~*~

I blasted fire to the group of bounty hunters, which sent me flying backwards.

I landed on my back harshly. The knife was still impaled in my shoulder. I couldn't move, nor breathe.

I wanted to get up and help, but my breath was extremely short, due to the harsh landing on my back.

One of the bounty hunters picked me up. I grabbed the knife in my shoulder, pulled it out and stab it into his neck. I went down with him and once again crashed to the floor.

The boys were fighting off the bounty hunters.

I crawled to get near the sink in the kitchen, trying to force water out of the tap. I needed to heal. The blood won't stop pouring out of my shoulder.

Then I felt a pressure on the wound. A foot pressing down on it to the floor. I screamed in pain.

"This time, you won't be going anywhere." 

I looked up and found the light grey eyed man with crooked nose looking down on me.

I recognized him. He was the man who commanded a group of bounty hunters to capture me in the woods before.

Despite the pain, I still tried to extract water for the tap. It finally got out and the first thing I did was send it to the man's face in full speed. But I changed it into 5 small, pointy ice before it landed on him. They went through the man's head. The claws of ice then pricked into the wall. The man collapsed to the ground.

I flipped my body and tried to change the ice into water again. Then I placed it on my shoulder.

After it stung, it healed up completely then I got up.

"Xiaojun! Duck!" I exclaimed.

As soon as I knew Xiaojun heard me I spun my body as the water came at the hooded man in full speed, blasting him off to the wall that broke, sending him down off the building.

I concentrated a blue fire ball between my palms and as the fire was spinning I threw it to another hooded man who was fighting Taeyong.

Then the guys helped the rest and after they successfully put every single one of the hooded men down we dashed out of the flat together.

"Jump!" Jaehyun exclaimed.

We all jumped over the railing and the gravity pulled us down fast. It felt like my stomach was going up, wanting to escape out of my mouth.

I reacted quickly. Before my head could hit the ground, I got my feet facing the earth and blast a fire jet, making me bounce up to the air again. And then before I could blast another fire to the ground I already landed sliding through the harsh and hot concrete.

The harsh impact made my breath short again but I got up immediately, my body shaking. It was so hard to get up.

Hendery lifted me up of the ground to be on my feet and pulled me to run with him.

I looked around for Yuta.

He was still feeling unwell. Did he survive the fall?? Did someone help him??

Jaehyun turned left abruptly into a narrow alley and we followed. We all stopped, catching our breaths.

I found Yuta who was sitting on the ground, panting like crazy.

I ran to him and got down on my knees to be on his eye level. "Are you okay?? Are you hurt anywhere??"

"I'm fine," he replied in a weak manner.

"We cannot stay here any longer. The gods, they know we are here." Xiaojun said.

"I am not leaving until I find Hwasa!" I said.

"They will hunt us down! Yuta and I would probably face fate worse than death." He snapped back, "we have betrayed our own fathers. We have to find another way to contact Hwasa—"

"Then why??? Why did you help me?? Why sacrifice everything just for me?" I gave them all a look, "You can hand me in and a whole nation will be free— the whole bending world will be free of the dark witch's threat." I said to Jaehyun. "You shouldn't have thought about sacrificing an entire nation for me, a person out of millions," I said to Hendery. "You," I said to Ten and Mark, "you shouldn't have helped me, now your own nations are at risk." I then faced Xiaojun, "why are you betraying your father? What's in it for you— I just don't understand because none of your actions make sense," And finally, I faced Taeyong, "I know you don't care about your father, but are you just gonna stand and watch as he, and the other gods go down with the Olympians?"

They all stayed silent. I needed to know what were their motives behind this. Because logically speaking, helping me will bring no benefit to them. Not to mention they knew that I haven't mastered the four elements and doesn't know anything about spirituality.

So technically, they are betting on... nothing.

Xiaojun stepped forward. "I never knew that the princess was my age! Which means you were too young to have any idea or contributed to the crime the Olympians accused you of. We went to school together, we shared meals together, we fought together— I know I haven't known you long enough, but there is no way I am handing you over to be punished." 

I stared at Xiaojun. After hearing what he said, now I know that he is thinking with his head even though he mentioned part of it was because he thought of me as his friend.

"Yeah," Mark joined in. "We knew Juli first before we knew Avatar Juli, and we will never turn our backs on a friend."

"You sound like you have lost all hope, Avatar." Ten said. "And I understand that, but we haven't. We are tired of submitting to that evil hag, we will fight alongside you. Everyone in their right mind should,"

Taeyong walked to me and squeezed my palms while looking at the in the eye, "we are doing this because we believe in you. And you don't have to do this alone."

I looked away from him. I didn't deserve this. 

"I haven't mastered the four elements, why are you betting all your lives and people for me?"

"Avatar Aang hadn't mastered the four elements yet when he saved the world. Your firebending progress is very impressive, I really think you can learn the rest of the elements with no problem." Ten said. 

Then, I finally let out a smile. I felt so glad after hearing everything they had said.

"Right, Jaehyun?" Ten continued.

We all shifted our attention to Jaehyun, who just gave Ten a quick small smile to agree. 

He was acting weird. Is he still feeling guilty after our heated argument in the woods? Or is it something else?

"Oh gods!" Ten exclaimed as he pointed his finger at me.

We all gave him puzzled looks.

"She's smiling!!" His voice got a pitch higher.

I frowned immediately afterward.