...I'll have to actually take a look at it more...

Alright! Next chapter! I hope you guys like it...Or not. Whichever.

Chapter III

Chapter III

By the time we got back, everyone seemed to already of gone to sleep. The candles had been put out, leaving us to wander around in the dark.

"Any idea where the room is?" Haruto whispered, feeling his hands around for a door.

"Nope," I answered, doing the same. Finally, I let out a sigh, and made a small flame in my right hand. I lifted my hand up to look around, and instantly noticed a face in front of me.

"Ah!" I yelled, falling backwards, letting the flame go out. The face brought a small candle up. It was Ryouchi.

"H-hello, sir," I said, hurrying to get up.

"What are you two idiots doing?" He growled, and I noticed that Haruto was now standing at my side.

"We couldn't find our room," I explained nervously. He simply let out a small angry sigh, reached his hand to the left, and opened a door. The dim light from his candle reveals our room.

---

The next morning, I wake up to a little face staring down at me. I sat up, quickly realizing the face to be Ryuu.

"Mornin', Jonas!" He said, a big smile on his face. I grunted out a small "'Morning", too tired to be as cheery as he was. I grabbed my tunic, slipping it on, half-listening to Ryuu chatter on.

"C'mon!" He said, grabbing on to my arm. "Mama's making breakfast," He yelled in my ear, pulling me up. I let him drag me all the way to the table, then sit me down. He sat down next to me, then started talking at a million words a minute again. The only thing that really interested me was when he said something about his brother.

"Did you know that my big brother is in the army? He's fightin' bad Fire Nation soldiers!" He said. I almost laughed. He seriously didn't realize what exactly was going on. I was glad, though. I didn't want him to think of me as a monster like the rest of those demons.

"Like the men that took over this village?" I questioned.

"Yeah!"

So he did realize what was going on, he just didn't know that I was a part of them.

Before I could say more, Delilah came into the room, sitting down across from me.

"Good morning," I said, smiling at her. She looked up, but not at me.

"Good morning, Ryuu," She said to her brother, ignoring me. I frowned slightly, but before I could dwell, Aimi brought some food to the table. It looked like oatmeal our squad usually ate when we had the chance to eat breakfast, but tasted a whole lot better. This time, no one spoke. There was just this awkward silence for all of breakfast.

Once we were all finished, I volounteered to clear the table.

"That's nice of you," Aimi started. "But I can get it."

"Please," I said back. "I insist."

Before she could protest, I took everyone's empty plates. As I took Delilah's, she shot me a confused look. I simply smiled and took everything over to their sink. I started to wash them, then heard Aimi say something. I heard a chair scoot out from the table, and someone walk up behind me. It was Delilah.

"My mother told me to help you," She muttered, and took a bowl I had just been reaching for. Everyone had started to file out of the room, so I decided to say something to her.

"Listen," I started, my voice soft. "I'm not like the rest of those monsters who took over your village. I hate them as much as you do, maybe even more."

"Yeah, right," She said, not even glancing at me.

I sighed, and continued.

"I'm telling you the truth," I said, my voice getting a little rougher. "I can't stand being one of them,"

"Then why are you?" She asked angrily, now looking straight at me.

"My...my fa-" But before I could continue, Ryouchi's voice came booming from the other room.

"Delilah, get in here!" He yelled.

She immediately left, leaving the dish she had been cleaning. I..."growled", angry that I couldn't get my words out in time.

---

After I finished washing the dishes, I walked into their small living room. To my confusion, no one was there except for Haruto, who was sitting on a chair reading another one of those scrolls from our room.

"Where is everybody?" I asked him. He looked up, and looked around, seemingly wondering the same thing.

"Uhh...I don't know," He said, rubbing the back of his neck. "One of our scouts came to the door a little while ago, I think. Maybe Kenta's making some of the villagers work," He suggested, then went back to his scroll.

"Real helpful," I said, a hint of sarcasm in my voice.

---

I decided I might as well go look around the village. I left the small house, and started to wander around the village. It was quite small, but it seemed as though they tried to keep it nice. Unfortunately, after our attack yesterday, a few things were scorched.

As I walked through the village, I could feel everyone glaring at me. It felt awful, having everyone hate you. I just continued to walk, avoiding eye contact. After a while, I noticed a small field of sorts just on the outskirts of the town. I could see a bunch of villagers working, and I noticed one face in-paticular; Delilah's.

I walked towards her. She didn't even notice as I walked up next to her. She obviously didn't seem too used to doing this, as she was having trouble using the hoe she was holding. For one, she had the metal facing the wrong way.

"Need some help with that?" I asked, surprising her.

"Don't sneak up on me like that!" She scolded. I just laughed.

"Sorry," I said, and since she had decided not to answer me, I just took the hoe out of her hands.

"Hey!" She said.

"You were holding it wrong," I explained, and turned it the right way, then started to use it.

"I can do it myself," She said, and tried to take it back from me.

"It's fine. I don't mind," I said, remembering my mother letting me help her in her garden when I was much younger. Then I remembered how much that upset my father, which made me laugh slightly.

"What?" She asked, now standing to the side, defeated.

"Nothing...My father would hate to see me doing this," I told her. "He hated it when I did stuff like this. Said it was for people lesser than us. By that I guess he meant people that didn't live in the upper part of the Fire Nation capital," I said, remembering that house of ours.

"I hate that place. I'd say I was glad to get away from it, but the only reason I got away from it was because I was forced to join the army," I explained, glad to get out what I had tried to say earlier. I glanced over at her, and she had this look of deep thought on her face, like she was realizing what I was trying to tell her back when we were washing dishes.

"But...you're Fire Nation. You're supposed to love the Fire Nation and hate the Earth Nation," She said, pretty much trying to tell me what I should be.

"Yeah, I guess I get it from my brother. A few months before his eighteenth birthday, he left the house in the middle of the night. He wasn't about to be forced to join the army. I guess I should've done the same thing, not sure why I di-" Yet again, I couldn't finish my sentence. This time, though, it wasn't Delilah's father yelling at me; it was Kenta.

"Jonas!" He yelled at me, making me practically jump. I looked around and noticed him stomping towards us. His face...I'd say he looked mad, but that would be an understatement.

"Great..." I muttered as he stopped at us.

"What do you think you're doing, grunt?" He hissed, looking between me and Delilah.

"I was ju-"

"Don't even try to explain yourself. This is their work," He said, the word "their" like it burned his tongue.

"He was just trying to help me," Delilah said from beside me, glaring at him.

"What did you say?! Did I give you permission to talk to me?" He said, and slapped her on the face.

"Uh!" She grunted, and fell to the ground.

"Hey!" I yelled, dropping the hoe, then, with this sudden surge of courage, I punched him.

If he was angry before, then it was a hundred times worse now. He had stumbled slightly, but even with my newfound courage, I don't think I ever could of knocked him to the ground.

"You're protecting this...this...thing?" He shouted.

"Thing?! She is a human being, and I'm not going to let you push her around like that!" I shot back.

A small crowd of villagers had gathered near us by now, and were watching with either confusion or happiness, I couldn't tell which. Either way, what they had gathered to see was about to end.

"You want to protect her, then you'll both suffer the same fate" He said, and grabbed us both by the arms.

End of Chapter III

---

Tell me what you think!

Waoh, Kayla, that's awesome!
I wish I had an Earth Kingdom girl to protect.
WAhh!

Thanks, Kip! ^^ I had a lot of fun writing that chapter...It was nice to have Jonas stand up for himself.

Yeah, I like tha action parts in it a lot.

Ooo-kay, I haven't really worked on this in a while, nor do I have any idea what I'm going to do next in the chapters to come, but I figure I may as well post the chapters I HAVE finished. ^^' Soo...here's chapter 4.

--

Chapter IV


By noon, Delilah and I were both sitting in the village jail, temporarily being used by the Fire Nation. We were sitting what was in reality a few feet away from each other, but what felt like a mile. We sat there for an hour in silence, just the silent snoring of the soldier that was guarding us in the background. Finally, she spoke up.

"Th-...thank you," She said, obviously having a bit of trouble saying those words.

"You are welcome," I said, blushing slightly. There were a few more moments of awkward silence, when she spoke again.

"What do you think he's going to do to us?"

"Knowing Kenta...Either kill us or make us wish he would."

"Great."

"Yeah...well, we can't let that happen. We'll have to escape," I said, my voice turning to a whisper, just in case the guard woke up.

"How? We'll never get a few steps away from this place before they catch us."

"We'll wait until it's dark, when there's less soldiers wandering around."

"Then what? We can't just go back to my house. My father would kill us both, and if he didn't, that would probably be the first place they looked."

"We'll leave this village, run. They'll never find us."

"I can't just leave my family, either, though! We'll...We'll just have to wait and see what happens," She said, letting out a sigh. She may of been ready to give up, but I wasn't.

---

It was starting to get dark when someone came into the jail. I couldn't make out who it was right away, but when they walked up to our cell, I instantly recognized them as Haruto.

"Jonas, what did you do?!" He asked, whispering as loud as he could without alerting the guard.

"Kenta was-"

"It doesn't matter. We gotta get you out of here," He said, and just then Delilah came up next to me.

"We already went over this," She said to him. "There's no way."

"There's always a way," He said, and I could already see the wheels turning in his head.

---

As the day went one, the three of us planned our escape. Delilah obviously wasn't happy, but I think we may of convinced her that it really was the best thing to do.

Night had come, and now all we had to do was wait. Haruto had left a little before so that he go and eat dinner. We had all agreed that he shouldn't tell Delilah's family.

---

--Haruto's Point-of-view--

Man, I could practically feel the anger coming from Ryouchi as we ate dinner. I insisted that I didn't know what happened to Delilah, but he definetly didn't believe me.

The plan was for me to wait until everyone went to bed, grab Jo and me's stuff, and get outta there and back to the jail as fast as humanly possible. Yesterday, I had been hating the fact that the village was so dark, now I was happy. Less of a chance of someone spotting me, then throwin' me in the jail with Jo and Delilah. Then we'd all be toast.

Anyway, that WAS the plan, but I was starting to think that was gonna have to change. A little after dinner, everyone started to get ready to go to sleep. I went into the room Jo and me had been staying in, and started to pack up our stuff. Suddenly, I heard a little "click" come from the door. I looked up from the stuff, and looked behind me at the door. It had been locked. I dropped the bag I was holding and ran over to the door. I tried the handle, and found out I was right. I banged on the door with my fist, shouting.

"Hey!" I yelled. "Let me out!"

No answer.

"Great. Just...great."

---

--Jonas's Point-of-view--

It had been dark for at least a few hours now, and I was starting to get worried.

"Where do you think he is?" I whispered to Delilah, obviously referring to Haruto.

"Maybe he chickened out," She suggested, letting out a sigh. I scoffed.

"No way. Haruto'd never pass up the chance to get away from our squad. He hates the Fire Nation, more than me if that's possible. No, something must be wr-"
Before I could finish my sentence, though, Haruto walked in the jail's door. He snuck past the guard, who was-yet again-sleeping. He had our bags on his shoulders.

"Where have you been?" I whispered as loud as I could.

"Sorry...Had a few obstacles," He muttered, then got to work on our lock. I noticed some bandages on his hands, but decided not to bother asking.

A few moments later, the lock to our cell came open. Haruto opened the door, then swept his arm with a flourish towards the exit.

"Let's go."

End of Chapter IV

--

...Yep. Alrighty, tell me what you guys--or, guy, since Kip is the only one here currently who watches Avatar--thought. I must know!

Whoot!
Glad to see this continuing!
A great escape, how exciting.

Thanks for posting, Kip. ^^ I shall post the next chapter soon!

La gasp! I've already read this part, but...it's still good! Yayness! Keep writing, so I can keep reading! (Yes, I know I am selfish...)

Yay for being selfish!

Alrighty...this chapter is short, but here ya go...


---


Chapter V

Getting through the village was pretty easy, but it was the getting out that was going to be difficult. There were two soldiers posted at every entrance, and we weren't about to try to sneak past them and get fried. We hid in one of the alleys near one of the houses near one of the entrances, contemplating our choices. After a few minutes of not being able to think of anything, Haruto spoke.

"Alright, this is crazy, guys. Listen, this is what we'll do. I'll distract the soldiers, while you two make your getaway," He said, and I immediatly protested.

"No way, Haruto!" I said. "We're not leaving without you."

"Then what are we gonna do, man? I don't think they're gonna let us just walk right by 'em. We've got no other choice."

"No," I said, but before I could argue anymore, he ran out from our hiding place. He stood in plain sight of the soldiers, then shouted.

"Hey!" He said, and they turned around, as they had been facing towards outside of the village.

"Huh?" I heard one of them say.

"Yeah, I'm talking to you, idiots!" He taunted. They looked between each other, then started to run towards him.

"Go!" He whispered as loudly as he could at us, then dashed back towards the middle of the village.

"But-"

"Come on!" Delilah said, grabbing my arm, and pulling me towards the entrance. As we ran, I glanced over my soldier. One of the soldiers tackled Haruto, and punched him.

"Haruto!" I yelled, trying to stop.

"Come on!" Delilah repeated, and started to drag me as best she could.

"Jo, get outta here!" I heard Haruto shout, before he was punched again.

I looked between him and the entrance, and sighed. Then I ran. I don't know how I did it, but I did. I could already feel the guilt in my stomach, but still, I ran. I ran away from the best friend I had ever known. I ran towards freedom. I ran.

End of Chapter V

---

...Reply![/b]

Good, I actually started working on it again today. But...remember how you sent me that list of Japanese names? Would you mind sending it to me again? My stupid computer lost them after we had to re-install AOL. - -' I had a name for Jonas's brother that I had gotten from there, but I was stupid and forgot to put it anywhere...at least, I don't think I did...*Goes and checks* N-........no. I'm so stupid! Who doesn't write down the freakin' names for their freakin' main characters?! -_-'

By the way, thanks for posting on the Nick thread for this. I haven't been able to post there, mostly because I don't really have anything worthwhile to say...

The whole list, I guess. Thank you SOOOO much. ^_^

Yeah, it was getting pretty low...heh, I was, like, REALLY surprised when I saw it semi-high on the boards. I was searching to see if either of your stories had come up yet, and all of a sudden I see the name "Hey There Delilah" with my name next to it, and I'm like, "...What the heck?! ...SOMEONE POSTED!" ^^'