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~Chapter 8 ~

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1// Longshot is awakened by a deep rumbling in the earth. Dark smoke clouds billow overhead, so he takes off in search of its source. He comes to the edge of the woodlands and is shocked by what he sees.

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2// An army of war tanks being led by a larger tank the size of a palace plows over a gassy plain, headed westward. There is no symbol on the hull telling what nation it was made in.

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3// Longshot runs back to his campsite and packs everything up, and preparing for the worst, rides off towards the massive tank. Something told him, that's where Smellerbee was. He follows the tanks for several days, studying their defenses from afar, and waiting for the right moment to try and board it without being seen.

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4// Pipsqueak has a precognitive nightmare. We had the entire sequence mapped out and of everything that we couldn't get done, I think this is the one I'll regret the most:

(This is symbolism and foreshadowing pure and simple.)

Pipsqueak falls into a deep sleep one night and finds himself in a dark void, lit by hundreds of fire-flies and a full moon above. Then his dream really begins (in the style of traditional Japanese 'Noh' plays with very stylized environments, costumes and masks). Two little servant girls with the typical oval-faced mask appear, smiling and helping Pipsqueak to a seat on a fancy cushion. He gets comfortable and waits excitedly as a stage curtain appears before him.

The curtain opens and the first scene begins…

A shadowy figure stalks through a bamboo thicket beside a pond. The characters' mask looks like Smellerbee with her serious hunting face, sword drawn, yet she also looks like a tiger in a way. Another character, with a mask that resembles Longshot's concerned face, appears and startles Smellerbee, who coils back like a threatened animal. But Longshot catches her up and she squirms only for a moment before settling comfortably in his arms. Her mask looks less like a tiger and more loving. He carries her down to the water and they ride on a turtle's back across the pond (foreshadowing the name of their first son, Turtle).

The curtain closes and opens again on the second scene…

A character with a mask that looks like The Duke sits high on a mountain side, almost in the clouds, but he appears very bored and lonely. A Meng-like character appears and sits beneath him, playing a small flute. The music notes pour out of the flute on a stream of music lines, floating up through the air towards the Duke. As soon as the music enters one ear, he smiles. The music comes out of his other ear, and the lines become the stream that carries the notes up to the sky, exploding like fireworks.

The curtain closes and opens again on the third scene…

A grouchy Sneers-like character sits in a large library with a fire place behind, reading diligently. A pig-tailed character that looks very much like Skillet, tip-toes behind him as he reads. She taps him on the opposite shoulder, and as he turns to look, she takes the book from him, becomes small, and climbs inside it. Sneers aggravatingly turns back around just in time to see the book close. He picks it up and looks inside. A smile slowly creeps across Sneers' face. He sees Skillet on the page.

The curtain closes and opens again on the fourth scene…

A block of ice rests in the center of the stage; frozen inside is a Pestle-like character. A character wearing a mask that looks like Spatula walks over to the block of ice and hugs it; the ice melts away, leaving Pestle freed, and she returns Spatula's hug.

The curtain closes and a very Jet-like character with shining armor appears from above the curtain. He smirks and throws a hook-sword down to the ground, which sticks and begins to sprout like a tree. It grows taller and taller until the branches appear above all the previous scenes…

Longshot picks a peach off of the branch and gives it to Smellerbee (symbolizing a son), The Duke takes a stick off the branch that turns into a flute and he plays along with Meng, Sneers plucks a feather from a bird in the branches, dips it in ink, and writes himself into the book next to Skillet, and Spatula and Pestle begin to dance. Jet stands above proudly smiling and Pipsqueak delightedly applauds at it all.

But everything suddenly becomes very dim and still. Pipsqueak looks up to see that the full moon is no longer a moon, but the eye of a dragon (resembling the demon that kidnapped Smellerbee - not like Pipsqueak knows about it at the time - but with a traditional Chinese dragon body). The dragon rushes down toward Jet who is oblivious and Pipsqueak tries desperately to warn him, but the dragon coils around Jet like a snake, raising its head to strike at the back of his head.

Jet struggles to free himself as all the other scenes begin to fall apart…

Smellerbee is snatched away from Longshot by a dark cloud and the peach falls into the water. Meng's music flows into the Duke's ear, but only the lines come out the other ear, entangling him. Sneers goes to turn the page but gets a nasty paper cut, and in a rage, throws the book into the fireplace. Spatula trips, falls, disappears into a cloud of smoke - leaving Pestle alone, and she begins to shiver and freeze over again. Pipsqueak can only watch in horror as the tree withers and the dragon finally strikes Jet in the back of the head, making his mask resemble Bee's kidnapper.

Pipsqueak jolts awake. Realizing it was just a dream, he tries to calm himself down. Sneers and The Duke sleep peacefully on their beds, but Pipsqueak has a hard time falling back asleep.

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5// Meanwhile Sneers is trying to communicate with the village girls but none of them get his political jokes. He's the one keeping the other two in line; The Duke with his 'Meng distraction,' as he keeps going to get his 'fortune told,' and Pipsqueak with his incredible ability of opening eateries completely by accident. (Pipsqueak cooks one meal for someone out of shear courtesy, they blab it to the rest of the town, and soon Pipsqueak is taking orders and filling culture-starved appetites!)
~Sneers finally confronts the two of them…
Sneers: "Pipsqueak, I don't know how, but everywhere we get stationed, new restaurants pop up. Why is that?"
Pipsqueak: "I guess my food is just…I dunno…popular?"
S: "Hmm…popular. You know, every time we leave a town, so does your cooking. You give people something good then take it away. How does that make you feel?"
P: "…bad…"
S: "SO QUIT IT!"
P: "I can't help it! It just keeps happening! I think it's my calling!"
Duke: (snerk)
S: "And YOU." [Points at the Duke.] "You need to quit wasting time with that fortune teller girl, you'll blow our cover."
D: "Uh…"
S: "You…you didn't tell her we were Freedom Fighters DID YOU?"
D: "Me? N-no! I mean…she knows…but hey! She's a fortune teller!"
S: "Yea, a lousy one."
D: "Hey! Meng is NOT lousy. She likes my ears AND blowing stuff up. That's the winning combination right there!"
S: "You've lost your mind."
D: "Oh come on, she's not going to tell anybody."
S: (evil smirk) "No…she knows too much, I'll have to kill her."
D: "FUH-NEE."
~While Sneers is at Aunt Wu's village, Skillet asks him to pick up a book for her. (could be The Fall of the Blue Spirit) Out of curiosity he starts reading it every night before bed. The Duke notices this and asks,
"Whatcha reading?"
Sneers just grumbles.
"Looks like a romance novel," the Duke taunts him playfully.
"It's just a book Skillet asked me to get."
"But why are you reading it?"
"I paid for it. I might as well."
"Why did you pay for it?"
"GAH! Look, I get books for Skillet, she cooks me special orders for dinner. Any more questions?"
"Yeah. . . why are you blushing?"
Sneers then feeds the Duke a pillow.

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6// While Sneers is at Aunt Wu's village, Skillet asks him to pick up a book for her, called Tales of the Spirit World. Out of curiosity, he starts reading it every night before bed; The Duke notices this and asks,
"Whatcha reading?"
Sneers just grumbles.
"Looks like a romance novel," the Duke taunts him playfully.
"It's just a book Skillet asked me to get."
"But why are you reading it?"
"I paid for it. I might as well."
"Why did you pay for it?"
"GAH! Look, I get books for Skillet, she cooks me special orders for dinner. Any more questions?"
"Yeah. . . why are you blushing?"
Sneers then feeds the Duke a pillow.

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7// Currently, we have the classic love/hate relationship of Snillet. Skillet appears to be more aware of this than Sneers is (no surprise there) but that will change when he gets to Makapu, for the simple reason that "absence makes the heart grow fonder." He's suddenly surrounded by a small hoard of muscle-deprived ladies that think Sneers is the hottest thing since fire flakes were invented, and yet none of them have the intellect to match him in a debate. So when Sneers makes a good political point or historical joke, the Makapu ladies are like "lolwut?" and Sneers reluctantly finds himself thinking "Skillet would have got that. Skillet would have ROTFLMAOed at that." He finds himself thinking about her a lot more than usual. This train of thought leads him to buying not just the book, but also hair bobbles, and this sudden behavior causes him to realize "&%$@# I love her don't I?" BUT this isn't really a true personality change, just a realization of sorts. It helps to humble him a bit, since Sneers' defining character feature is pride, and surrendering pride is almost mandatory when it comes to love. So Sneers is torn to say the least. Luckily he has a mission to keep his mind occupied, and does his best to focus on that instead.

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8// Sneers does some research in regards to similar instances of spiritual matters, and discovers a book written by Kuei (the former Earth King, who had settled into Makapu after failing to return to Ba Sing Se) and illustrated by a woman named Poi Poi, who certainly bears no resemblance to the comic's creator, nosiree bob. The book tells the story of the origin of the demon Bishamonten - the monster that kidnapped Smellerbee. Sneers feels a slight chill after reading it.

He goes to visit Kuei, hoping to get some answers; Sneers figures they were just stories, and tries to dismiss the idea that maybe the threat is of another realm besides the four nations. Little does he know that he's absolutely right, but just can't quite grasp the idea fully… until it's standing right in front of him.

Here's a short "passage" from the book documenting Bishamonten's history, written by Sio:
"One of the youngest of the spirits, Bishamonten was born from the first act of malice between humans. In the beginning, he was nothing more than a starved animal, feeding off the hatred among people. The more the humans fought, the stronger he became, but physical strength is all he could acquire."
"The other spirits looked down at him and scoffed, saying he had only the mind of a beast, unable to even speak for himself. Enraged, Bishamonten attacked his ridiculers, easily over-powering and devouring them. By doing this, he obtained the knowledge of the other spirits, no longer just an animal. He continued to terrorize the weaker spirits, eating one after another until his mind equaled his body, brilliant in tactics and persuasion."
"No longer needing the spirits, he returned his focus to the humans, and how to keep them warring enough to sustain his body. He brings good fortune to all warmongers, giving the world's riches to all who heed his voice, and fight in his name."

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9// For the first time, we see Bishamonten as a character, and not just a looming shadow or a myth. He plans to make a round trip through the spirit world, hitting up familiar Spirits such as Wan Shi Tong and Hei Bai, to see if they will "side with him," for dastardly plots not yet revealed...

A short script:
Wan Shi Tong is reading peacefully in his still very messy library back in the spirit world. Suddenly, the fox knowledge-seekers burst out from the small 'dog-doors' beside the main door, whining and frantically trying to get away from something. The main doors fly open with a huge thud, startling Tong.
(He puffs up and says rather timidly, "Who?") 
Bishamonten steps through the doors (this is probably the first time the readers will see him in full, but he is not fully decked out in all of his armor yet) and peers around the corner to where Tong is reading.
WST: "B-Bishamonten, what do you want?"
BSH: "Don't worry; I'm not here for trouble; rather, to enlist you. [Evil grin]
WST: "I know all about your attacks on the humans. I'll have no part of it."
BSH: [his smile fades to a calm frown and he looks around casually] "What happened to your library? This will take centuries to re-organize and [sniffs] is that a human stench I smell?" [Evil grin returns]
WST: "Sly words will not work on me."
BSH: "Fine then…I have other methods of persuasion, though I'd rather not fill my mind with nonsense by devouring you." [Animalistic sneer]
WST: [Sweat-drop] "Very well, you have my services. Destroy the humans if you wish, but what will that accomplish?"
BSH: "I do not intend on destroying them completely…why should I when they're perfectly capable of destroying themselves?" [Freaky face, then he leaves]

Later on, after Bish has gone, Won Shi Tong sits in the planetarium room, staring at the mechanical eclipse, still left on the ceiling above. Professor Zei, (who has become Tong's assistant/book-keeper and somewhat of a little spirit himself ever since the library was moved back to the spirit world) walks in to find Wan Shi Tong, looking rather distraught.
Zei: "Well, it took ten years, but the East Wing is finally re-organized!"
WST: "Thank you, Zei."
Zei: "Is something wrong great spirit?"
WST: "There are…troublesome circumstances. I can't explain it to you now."
Zei: "Oh…well I am sure you will see through it, whatever it is. I'm going to get a head start on the West Wing now." [Happily scuttles away to the books]
Won Shi Tong realizes then that he cannot take sides against the humans. He will betray Bishamonten in the end.

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10// Meng is having a panic attack as the white-haired man who used to work for Aunt Wu (I named him Baifa Shi) is coming from a different town to check on Meng's progress as a fortune teller. The Duke offers to take her out to explode things once more, and when she turns him down, he then volunteers to be her palm-reading subject. During this, The Duke moves in all romantic-like to kiss Meng, but she pushes him away to do more studying. At last, Meng gives in and gets glompy-smoochy with The Duke.

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11// We now cut to the burnt-down remains of a village. Red-Eye, on his ostrich horse, has been making a point of visiting these decimated sites to try and puzzle together what, exactly, is responsible for the attacks. There, he finds a single survivor: Song, the girl with the burnt leg, from whom Zuko and Iroh stole her ostrich horse waaay back in Book 2 of the show.

Song had met a Freedom Fighter stationed in the village; the two had become friendly (romantic or otherwise), and said FF mentioned Jet and Hong Ye to her, amongst other things. When Song returns to find her village decimated, she decides to set out and find the hideout...but has no idea where to go, because the FF never told her where it was located. Enter Red-Eye: after a brief conversation, the recon Freedom Fighter agrees to take Song to the forest.

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12// That night Sneers goes outside to…well, pee…and spots one a strange figure rummaging around. He follows it stealthily up the volcano (now dormant) and discovers a squad camped out and hidden right on the other side of the rock formations that Aang created when he cooled the lava rapidly.

Despite his best efforts to be sneaky, he gets spotted, and the squad attacks. (They were originally just going to hide out there and steal supplies until their commander in the giant tank gave word to move). Sneers manages to escape, but the squad turns its focus to Makapu as a whole; countless hordes of people start washing down over Makapu, forcing the three Freedom Fighters, and every able-bodied man and woman in the village, to stand and fight.

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13// During the battle, Sneers realizes that he could never see Skillet again, and boom, broken: he finally and fully admits that he's in love with her. Snillet fans, rejoice!

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~Chapter 9~

This chapter returns to Longshot, and takes place a few days preceding the attack on Makapu.

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1// Longshot seizes the best opportune moment to board the tank, using the utmost stealth to search for a prison hold.

Ladies and gentleman...the scene you've all been waiting for, as written by Sio:

Longshot's back brushes silently along a cold metal wall, an arrow knocked in his bow pointed down for mobility, ready to spring up and shoot at a moment's notice. His shoulder blade comes to the end of the wall, and the beginning of a dark cell, reinforced by two more rows of bars inside. He squints into the darkness, trying to detect any form or movement.
Suddenly, he hears rustling of chains. A pair of small, bruised hands grips the inner bars from out of the shadows, and Smellerbee's face appears between them. Her face is scratched and bruised, her expression distant and lost.
"Well if it isn't Longshot hallucination number three," she mutters with a smirk.
Longshot, in shock, drops his weapon and grips the outer bars, pushing his face in as far as he can without getting stuck.
"Bee! It's me!" he whispers excitedly.
"I prefer Longshot hallucination number two…he wears less clothes. You are the more accurate one though, I'll give you that," Bee continues, unmoved.
Longshot just gapes at her in disbelief. She had lost her mind, and now thinks he is a figment of her imagination.
"Well, at least you're not the Longshot hallucination with the lemur head, his singing voice bugs me," Bee went on.
"No, Bee! It's really me!" he whispers pleadingly, sticking his arm through the first two rows of bars, reaching for her face, but coming about 5 inches short. Bee just stares at his outstretched hand, and her face saddens.
"You are all so cruel to me," she mutters solemnly, then backs away into the darkness of the cell.
"BEE!" Longshot finally yells, not caring if he is heard.
"Leave me alone number three," she replies, curling up like a dog in the back corner, and says no more.
A surge of adrenaline suddenly overtakes Longshot; he rips the hardwood club that Sneers had lent him off his belt and raises it in the air to strike. With a roar, he brings the club down upon the massive lock that binds the first set of bars, shattering it into pieces that clang loudly on the floor. The sound resonates throughout the tank, gaining the attention of the entire crew. Longshot then rips the first door of its hinges, then readies to strike the second lock. Smellerbee sits back up, confusedly staring at her hallucination, bashing his way through to her. Either, this time he was real…or she had really lost it now.
As Longshot bashes open the last lock, a platoon of masked figures crowd the hallway outside the cell, aiming what appear to be small crossbows at him. Their attire is just like the tank, dark, efficient, and with no indication as to what nation it belongs. Only a white circle marks their foreheads. Finally, ripping away the last bar door, Longshot storms over to Bee, busts the chains that bind her to the wall, drops the club, then drops to his knees, clinging to her for dear life. For several minutes they do not move, nor do their enemies. Longshot peers over his shoulder at them with intense anger, and Bee looks up at his face. Suddenly, she is back in reality, and a Freedom Fighter at that.
"Unless there's armor beneath those robes, they look like easy targets," she whispers into Longshot's ear.
"Smoke bombs, right pocket," he whispers back.
"But they'll fire-"
"Now."
In an instant, the entire cell and hallway is filled with smoke, and the dark soldiers stumble back, firing their weapons in all directions. After some fumbling about, the two Freedom Fighters appear from out of the smoke, slashing at their foes with arrows from Longshot's quiver. Quickly defeating the under-experienced soldiers, Longshot takes off the way he came, but Bee begins to drag him in the opposite direction.
"Come on, I'm not leaving without my swords!" she demands, and Longshot, just happy to see her acting normal, complies.
The two of them disappear around the corner.

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2// While LS and SB are escaping from Bish's tank, they stumble across Bish's chamber wherein lie the plans and itineraries for the next attacks (however, they don't find out who is in charge of the operation until later since they're only worried about getting out alive at this point). They find that Makapu village is the next target. LS freaks out because he knows that that's where Sneers, The Duke and Pipsqueak are. Unfortunately, word doesn't reach them in time to prepare for Bish's small attack squad that's hidden behind the rocks. Word does reach Jet though, so he is able to send them back-up before they are completely destroyed.

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3// The two fight their way out, taking some damage, but still strong. As they jump out the bottom of the tank, Longshot lights all the explosives the Duke gave him and tosses them back up inside, destroying the inner mechanisms. They escape on Bingo fast enough not to get caught but Longshot gets shot in the arm with a crossbow bolt. Longshot's breathing becomes irregular and he passes out sitting up behind Bee, leading the latter to believe it was poisoned.

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4// Jet gets the message from Smellerbee that the next target for a demon attack is indeed Makapu, confirming his earlier suspicions. Jet gets down to action immediately, and orders Pestle to lead most of the Earthbenders on loan and some other Freedom Fighters to rush to Makapu. In order to speed up the trip, Pestle and the Earthbenders will create a earth trolleys and use their bending to push it along the ground (think like the trains in Ba Sing Se, only open-aired).

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5// Spatula insists on going with Pestle's team; Jet, however, orders him to stay behind in case something attacks the forest. Spatula gets indignant and actually starts verbally attacking Jet, going so far as to grab the man by his collar and looking very close to actually punching him. Spatula, who we've already established is aware of the one-sided tension between himself and Jet, becomes hot-headed enough to mistake this action for another display of anti-Fire Nation racism (a misconception on two different fronts). The stress of not being able to go with Pestle finally gets makes him crack and he chews Jet out for his attitude towards him. Jet cuts him short before he says/does something he might actually regret, explaining how it's not about his hate of the Fire Nation and if the circumstances were any different, then yeah, he probably would send Spatula away. But with Sneers and Pipsqueak gone, Spatula is the heaviest hitter the Freedom Fighters have left, and if the forest comes under fire, he'd rather have Spatula around to help deal with the problem. (Spatula, so caught up in himself, failed to see this. While Jet's tolerance of Spatula is strenuous at best, the man has enough faith in Spatula to not think that poorly of him.)

Jet defuses the situation the only way he knows how, of course; he glares at Spatula once the man draws back his fist and says, "Are you really sure you want to hit me, Spatula?" The implied dual connotation is that A// Jet would not hesitate to kick Spatula's ass if provoked, and B// it would be a damn shame if all the hard work Spatula had put into proving his point about the Fire Nation being 100% rotten went down the toilet because of his descent into hypocrisy.

So, Pestle spends the next few days on the road and defending Makapu, serving as a field commander once Sneers enters the picture.

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6// Since word has gotten back to Jet that the remaining population of Makapu is coming to the forest, Skillet has the entire kitchen staff double-timing to prepare food for the refugees, and Pestle and Spatula don't get to see each other until right before the final battle. Spatula spends much of his time reflecting on how he and Pestle got to where they are today. I'd written a complete script for the scene:

[underlined bits are internal monologue]
Scene: Skillet's kitchen. It has been two days since Pestle led the reinforcements to Makapu; Spatula, wrought with worry for Pestle's well-being, has been spending most of his free time working, either with the unarmed combat classes or cooking.

Spatula: [slaving over some kind of foodstuffs at an oven, sweating, obviously tired from lack of sleep] It's hard to believe how hard we had to work to get where we are now.

Spatula: [flashback to a battle in Omashu (five years ago); Spatula, burnt, lying on the ground, being abandoned by Pestle] She couldn't have despised me more; it wasn't anything I'd done, of course, but she had a terrible Jet complex - I was Fire Nation and that's all the excuse she needed.

Spatula: [flashback of Pestle standing on the bank of the river, talking to Spatula - clearly flustered and saying something she's really having trouble admitting] But with time, patience, and cookies, we managed to close the gap. I mean - yeah, there were bumps in the road, but we stuck it out, always helping cover each others' weaknesses, absolving each others' baggage.

[The next several panels are contemporary; sometimes Pestula!fluff (I.E., Pestle teasing Spatula, probably one panel of her giving him a noogie), sometimes more serious - and near the end are scenes from the fight in Makapu.]

Spatula: It had started as a personal mission; somewhere along the line, I'd met that goal and surpassed it, the exact where-and-when lost to time and emotion. I hate thinking about the 'what could have been's, or 'what if's. You don't get any resolution from that. But she's out there, in danger, and I'm stuck here with my hands bound; I just - I want to be there, to be with her, to fight alongside her, and I... [back in the kitchen, eyes go wide as he is struck by an epiphany]

Spatula: [returning to work on the meal] You better come home, Pest...

- - -

7// Meanwhile, Aunt Wu's village is barely holding up, so Sneers decides it's best to evacuate to the Hideout. The Freedom Fighters, Earthbenders, and combat-ready Makapans risk their lives to get all of the people out of the town, which is demolished soon after.

- - -

8// Smellerbee steers Bingo and finds a secluded town as quickly as possible, drags Longshot by his arm slung over her shoulder, and practically kicks down the door to a bath-house/spa that is just closing down for the night. Kon Chung (DoodleBuggy's self-insert - because if Red-Eye, Skillet and Poi Poi are in already, ignoring Kon Chung would just be rude) runs the bathhouse and goes to get the local doctor for them. Longshot, however, still won't wake up and is breathing shallower and shallower. The workers call in the village water-bender/healer; although he attempts to heal Longshot by withdrawing the poison, he discovers that there is no poison, and he simply passed out from exhaustion, from not having slept for several days (while following and scrutinizing the tank for moments of vulnerability). The only thing the doctor can suggest is to let Longshot sleep - which he does, for three days straight. While Longshot is out cold, Smellerbee writes home to Jet, telling him that they made it out alive, they hope he was able to warn the targeted villages in time, and that they'll need a few days to 'recuperate' before they head back. Bee then goes to check on LS who is still unconscious, but finally breathing alright, and unknowingly enjoying a complementary hair-combing on the behalf of Kon Chung's staff. Bee even takes over for one of the combers for a while.

- - -

9// While Longshot sleeps, Smellerbee catches up on all of the letters he'd sent her while in the Fire Nation; when Longshot wakes up, he finds Smellerbee wearing her war paint, squeeing over him; she's married to the only non-Fire Nation Yuu Yan archer! The pair finally give into the pent-up sexual frustration that had been building up over the past three months, which starts with a passionate kiss (the first Smellershot kiss in the story!).

- - -

10 // Bee also discovers that the doctor is actually Nikko - the son of Kamome, who saved Jet's life in the original PFF. He had since been inspired to become a wandering healer, and chooses to return to Hong Ye with Bee and Longshot. They decide to name him 1-Up, due to his role in giving Jet an 'extra life.' 1-Up chooses to follow the two Freedom Fighters as they make towards the forest.

- - -

11// Bishamonten returns to the destroyed tank. The tank division had been lead by a blue and green demon, while the division that eventually attacked Makapu had been led by a red and orange demon. A rough script:

Blue/Green demon officer is summoned to Bishamonten's quarters in the tank, only to find the remains of his Red/Orange brother (who failed at Makapu) scattered across the floor of the dark room. Blue/Green is suddenly snatched up by the neck and thrust against the metal wall, Bishamonten slowly crushing his neck.
Bish: (calmly): "Your failure has cost me more than you are worth."
Blue/Green: (straining to speak) "...the archer...he came...released the woman...together they...we couldn't..."
Bish: "Are you suggesting that all the artillery and every demon on this vessel were no match for a pair of mortals? (laughs) You have earned your death." (squeezes harder)
B/G: "Kill me then...but for the benefit of your...conquest I... must tell you....you have greatly underestimated these people!"
Bishamonten is thinks on this for a moment, then releases B/G, letting him fall to the floor, sputtering and coughing. Bish then grabs B/G by his left horn.
Bish: "You may live to redeem yourself, but fail me again and you will join your brother."
With that, Bish breaks B/G's horn and leaves.

- - -

12// It's here that we learn the shocking truth of Bishamonten's origins, and find out why he'd captured Smellerbee back in Chapter 2:

Scene: Following Bish's departure from the chamber with his demon subjects.

Bish: [some subject coming before this, yadda yadda, nothing fancy, leading into:] ...And then the woman from the forest. I knew she was from there - from my birthplace. The scent of sweet things - disgusting, a mark of feigned innocence and childlike demeanor - she reeked of it, but the foul stench was not so much as to obscure the acrid tang of sin, of bloodshed, of murder. She was identical to the others we had taken from that place, she was strong in body...she would have made a perfect soldier, if not for her fortified will. She would have truly won this battle in my name.

In Where Words Fail I once stated how Hong Ye forest could have close ties to the Spirit World due to the natural and physical impossibility of the leaves staying red all year round (remember, 'Jet' takes place in either winter or spring). I associate it to Yue's hair - nobody in Avatar has unnatural hair, just brown, black, gray and white depending on age. Yue is the only exception - a young girl with silver hair, who carries part of the Moon Spirit's life in her. So, what is the significance of Hong Ye's leaves being red? We know that Bish was born from the first act of human malice, and we have no answer as to why his interest focuses around Jet and the Freedom Fighters. So...what if that first act of malice happened on the grounds where Hong Ye stands today? Murder - bloodshed, the blood sinking into the ground and making a forest emerge with leaves of the same color, leaves that never change regardless of season, a perpetual reminder of the sin that took place. Like the Spirit Oasis in the North Pole, Hong Ye could be closely tied to the Spirit World on this basis.

This lent itself to some awesome of the foreshadowing we set up. Alongside The Duke (Chapter 2) and Spatula (Chapter 3), Pestle, 1-Up and any other Benders/receptive non-Benders we came up with would have felt the oppressive, pending numbness onset by Bishamonten's presence in the human world and the Spiritual connection he has to Hong Ye.

- - -

13// After LS rescues SB and they're on their way home they stop at a few inns. One night Bee seems a little longing as she looks across the courtyard from the porch connected to their room. LS squats down beside her and gives her the 'what's troubling you? Look'. She tries to brush it off as nothing but he sits down, indicating he will not be denied. SB finally says,
"It's my parents . . . I didn't get to honor them long enough before I was taken."
"They'll understand," LS assured.
"I know but . . ." she says rather unbelieving and looks across the porch.
"Bee, I think our parents are honored most by how we live, what we do. I remember my father when I practice the bow and my mother when I eat a warm bowl of soba. I have nothing else to remember them by, but they are in everything I do just because I was their son."
SB listens, thinking on his words.
He goes on, "I think your tribute to them is most honoring and I wish I could do the same . . . but don't think that's all you have to give them." SB smiles understandingly and says,
"Tell me more about them."
LS smiles back and gets more comfortable.

Description
~Chapter 8 ~

- - -

1// Longshot is awakened by a deep rumbling in the earth. Dark smoke clouds billow overhead, so he takes off in search of its source. He comes to the edge of the woodlands and is shocked by what he sees.

- - -

2// An army of war tanks being led by a larger tank the size of a palace plows over a gassy plain, headed westward. There is no symbol on the hull telling what nation it was made in.

- - -

3// Longshot runs back to his campsite and packs everything up, and preparing for the worst, rides off towards the massive tank. Something told him, that's where Smellerbee was. He follows the tanks for several days, studying their defenses from afar, and waiting for the right moment to try and board it without being seen.

- - -

4// Pipsqueak has a precognitive nightmare. We had the entire sequence mapped out and of everything that we couldn't get done, I think this is the one I'll regret the most:

(This is symbolism and foreshadowing pure and simple.)

Pipsqueak falls into a deep sleep one night and finds himself in a dark void, lit by hundreds of fire-flies and a full moon above. Then his dream really begins (in the style of traditional Japanese 'Noh' plays with very stylized environments, costumes and masks). Two little servant girls with the typical oval-faced mask appear, smiling and helping Pipsqueak to a seat on a fancy cushion. He gets comfortable and waits excitedly as a stage curtain appears before him.

The curtain opens and the first scene begins…

A shadowy figure stalks through a bamboo thicket beside a pond. The characters' mask looks like Smellerbee with her serious hunting face, sword drawn, yet she also looks like a tiger in a way. Another character, with a mask that resembles Longshot's concerned face, appears and startles Smellerbee, who coils back like a threatened animal. But Longshot catches her up and she squirms only for a moment before settling comfortably in his arms. Her mask looks less like a tiger and more loving. He carries her down to the water and they ride on a turtle's back across the pond (foreshadowing the name of their first son, Turtle).

The curtain closes and opens again on the second scene…

A character with a mask that looks like The Duke sits high on a mountain side, almost in the clouds, but he appears very bored and lonely. A Meng-like character appears and sits beneath him, playing a small flute. The music notes pour out of the flute on a stream of music lines, floating up through the air towards the Duke. As soon as the music enters one ear, he smiles. The music comes out of his other ear, and the lines become the stream that carries the notes up to the sky, exploding like fireworks.

The curtain closes and opens again on the third scene…

A grouchy Sneers-like character sits in a large library with a fire place behind, reading diligently. A pig-tailed character that looks very much like Skillet, tip-toes behind him as he reads. She taps him on the opposite shoulder, and as he turns to look, she takes the book from him, becomes small, and climbs inside it. Sneers aggravatingly turns back around just in time to see the book close. He picks it up and looks inside. A smile slowly creeps across Sneers' face. He sees Skillet on the page.

The curtain closes and opens again on the fourth scene…

A block of ice rests in the center of the stage; frozen inside is a Pestle-like character. A character wearing a mask that looks like Spatula walks over to the block of ice and hugs it; the ice melts away, leaving Pestle freed, and she returns Spatula's hug.

The curtain closes and a very Jet-like character with shining armor appears from above the curtain. He smirks and throws a hook-sword down to the ground, which sticks and begins to sprout like a tree. It grows taller and taller until the branches appear above all the previous scenes…

Longshot picks a peach off of the branch and gives it to Smellerbee (symbolizing a son), The Duke takes a stick off the branch that turns into a flute and he plays along with Meng, Sneers plucks a feather from a bird in the branches, dips it in ink, and writes himself into the book next to Skillet, and Spatula and Pestle begin to dance. Jet stands above proudly smiling and Pipsqueak delightedly applauds at it all.

But everything suddenly becomes very dim and still. Pipsqueak looks up to see that the full moon is no longer a moon, but the eye of a dragon (resembling the demon that kidnapped Smellerbee - not like Pipsqueak knows about it at the time - but with a traditional Chinese dragon body). The dragon rushes down toward Jet who is oblivious and Pipsqueak tries desperately to warn him, but the dragon coils around Jet like a snake, raising its head to strike at the back of his head.

Jet struggles to free himself as all the other scenes begin to fall apart…

Smellerbee is snatched away from Longshot by a dark cloud and the peach falls into the water. Meng's music flows into the Duke's ear, but only the lines come out the other ear, entangling him. Sneers goes to turn the page but gets a nasty paper cut, and in a rage, throws the book into the fireplace. Spatula trips, falls, disappears into a cloud of smoke - leaving Pestle alone, and she begins to shiver and freeze over again. Pipsqueak can only watch in horror as the tree withers and the dragon finally strikes Jet in the back of the head, making his mask resemble Bee's kidnapper.

Pipsqueak jolts awake. Realizing it was just a dream, he tries to calm himself down. Sneers and The Duke sleep peacefully on their beds, but Pipsqueak has a hard time falling back asleep.

- - -

5// Meanwhile Sneers is trying to communicate with the village girls but none of them get his political jokes. He's the one keeping the other two in line; The Duke with his 'Meng distraction,' as he keeps going to get his 'fortune told,' and Pipsqueak with his incredible ability of opening eateries completely by accident. (Pipsqueak cooks one meal for someone out of shear courtesy, they blab it to the rest of the town, and soon Pipsqueak is taking orders and filling culture-starved appetites!)
~Sneers finally confronts the two of them…
Sneers: "Pipsqueak, I don't know how, but everywhere we get stationed, new restaurants pop up. Why is that?"
Pipsqueak: "I guess my food is just…I dunno…popular?"
S: "Hmm…popular. You know, every time we leave a town, so does your cooking. You give people something good then take it away. How does that make you feel?"
P: "…bad…"
S: "SO QUIT IT!"
P: "I can't help it! It just keeps happening! I think it's my calling!"
Duke: (snerk)
S: "And YOU." [Points at the Duke.] "You need to quit wasting time with that fortune teller girl, you'll blow our cover."
D: "Uh…"
S: "You…you didn't tell her we were Freedom Fighters DID YOU?"
D: "Me? N-no! I mean…she knows…but hey! She's a fortune teller!"
S: "Yea, a lousy one."
D: "Hey! Meng is NOT lousy. She likes my ears AND blowing stuff up. That's the winning combination right there!"
S: "You've lost your mind."
D: "Oh come on, she's not going to tell anybody."
S: (evil smirk) "No…she knows too much, I'll have to kill her."
D: "FUH-NEE."
~While Sneers is at Aunt Wu's village, Skillet asks him to pick up a book for her. (could be The Fall of the Blue Spirit) Out of curiosity he starts reading it every night before bed. The Duke notices this and asks,
"Whatcha reading?"
Sneers just grumbles.
"Looks like a romance novel," the Duke taunts him playfully.
"It's just a book Skillet asked me to get."
"But why are you reading it?"
"I paid for it. I might as well."
"Why did you pay for it?"
"GAH! Look, I get books for Skillet, she cooks me special orders for dinner. Any more questions?"
"Yeah. . . why are you blushing?"
Sneers then feeds the Duke a pillow.

- - -

6// While Sneers is at Aunt Wu's village, Skillet asks him to pick up a book for her, called Tales of the Spirit World. Out of curiosity, he starts reading it every night before bed; The Duke notices this and asks,
"Whatcha reading?"
Sneers just grumbles.
"Looks like a romance novel," the Duke taunts him playfully.
"It's just a book Skillet asked me to get."
"But why are you reading it?"
"I paid for it. I might as well."
"Why did you pay for it?"
"GAH! Look, I get books for Skillet, she cooks me special orders for dinner. Any more questions?"
"Yeah. . . why are you blushing?"
Sneers then feeds the Duke a pillow.

- - -

7// Currently, we have the classic love/hate relationship of Snillet. Skillet appears to be more aware of this than Sneers is (no surprise there) but that will change when he gets to Makapu, for the simple reason that "absence makes the heart grow fonder." He's suddenly surrounded by a small hoard of muscle-deprived ladies that think Sneers is the hottest thing since fire flakes were invented, and yet none of them have the intellect to match him in a debate. So when Sneers makes a good political point or historical joke, the Makapu ladies are like "lolwut?" and Sneers reluctantly finds himself thinking "Skillet would have got that. Skillet would have ROTFLMAOed at that." He finds himself thinking about her a lot more than usual. This train of thought leads him to buying not just the book, but also hair bobbles, and this sudden behavior causes him to realize "&%$@# I love her don't I?" BUT this isn't really a true personality change, just a realization of sorts. It helps to humble him a bit, since Sneers' defining character feature is pride, and surrendering pride is almost mandatory when it comes to love. So Sneers is torn to say the least. Luckily he has a mission to keep his mind occupied, and does his best to focus on that instead.

- - -

8// Sneers does some research in regards to similar instances of spiritual matters, and discovers a book written by Kuei (the former Earth King, who had settled into Makapu after failing to return to Ba Sing Se) and illustrated by a woman named Poi Poi, who certainly bears no resemblance to the comic's creator, nosiree bob. The book tells the story of the origin of the demon Bishamonten - the monster that kidnapped Smellerbee. Sneers feels a slight chill after reading it.

He goes to visit Kuei, hoping to get some answers; Sneers figures they were just stories, and tries to dismiss the idea that maybe the threat is of another realm besides the four nations. Little does he know that he's absolutely right, but just can't quite grasp the idea fully… until it's standing right in front of him.

Here's a short "passage" from the book documenting Bishamonten's history, written by Sio:
"One of the youngest of the spirits, Bishamonten was born from the first act of malice between humans. In the beginning, he was nothing more than a starved animal, feeding off the hatred among people. The more the humans fought, the stronger he became, but physical strength is all he could acquire."
"The other spirits looked down at him and scoffed, saying he had only the mind of a beast, unable to even speak for himself. Enraged, Bishamonten attacked his ridiculers, easily over-powering and devouring them. By doing this, he obtained the knowledge of the other spirits, no longer just an animal. He continued to terrorize the weaker spirits, eating one after another until his mind equaled his body, brilliant in tactics and persuasion."
"No longer needing the spirits, he returned his focus to the humans, and how to keep them warring enough to sustain his body. He brings good fortune to all warmongers, giving the world's riches to all who heed his voice, and fight in his name."

- - -

9// For the first time, we see Bishamonten as a character, and not just a looming shadow or a myth. He plans to make a round trip through the spirit world, hitting up familiar Spirits such as Wan Shi Tong and Hei Bai, to see if they will "side with him," for dastardly plots not yet revealed...

A short script:
Wan Shi Tong is reading peacefully in his still very messy library back in the spirit world. Suddenly, the fox knowledge-seekers burst out from the small 'dog-doors' beside the main door, whining and frantically trying to get away from something. The main doors fly open with a huge thud, startling Tong.
(He puffs up and says rather timidly, "Who?") 
Bishamonten steps through the doors (this is probably the first time the readers will see him in full, but he is not fully decked out in all of his armor yet) and peers around the corner to where Tong is reading.
WST: "B-Bishamonten, what do you want?"
BSH: "Don't worry; I'm not here for trouble; rather, to enlist you. [Evil grin]
WST: "I know all about your attacks on the humans. I'll have no part of it."
BSH: [his smile fades to a calm frown and he looks around casually] "What happened to your library? This will take centuries to re-organize and [sniffs] is that a human stench I smell?" [Evil grin returns]
WST: "Sly words will not work on me."
BSH: "Fine then…I have other methods of persuasion, though I'd rather not fill my mind with nonsense by devouring you." [Animalistic sneer]
WST: [Sweat-drop] "Very well, you have my services. Destroy the humans if you wish, but what will that accomplish?"
BSH: "I do not intend on destroying them completely…why should I when they're perfectly capable of destroying themselves?" [Freaky face, then he leaves]

Later on, after Bish has gone, Won Shi Tong sits in the planetarium room, staring at the mechanical eclipse, still left on the ceiling above. Professor Zei, (who has become Tong's assistant/book-keeper and somewhat of a little spirit himself ever since the library was moved back to the spirit world) walks in to find Wan Shi Tong, looking rather distraught.
Zei: "Well, it took ten years, but the East Wing is finally re-organized!"
WST: "Thank you, Zei."
Zei: "Is something wrong great spirit?"
WST: "There are…troublesome circumstances. I can't explain it to you now."
Zei: "Oh…well I am sure you will see through it, whatever it is. I'm going to get a head start on the West Wing now." [Happily scuttles away to the books]
Won Shi Tong realizes then that he cannot take sides against the humans. He will betray Bishamonten in the end.

- - -

10// Meng is having a panic attack as the white-haired man who used to work for Aunt Wu (I named him Baifa Shi) is coming from a different town to check on Meng's progress as a fortune teller. The Duke offers to take her out to explode things once more, and when she turns him down, he then volunteers to be her palm-reading subject. During this, The Duke moves in all romantic-like to kiss Meng, but she pushes him away to do more studying. At last, Meng gives in and gets glompy-smoochy with The Duke.

- - -

11// We now cut to the burnt-down remains of a village. Red-Eye, on his ostrich horse, has been making a point of visiting these decimated sites to try and puzzle together what, exactly, is responsible for the attacks. There, he finds a single survivor: Song, the girl with the burnt leg, from whom Zuko and Iroh stole her ostrich horse waaay back in Book 2 of the show.

Song had met a Freedom Fighter stationed in the village; the two had become friendly (romantic or otherwise), and said FF mentioned Jet and Hong Ye to her, amongst other things. When Song returns to find her village decimated, she decides to set out and find the hideout...but has no idea where to go, because the FF never told her where it was located. Enter Red-Eye: after a brief conversation, the recon Freedom Fighter agrees to take Song to the forest.

- - -

12// That night Sneers goes outside to…well, pee…and spots one a strange figure rummaging around. He follows it stealthily up the volcano (now dormant) and discovers a squad camped out and hidden right on the other side of the rock formations that Aang created when he cooled the lava rapidly.

Despite his best efforts to be sneaky, he gets spotted, and the squad attacks. (They were originally just going to hide out there and steal supplies until their commander in the giant tank gave word to move). Sneers manages to escape, but the squad turns its focus to Makapu as a whole; countless hordes of people start washing down over Makapu, forcing the three Freedom Fighters, and every able-bodied man and woman in the village, to stand and fight.

- - -

13// During the battle, Sneers realizes that he could never see Skillet again, and boom, broken: he finally and fully admits that he's in love with her. Snillet fans, rejoice!

- - -

~Chapter 9~

This chapter returns to Longshot, and takes place a few days preceding the attack on Makapu.

- - -

1// Longshot seizes the best opportune moment to board the tank, using the utmost stealth to search for a prison hold.

Ladies and gentleman...the scene you've all been waiting for, as written by Sio:

Longshot's back brushes silently along a cold metal wall, an arrow knocked in his bow pointed down for mobility, ready to spring up and shoot at a moment's notice. His shoulder blade comes to the end of the wall, and the beginning of a dark cell, reinforced by two more rows of bars inside. He squints into the darkness, trying to detect any form or movement.
Suddenly, he hears rustling of chains. A pair of small, bruised hands grips the inner bars from out of the shadows, and Smellerbee's face appears between them. Her face is scratched and bruised, her expression distant and lost.
"Well if it isn't Longshot hallucination number three," she mutters with a smirk.
Longshot, in shock, drops his weapon and grips the outer bars, pushing his face in as far as he can without getting stuck.
"Bee! It's me!" he whispers excitedly.
"I prefer Longshot hallucination number two…he wears less clothes. You are the more accurate one though, I'll give you that," Bee continues, unmoved.
Longshot just gapes at her in disbelief. She had lost her mind, and now thinks he is a figment of her imagination.
"Well, at least you're not the Longshot hallucination with the lemur head, his singing voice bugs me," Bee went on.
"No, Bee! It's really me!" he whispers pleadingly, sticking his arm through the first two rows of bars, reaching for her face, but coming about 5 inches short. Bee just stares at his outstretched hand, and her face saddens.
"You are all so cruel to me," she mutters solemnly, then backs away into the darkness of the cell.
"BEE!" Longshot finally yells, not caring if he is heard.
"Leave me alone number three," she replies, curling up like a dog in the back corner, and says no more.
A surge of adrenaline suddenly overtakes Longshot; he rips the hardwood club that Sneers had lent him off his belt and raises it in the air to strike. With a roar, he brings the club down upon the massive lock that binds the first set of bars, shattering it into pieces that clang loudly on the floor. The sound resonates throughout the tank, gaining the attention of the entire crew. Longshot then rips the first door of its hinges, then readies to strike the second lock. Smellerbee sits back up, confusedly staring at her hallucination, bashing his way through to her. Either, this time he was real…or she had really lost it now.
As Longshot bashes open the last lock, a platoon of masked figures crowd the hallway outside the cell, aiming what appear to be small crossbows at him. Their attire is just like the tank, dark, efficient, and with no indication as to what nation it belongs. Only a white circle marks their foreheads. Finally, ripping away the last bar door, Longshot storms over to Bee, busts the chains that bind her to the wall, drops the club, then drops to his knees, clinging to her for dear life. For several minutes they do not move, nor do their enemies. Longshot peers over his shoulder at them with intense anger, and Bee looks up at his face. Suddenly, she is back in reality, and a Freedom Fighter at that.
"Unless there's armor beneath those robes, they look like easy targets," she whispers into Longshot's ear.
"Smoke bombs, right pocket," he whispers back.
"But they'll fire-"
"Now."
In an instant, the entire cell and hallway is filled with smoke, and the dark soldiers stumble back, firing their weapons in all directions. After some fumbling about, the two Freedom Fighters appear from out of the smoke, slashing at their foes with arrows from Longshot's quiver. Quickly defeating the under-experienced soldiers, Longshot takes off the way he came, but Bee begins to drag him in the opposite direction.
"Come on, I'm not leaving without my swords!" she demands, and Longshot, just happy to see her acting normal, complies.
The two of them disappear around the corner.

- - -

2// While LS and SB are escaping from Bish's tank, they stumble across Bish's chamber wherein lie the plans and itineraries for the next attacks (however, they don't find out who is in charge of the operation until later since they're only worried about getting out alive at this point). They find that Makapu village is the next target. LS freaks out because he knows that that's where Sneers, The Duke and Pipsqueak are. Unfortunately, word doesn't reach them in time to prepare for Bish's small attack squad that's hidden behind the rocks. Word does reach Jet though, so he is able to send them back-up before they are completely destroyed.

- - -

3// The two fight their way out, taking some damage, but still strong. As they jump out the bottom of the tank, Longshot lights all the explosives the Duke gave him and tosses them back up inside, destroying the inner mechanisms. They escape on Bingo fast enough not to get caught but Longshot gets shot in the arm with a crossbow bolt. Longshot's breathing becomes irregular and he passes out sitting up behind Bee, leading the latter to believe it was poisoned.

- - -

4// Jet gets the message from Smellerbee that the next target for a demon attack is indeed Makapu, confirming his earlier suspicions. Jet gets down to action immediately, and orders Pestle to lead most of the Earthbenders on loan and some other Freedom Fighters to rush to Makapu. In order to speed up the trip, Pestle and the Earthbenders will create a earth trolleys and use their bending to push it along the ground (think like the trains in Ba Sing Se, only open-aired).

- - -

5// Spatula insists on going with Pestle's team; Jet, however, orders him to stay behind in case something attacks the forest. Spatula gets indignant and actually starts verbally attacking Jet, going so far as to grab the man by his collar and looking very close to actually punching him. Spatula, who we've already established is aware of the one-sided tension between himself and Jet, becomes hot-headed enough to mistake this action for another display of anti-Fire Nation racism (a misconception on two different fronts). The stress of not being able to go with Pestle finally gets makes him crack and he chews Jet out for his attitude towards him. Jet cuts him short before he says/does something he might actually regret, explaining how it's not about his hate of the Fire Nation and if the circumstances were any different, then yeah, he probably would send Spatula away. But with Sneers and Pipsqueak gone, Spatula is the heaviest hitter the Freedom Fighters have left, and if the forest comes under fire, he'd rather have Spatula around to help deal with the problem. (Spatula, so caught up in himself, failed to see this. While Jet's tolerance of Spatula is strenuous at best, the man has enough faith in Spatula to not think that poorly of him.)

Jet defuses the situation the only way he knows how, of course; he glares at Spatula once the man draws back his fist and says, "Are you really sure you want to hit me, Spatula?" The implied dual connotation is that A// Jet would not hesitate to kick Spatula's ass if provoked, and B// it would be a damn shame if all the hard work Spatula had put into proving his point about the Fire Nation being 100% rotten went down the toilet because of his descent into hypocrisy.

So, Pestle spends the next few days on the road and defending Makapu, serving as a field commander once Sneers enters the picture.

- - -

6// Since word has gotten back to Jet that the remaining population of Makapu is coming to the forest, Skillet has the entire kitchen staff double-timing to prepare food for the refugees, and Pestle and Spatula don't get to see each other until right before the final battle. Spatula spends much of his time reflecting on how he and Pestle got to where they are today. I'd written a complete script for the scene:

[underlined bits are internal monologue]
Scene: Skillet's kitchen. It has been two days since Pestle led the reinforcements to Makapu; Spatula, wrought with worry for Pestle's well-being, has been spending most of his free time working, either with the unarmed combat classes or cooking.

Spatula: [slaving over some kind of foodstuffs at an oven, sweating, obviously tired from lack of sleep] It's hard to believe how hard we had to work to get where we are now.

Spatula: [flashback to a battle in Omashu (five years ago); Spatula, burnt, lying on the ground, being abandoned by Pestle] She couldn't have despised me more; it wasn't anything I'd done, of course, but she had a terrible Jet complex - I was Fire Nation and that's all the excuse she needed.

Spatula: [flashback of Pestle standing on the bank of the river, talking to Spatula - clearly flustered and saying something she's really having trouble admitting] But with time, patience, and cookies, we managed to close the gap. I mean - yeah, there were bumps in the road, but we stuck it out, always helping cover each others' weaknesses, absolving each others' baggage.

[The next several panels are contemporary; sometimes Pestula!fluff (I.E., Pestle teasing Spatula, probably one panel of her giving him a noogie), sometimes more serious - and near the end are scenes from the fight in Makapu.]

Spatula: It had started as a personal mission; somewhere along the line, I'd met that goal and surpassed it, the exact where-and-when lost to time and emotion. I hate thinking about the 'what could have been's, or 'what if's. You don't get any resolution from that. But she's out there, in danger, and I'm stuck here with my hands bound; I just - I want to be there, to be with her, to fight alongside her, and I... [back in the kitchen, eyes go wide as he is struck by an epiphany]

Spatula: [returning to work on the meal] You better come home, Pest...

- - -

7// Meanwhile, Aunt Wu's village is barely holding up, so Sneers decides it's best to evacuate to the Hideout. The Freedom Fighters, Earthbenders, and combat-ready Makapans risk their lives to get all of the people out of the town, which is demolished soon after.

- - -

8// Smellerbee steers Bingo and finds a secluded town as quickly as possible, drags Longshot by his arm slung over her shoulder, and practically kicks down the door to a bath-house/spa that is just closing down for the night. Kon Chung (DoodleBuggy's self-insert - because if Red-Eye, Skillet and Poi Poi are in already, ignoring Kon Chung would just be rude) runs the bathhouse and goes to get the local doctor for them. Longshot, however, still won't wake up and is breathing shallower and shallower. The workers call in the village water-bender/healer; although he attempts to heal Longshot by withdrawing the poison, he discovers that there is no poison, and he simply passed out from exhaustion, from not having slept for several days (while following and scrutinizing the tank for moments of vulnerability). The only thing the doctor can suggest is to let Longshot sleep - which he does, for three days straight. While Longshot is out cold, Smellerbee writes home to Jet, telling him that they made it out alive, they hope he was able to warn the targeted villages in time, and that they'll need a few days to 'recuperate' before they head back. Bee then goes to check on LS who is still unconscious, but finally breathing alright, and unknowingly enjoying a complementary hair-combing on the behalf of Kon Chung's staff. Bee even takes over for one of the combers for a while.

- - -

9// While Longshot sleeps, Smellerbee catches up on all of the letters he'd sent her while in the Fire Nation; when Longshot wakes up, he finds Smellerbee wearing her war paint, squeeing over him; she's married to the only non-Fire Nation Yuu Yan archer! The pair finally give into the pent-up sexual frustration that had been building up over the past three months, which starts with a passionate kiss (the first Smellershot kiss in the story!).

- - -

10 // Bee also discovers that the doctor is actually Nikko - the son of Kamome, who saved Jet's life in the original PFF. He had since been inspired to become a wandering healer, and chooses to return to Hong Ye with Bee and Longshot. They decide to name him 1-Up, due to his role in giving Jet an 'extra life.' 1-Up chooses to follow the two Freedom Fighters as they make towards the forest.

- - -

11// Bishamonten returns to the destroyed tank. The tank division had been lead by a blue and green demon, while the division that eventually attacked Makapu had been led by a red and orange demon. A rough script:

Blue/Green demon officer is summoned to Bishamonten's quarters in the tank, only to find the remains of his Red/Orange brother (who failed at Makapu) scattered across the floor of the dark room. Blue/Green is suddenly snatched up by the neck and thrust against the metal wall, Bishamonten slowly crushing his neck.
Bish: (calmly): "Your failure has cost me more than you are worth."
Blue/Green: (straining to speak) "...the archer...he came...released the woman...together they...we couldn't..."
Bish: "Are you suggesting that all the artillery and every demon on this vessel were no match for a pair of mortals? (laughs) You have earned your death." (squeezes harder)
B/G: "Kill me then...but for the benefit of your...conquest I... must tell you....you have greatly underestimated these people!"
Bishamonten is thinks on this for a moment, then releases B/G, letting him fall to the floor, sputtering and coughing. Bish then grabs B/G by his left horn.
Bish: "You may live to redeem yourself, but fail me again and you will join your brother."
With that, Bish breaks B/G's horn and leaves.

- - -

12// It's here that we learn the shocking truth of Bishamonten's origins, and find out why he'd captured Smellerbee back in Chapter 2:

Scene: Following Bish's departure from the chamber with his demon subjects.

Bish: [some subject coming before this, yadda yadda, nothing fancy, leading into:] ...And then the woman from the forest. I knew she was from there - from my birthplace. The scent of sweet things - disgusting, a mark of feigned innocence and childlike demeanor - she reeked of it, but the foul stench was not so much as to obscure the acrid tang of sin, of bloodshed, of murder. She was identical to the others we had taken from that place, she was strong in body...she would have made a perfect soldier, if not for her fortified will. She would have truly won this battle in my name.

In Where Words Fail I once stated how Hong Ye forest could have close ties to the Spirit World due to the natural and physical impossibility of the leaves staying red all year round (remember, 'Jet' takes place in either winter or spring). I associate it to Yue's hair - nobody in Avatar has unnatural hair, just brown, black, gray and white depending on age. Yue is the only exception - a young girl with silver hair, who carries part of the Moon Spirit's life in her. So, what is the significance of Hong Ye's leaves being red? We know that Bish was born from the first act of human malice, and we have no answer as to why his interest focuses around Jet and the Freedom Fighters. So...what if that first act of malice happened on the grounds where Hong Ye stands today? Murder - bloodshed, the blood sinking into the ground and making a forest emerge with leaves of the same color, leaves that never change regardless of season, a perpetual reminder of the sin that took place. Like the Spirit Oasis in the North Pole, Hong Ye could be closely tied to the Spirit World on this basis.

This lent itself to some awesome of the foreshadowing we set up. Alongside The Duke (Chapter 2) and Spatula (Chapter 3), Pestle, 1-Up and any other Benders/receptive non-Benders we came up with would have felt the oppressive, pending numbness onset by Bishamonten's presence in the human world and the Spiritual connection he has to Hong Ye.

- - -

13// After LS rescues SB and they're on their way home they stop at a few inns. One night Bee seems a little longing as she looks across the courtyard from the porch connected to their room. LS squats down beside her and gives her the 'what's troubling you? Look'. She tries to brush it off as nothing but he sits down, indicating he will not be denied. SB finally says,
"It's my parents . . . I didn't get to honor them long enough before I was taken."
"They'll understand," LS assured.
"I know but . . ." she says rather unbelieving and looks across the porch.
"Bee, I think our parents are honored most by how we live, what we do. I remember my father when I practice the bow and my mother when I eat a warm bowl of soba. I have nothing else to remember them by, but they are in everything I do just because I was their son."
SB listens, thinking on his words.
He goes on, "I think your tribute to them is most honoring and I wish I could do the same . . . but don't think that's all you have to give them." SB smiles understandingly and says,
"Tell me more about them."
LS smiles back and gets more comfortable.