The sky was dark by the time they set out to the factory. Ahsa had made sure each of them were fully prepared, which meant that Tala donned a jacket and a pair of boots, Koto changed into her wingsuit, and Haruko was given a satchel-bag full of small, smooth stones. It was clear that the firebender duo wasn’t all too used to working around benders that required material, but it didn’t bother Haruko too much. She wasn’t used to any of this. It only took them about twenty minutes to reach the factory. The building was huge, and way taller than Haruko had expected, a tower piercing the soft canvas of the night sky. The roofs and walls were decorated with golden dragon motifs, and the hastily applied green paint had started to chip away, giving way to the original red color.

The four of them hid in the cover of the trees outside, a space where they could see the factory, but the guards couldn’t see them, as long as they didn’t give themselves away.

“Can you two get up there?” Ahsa pointed out a balcony on the third floor. Haruko nodded, an idea already forming in her head.

“Good.” Ahsa said. “That’s where most of the offices are, I think. You two will cover the upper three levels, Tala and I will take the bottom two and the underlevels.”

Haruko and Koto exchanged a glance with one another and nodded. “Alright.” Koto said. She seemed just as determined as she had when they were taking back Cloud.

Tala put their hand on Haruko’s shoulder before heading off. “Good luck.”

It was simple enough to get up to the third floor- Haruko had learned her lesson from the Cloud heist and had thought of a new strategy. She raised a column of earth from the ground and propelled both herself and Koto forward together as they held onto each other’s forearms. Somehow, Koto was able to use airbending to assist their descent, slowing it enough so they didn’t crash into the building’s wall. The air still swirling around them, they made a soft descent onto the balcony.

“You ready?” Koto whispered. Haruko nodded, and opened the balcony’s doors, leading them both into the factory’s interior.

The inside of the factory was as dark as jet, and surprisingly empty. Haruko could hear the sound of running boots elsewhere in the maze of hallways, the echo of commands that they need to get downstairs fast. She worried about Tala and Ahsa, but returned her concentration to what she needed to do. The hallways were unlight, save for the occasional exit sign, which worked in their advantage, though Koto still pulled Haruko over to the wall, where they were less likely to be seen.

Koto created a sort of vortex around the two of them- when they were planning, she had mentioned a technique called soundbending, and said she could muffle their footsteps as they walked. Haruko assumed this was it.

The airbender moved quicker than she did, Haruko always behind her. She checked each door, apparently most of them were offices or storage closets- Ahsa has been right about the offices being on the higher floors. Eventually, they reached one that was open.

The office was small, and according to the nameplate, belonged to one Captain Jung Cho. Haruko didn’t know a thing about military ranks, but if he was high ranking enough to have an office he probably had some secrets. The lights had been left on in the room, showing off its sparse decoration and overabundance of files. Koto shoved Haruko into the room and gestured to the pile, standing guard near the door. Haruko nodded, it would probably be better for her to watch.

The desk was practically covered in paper, from forms to reports to handwritten notes, Haruko didn’t know where to start. She resigned herself to looking through the pile, the first papers on top. She didn’t have enough time to read each paper, so she skimmed each page before setting it aside. An overwhelming amount of important-looking files mentioned a ‘project vine’, though what it was Haruko couldn’t tell, any files that mentioned it were simply order reports for technology or encrypted.

“I think I found something.” Haruko whispered to her companion. “Project vine. It’s mentioned a ton but everything’s encrypted.”

“Okay.” Koto stated, keeping her eyes on the hall. “Anywhere we could find more about it?”

Haruko returned her attention to the desk, looking for a building directory she had set aside a while ago. Eventually she found it. “There’s a filing room on the seventh floor. If theres more information about this thing, I bet it’s there.”

Koto nodded. “Let’s go.”

Haruko left the papers on the desk, not bothering to rearrange them, the mess didn’t even look any different, After leaving the room almost exactly like they had found it, she trailed Koto as they slowly moved through the hall. The area was dead silent, anyone who had been there was gone by now. Eventually they made it to the solace of an elevator, Koto pressed the button to the seventh floor and the door closed in front of them.

“So.” Koto said as they traveled upward. “Project vine?”

“I couldn’t tell much about it.” Haruko said. “Everything was written in some sort of code.”

“Which means it’s probably a big government secret!” Koto stated, a smile growing on her face. “Good work.”

It wasn’t long before their elevator reached the seventh floor. The doors opened onto a labyrinth of cabinets, almost the entire floor wall to wall with metal cases. Like the third floor, it wasn’t well lit, the only illumination coming from a few sporadically-placed lights.

Koto immediately set off into the darkness, leaving Haruko to cautiously follow her. From what she could tell, they were the only people there, but she didn’t want to be too confident and accidentally give themselves away.

Haruko found Koto in a section labeled ‘U-V’, looking through files in one of the many cabinets. She moved diligently, at a speed so fast Haruko wondered if she could tell what was written on each piece of paper.

“I’m searching under ‘vine’.” Koto explained. “If I can find anything, maybe we can take-” She was cut off by the sound of an alarm.

A voice came over an intercom, gruff and loud and cracking through the speaker. “Attention! There are intruders on levels two-B and seven, I repeat, level two- B and level seven.” Haruko almost startled. They were on level seven. Red emergency lights flashed on, bathing the entire floor in a fluorescent, blood red light. Koto grabbed Haruko’s hand and started to run to the elevators. Before they could make it, the elevator doors opened, and an entire squadron of soldiers burst out- Haruko didn’t have the time to count them, she and Koto turned back around so quickly she barely saw them. They chased after them, collapsing the filing cabinets with metalbending left and right. Koto was able to maneuver around the obstacles quickly but Haruko ended up being bruised. She reached for the satchel of stones she had brought, only to realize it was missing. She had left it in the captain’s office four floors down. Haruko lamented her inability to metalbend.

“I can’t do anything!” Haruko shouted at her companion. “I left my bag downstairs!”

Koto took only a second to process her words before sending a strong gust of wind at their opponents, knocking quite a few of them down. She continued sending wind down the labyrinth of cabinets as they ran.

Eventually, the two of them clamored into a stairwell, Haruko made sure the door was closed behind her, though she only took a moment's rest before climbing the stairs. She and Koto were only about halfway up the flight of stairs when the door burst open and the soldiers barged in. They didn’t have enough time to register their presence and kept climbing.

The stairwell led to the top of the factory, a communications spire. After closing the door behind them, Haruko took a moment to look around. The area was small, with a door leading to a balcony outside.

It wasn’t long before the soldiers broke through the door. Koto immidiatly bolted to the door, Haruko followed. It wasn’t a good idea, they were trapped on the balcony now with no easy escape.

As the soldiers drew closer to them, Haruko exchanged a glance with Koto. Her silky-straight hair was whipping in the wind, sticking to her lips and face. It was almost serene, how she looked in the moonlight. Haruko didn’t have time to contemplate it more, she was interrupted by the soldiers breaking through.

Haruko didn’t know what hit her, all she could tell was that one moment, she was standing on the balcony and the next, she wasn’t, plummeting to her death below. She was falling too fast to think, too fast to move. Maybe she could soften the earth to ease her fall- maybe she could raise the ground and hope for the best- no, it was all too late for any of those. All she could do was brace herself for impact in any way she could. In a futile move, a last hope, a moment guided by forces Haruko couldn’t name, she moved her arms around her and to her surprise, floated down on a cushion of air. Her descent was so slow she could take the time to hear the rapid beating of her own heart.

When she made contact with the ground, Haruko fell to her hands and knees, exhausted, though she couldn’t tell from what. Koto descended moments later, having opened her wingsuit midair. She immediately grabbed Haruko by the shoulders as soon as her feet touched the ground. “Haruko- what was that?”

“What was-” Haruko stammered. “That wasn’t you?” It had to have been Koto, air didn’t naturally move that way.

“How could it have been me! I was in the sky… Haruko- oh no.” Koto’s voice went silent.

“What?” Haruko asked.

“Haruko, you airbent. That was airbending.” Koto took one hand off of Haruko’s shoulder. “And if you airbent-” she looked Haruko dead in the eyes, her voice lowering to a near whisper. “That means you’re the avatar.”

A million thoughts raced through Haruko’s mind, none of which she could decipher, other than, “You’re lying.” Haruko repeated the statement. “You have to be lying. There’s already an avatar, and it’s not me. It can’t be me. Why would it be me?”

Koto shook her head. “I- I don’t know. But that was airbending, and that was you. It has to be you. We- We’ll go to my mother. She’ll know what to do.” Koto seemed unsure of her own words, but it was all they had. “We’ll have to see her.’

Haruko nodded. They would go see Koto’s mother, and she’d determine what was happening. What kind of mishap of mix-up had taken place. Everything would end up fine. It had to end up fine.

“Are you… ok?” Koto asked.

Haruko took a moment to respond, trying to prevent herself from falling over. “Yeah, I am. Let’s get back to the inn.”

It didn’t take the two of them long to meet up with Tala. Haruko could barely acknowledge their presence, she was too caught up in her own thoughts.

“Hey, Haruko, are you ok?” The firebender asked, placing their hand on Haruko’s shoulder.

Haruko snapped to attention. “Oh. Uh.”

“You look like you just saw a ghost.” They explained.

“Oh.” Haruko replied. “Nah, I’m fine. Rough night.” The lie came easier than she expected.

Tala nodded. “Alright. Anyways, as I was saying, Ahsa has her own place, we can debrief in the morning once we’ve all rested up some. I think it’s been a rough night for all of us.”

Haruko spared a glance towards Koto, not daring to say more even though every instinct in her body told her they needed to talk more. Their newfound secret would have to stay hidden for a few moments more.