fat, bored-looking man sitting there asked.

“Um, excuse me, I need to find a bus to Omashu? I sort of… well, I think I got on the wrong one, and I ended up here.”

“Bus to Omashu don’t leave til the day after tomorrow.”

“Oh. Um. Ok. Thanks, I guess.” Despondent, the thirteen-year-old sat down on a bench outside the station. “Great. First I miss my plane, then I get on the wrong bus — four times. The universe just hates me, doesn’t it.”

“A pretty little thing like you?” a middle-aged man asked, sitting next to her. “There’s no way.”

“Um… hi?” Kimiko said.

“My name’s Zéi.”

“Um… I’m Kimiko.”

“Here, why don’t you come with me? I’m sure my friends and I can help you get wherever you’re going.”

Well, how stupid do you think I am? I don’t know you and — are you looking down my shirt? “Um… thanks, but I think I’ve got things under control.”

“No, really,” Zéi said, his smile slipping as he grabbed for her arm. “You should let me help.”

Across the street, a young man with dark hair looked up from the car engine he was currently tinkering with to watch the events at the bus stop with narrowed eyes.  He looked young enough to still need schooling, but something about him hinted at maturity and strength.

“Let go of me!” Kimiko said, struggling to pull away from the man.

“Really,” he replied, with deceptive courtesy. “A pretty little thing like you, travelling all on her own… who knows what might happen?”

Noting the struggle, the dark-haired mechanic crossed the street, approaching Kimiko and Zéi idly, though the wrench hanging off his belt looked very businesslike indeed.

“It would hardly be gentlemanly of me,” Zéi was saying, “to let you go off on your own.”

“I don’t need your help!” she cried, trying to blast him off her with a gust of wind — apparently, the girl was an airbender.

That caused the mechanic to arch an eyebrow; after all, in this day and age, there weren’t very many benders left at all.  He put a hand on Zéi’s shoulder and growled, “Why don’t you leave the kid alone before I call the cops?”

“This isn’t any of your business,” the older man snapped.

“Ask me if I care.  Let go of her before I have to hurt you.”

“Back off,” Zéi snarled, trying to shove the mechanic aside while maintaining his grip on Kimiko.

For her part, the thirteen-year-old took advantage of his distraction to blast him off of her and retreat a few steps.

Seeing that, the mechanic let go of Zéi and sidestepped quickly, getting between the older man and the Kimiko.  Cool golden eyes bored into Zéi’s.  Furious, the would-be kidnapper tried to dive for the girl again.

The mechanic was faster, stepping into his path and slamming Zéi in the stomach with his wrench.

Zéi’s eyes widened, and he dropped.

Kimiko, wide-eyed, put her shoe back on — she’d taken it off to try and use as a weapon, if the man had tried to grab her again. “…thanks,” she said.

“No problem,” the mechanic drawled, glaring at the fallen man.  He turned his attention to the man behind the ticket counter.  “Call the cops on this bastard, would ya?”

“Yeah, sure, whatever,” the bored man said, and reached for his phone.

The mechanic then turned to Kimiko and smiled.  “You want to hang out at my place til the cops show up?”  He jerked his thumb over at the building across the street.  “There’s a bench outside you can sit on and wait for them.”

She eyed him, warily. Why do I have the sudden urge to slug this guy? On the other hand, he had rescued her from Zéi…  “Okay.”

He grinned at her and gestured for her to precede him to the auto shop.  “My name’s Yí Xīn, by the way. You can call me Xīn.  What’s yours?”

“Kimiko,” she replied, heading across the street.

“Nice to meet you.  Want a soda?  I can grab you one.”

“Um, sure. Thank you.”

“Cola, citrus, root beer, or berry?”  Yí Xīn looked a bit sheepish.  “I’m a bit of an addict.”

She laughed a little. “Root beer, I think.”

“As the lady wishes.”  The golden-eyed mechanic vanished inside, then returned with a can of the required drink.  “Catch.”  He tossed it underhanded to her.

She caught it, and opened it with the clear ease of much practice. Apparently, Yí Xīn wasn’t the only addict there. “Thanks.”

“No problem.”  He opened the second can in his hand, of a generic citrus flavour, with his thumb, guzzled about half the can, then went back to work on the car.

Kimiko settled herself on the bench to watch the mechanic and wait for the cops to show up. About a half hour later, a lone patrol car lazily wandered down the street.

“Fuckin’ useless,” grumbled Yí Xīn from under the hood of the sports car.  “Took ‘em (mumble mumble) long enough.”

The cop, a short, frazzled-looking woman, came up to them. “Shouldn’t you two be in school?”

“I’m sick,” said Yí Xīn.  “Cough, cough.”

“And you?” she asked, turning on the younger teenager.

“I’m travelling to Omashu,” she said, though she didn’t give her reasons.

“… Uh-huh. All right, what happened here?” the cop asked.

Yí Xīn shrugged.  “I was just working on a car for a client when I heard noises.  Looked up, and some mook was trying to drag her off.”  A grin crossed his features.  “So I made him stop.”

The cop turned to Kimiko, arching an eyebrow, questioning.

“I got off my bus, realized I’d taken the wrong one to end up here, and sat on the bench to wait for the next one. This guy came up and sat next to me. When I wouldn’t let him help, he tried to grab me. Then Yí Xīn made him leave me alone.”

“I don’t like people who try to kidnap little girls.”  Yí Xīn shrugged.  “And I didn’t have time to get to the phone since the lazy-ass behind the ticket counter clearly wasn’t gonna intervene.”

The cop rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I see your point.” Clearly, she had some experience with the ticket man. “Listen, I need you two to come down to the station with me to make official statements, and describe this guy.”

“Can I come by later?  The old man’s sick and I have to cover the place for him.”

“Sure,” the cop said, then turned to Kimiko, who sighed, pushed herself up off of the bench, and followed her to the patrol car.

Less than an hour after Kimiko left with the policewoman, Zéi came back — and he wasn’t alone.

“Where’d the girl go?” Zéi snapped at Yí Xīn.

“Don’t know.  Don’t care,” the mechanic replied, having just closed the hood on the car he’d been repairing.  Cool golden eyes swept over Zéi and his reinforcements, counting them.  “What’s it to you?”

Zéi was accompanied by four other men of varying size. All were armed. “None of your business. And you bailed her out before, you must know where she went.”

“Oh, I know where she went.  Of course, I have no idea if she’s still there or not.”  He stretched languidly.

“Well, then, where’d she go?”

Yí Xīn’s lips pulled away from his teeth in a predator’s grin.  “The police station.”

“… Great, Zéi. She went to the cops. I told you you should’ve brought us along in the first place,” the skinniest of Zéi’s backup complained.

“Shut up.”

A coal-black eyebrow arched.  “It takes five men to kidnap an itty bitty slip of a teenage girl?”

“Bitch is a bender,” Skinny replied. “‘Sides, we can’t afford mistakes.”

That predator’s grin grew wider.  “You just made one.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Zéi snapped, impatient.

In reply, Yí Xīn brought up an old Polaroid camera and snapped a picture of the five men.  “Bye,” he said, grabbing the picture, dropping the camera, and bolting.

At just that moment, the patrol car from before pulled up to the curb, letting Kimiko off at the bus station. Prudently, the thugs waited until the cop was gone, then made for the girl again.

One of the four, the skinny one, instead of going for Kimiko, chased after Yí Xīn.  The mechanic led him on a merry chase, leaping over obstacles or climbing over them rather than dodging, and tried to lose him as he circled back around towards the auto shop.

Skinny, despite the difficulty, managed to keep the distance between them even.

Back at the shop, Kimiko was in rather dire straits: she’d had enough problems fending off just Zéi with her half-trained airbending, and, now facing four thugs, was close to being completely overpowered.

Yí Xīn passed by without so much as a sound, ducking between the men and snagging Kimiko around the waist as he did so.  Hauling her over his shoulder, he spun around and kicked over a can of oil.  He drew his lighter from his pocket with his left hand; in a single smooth move he had it lit and open.  With his other hand, he drew the fire away from the lighter, then quickly made a slashing motion from left to right; a wall of flame roared up between the two of them and the thugs. 

Spinning again, the mechanic pulled open the door of the car he’d just fixed, tossed Kimiko inside, shut the door, climbed into the driver’s seat, and peeled out onto the street even as he ordered the girl to fasten her seat belt.

Kimiko, fumbling, complied. “You’re a firebender?” was the first thing out of her mouth.

“Nothing so fancy,” he said, glancing in the rear-view mirror for pursuit.  “Though a can of oil and a lighter do produce a similar result.”

The thugs, apparently, were having difficulty reorganizing in the face of fire, and were not yet following.

“Oh. Yeah, guess it does. Um, thanks again,” she said.

“Glad to do it.  You said you were heading to Omashu, right?”

Kimiko nodded. “To stay with a cousin.”

“Forget the bus.  I’ll drive you.”

“…Thank you,” she said. “I appreciate it.” She shifted uncomfortably, though, disliking the idea of taking his charity.

“It’s as much for me as it is for you, kid.  I think I pissed them off.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, curious.

He pulled over next to a trailer and passed her a picture.  “I’m gonna drop this off with the cops before we head out.”

Kimiko studied it, and nodded. “Good idea.”

“Stay here, and stay down.” Yí Xīn ordered, stepping out of the car.  “I just need to grab a few things and give the old man notice.”

She nodded again, and slid down into her seat.

Within ten minutes, Yí Xīn had returned with three bags and two bedrolls, all of which he threw in the trunk of the car.  He paid close attention as he got in the car again, making certain that he wouldn’t have to try any fancy driving to throw off pursuit.

The thugs, if they’d managed to collect themselves, hadn’t caught up quite yet.  Good.  Yí Xīn got the car started again, and made for the nearest highway.

“Thanks again for helping me out,” Kimiko said, quietly.

“Not a problem, kid,” he replied, glancing back at her.  There was something familiar about the girl, but he couldn’t figure out what it was.  And, oddly enough, it gave him the strangest urge to punch her in the face.  He didn’t like that urge.  “You know what those guys wanted?”

She shrugged. “I dunno. Probably to hide me away somewhere and have their way with me.” Okay, so maybe I watch too many cop shows. But there’s no way they could’ve known…

He arched an eyebrow.  “Somehow I doubt that, Kimiko.  But if you don’t want to talk about it, it’s fine.  We all have our secrets.”

Kimiko nodded, grateful he didn’t press. “Sorry you got dragged into this,” she said after a minute.

“Eh, life was boring anyway.  I was stuck in a rut.  At least now I’m doing new and exciting things.”

Kimiko smiled a little. “Yeah, guess so.” She waited for the inevitable questions as to why a thirteen-year-old girl was travelling alone to Omashu.

They never came.  Apparently he’d heard that she was visiting a cousin — and had forgotten that he’d been going to stop by the police, since they’d made it to the highway.

Once she figured this out, she was relieved. She really didn’t want to discuss her mom.

After several moments of silence, he reached down and flicked on the radio.  “Got any particular music you like?”

She shrugged. “Anything but jazz.”

He fiddled with the tuner, and eventually found some golden oldies that he didn’t hate.  “Let me know when you get hungry, all right?”

“Sure.”

Their journey progressed uneventfully, until they reached the ancient city — and found it in ruins.

Yí Xīn’s jaw dropped as he got out of the idling car and stared at the destruction.  “No way,” he said.

Kimiko’s eyes widened and she, too, stared at the ruins. “Oh, no… “

“I’m going to look for survivors,” the older boy said, striding ahead quickly.

“I’ll help,” the girl replied, following.

Together, the pair of them helped those who had survived the destruction drag free and tend to the wounded; Yí Xīn subtly made certain that he stayed within eyesight of Kimiko.  “Did someone bomb the place?” he wondered aloud at one point.

“Not exactly,” one of the least-injured survivors said. “It was him.”

“…him who?”

“The Avatar.”

Yí Xīn dropped the bandages he was carrying.  “Say what?”

“He’s been blowing up cities all over the world, saying we have to ‘return to nature’ or something, to restore the balance.”

Yí Xīn was silent for a moment, staring at the destruction.  “But… Omashu’s been around for a thousand years at least.”

“Longer,” Kimiko said. “It was about that old when Sozin’s War started.”

“I didn’t say it made sense,” the man said, irritated. “Just that that’s what he said.”

Yí Xīn shook his head.  “Crazy times.”

“Damn right,” he replied.

“Come on, Kimiko,” the mechanic said.  “Let’s get further in.”

“Right,” she said, standing up.  Yí Xīn lead the girl towards the old palace, using the old mail slides to climb up.  She followed him silently through the ruins.