Chapter 7: Meanwhile

*23 days earlier*

Sokka half woke to a faint yell "….go". When his stomach growled, he got up and walked to where the food was. He searched through the food bag for a little snack, he looked at Aang and then at Katara, only to see she wasn't there. She's probably just out waterbending or something. He thought while going back to his sleeping bag. Knowing how obsessive she was about it.

"Sokka!" Aang said while trying to shake him awake"Sokka!"

"Five more minutes, Katara" he mumbled

"SOKKA!" the airbender yelled

"What!" he yelled back. He was fully awake now.

"Katara's missing" Sokka's eyes widened

"What!" he jumped up and went to her sleeping area "she never came back. Oh no, it must have been her that I heard"

"What are you talking about?"

"Last night I woke up, because someone screamed something, all I heard was the word 'go', and I was hungry… but I saw Katara wasn't in her sleeping bag, I just figured that she went to go waterbend or something." he hung his head "This is all my fault" Aang was about to tell him it wasn't when Momo got his attention. Aang walked over to him. "Sokka, look it's a trail, maybe Katara went this way" they followed the trail and came to a small river. "Look over there," Sokka said pointing to the other side "something big went through there." They followed the creature made path until they saw an ash spot on tree downhill. Sokka went to it and examined it. "Firebender, I'll give you one guess who."

"Zuko" Sokka nodded

"What are we going to do now? He has her, and we don't even know where he took her."

O.O

Aang and Sokka spent the next few days looking for her on that island (it was a big island), until one day they found very faint indications that a large ship had been there. "I bet this was Zuko's ship." Aang said. "If it was then they're long gone by now, especially if they didn't make any stops"

"We better get going then" they both nodded and ran back to Appa.

O.O

Aang and Sokka spent days at a time looking for Katara, Appa got tired quickly, and they had to rest for a day or two every now and then. "At this rate we'll never catch up to him" Sokka said. "Appa's doing the best he can Sokka" but Aang knew he had a point.

O.O

They finally came to a village at the shore, when they had hid Appa they went into the village and asked around if any had seen Katara. Just when they thought they had hit another dead end, the man at the last stand they asked had some information. "I didn't see no girl, saw a boy with a big scar on his face, and a big old man with him" he said

"Did they come from a Fire Nation ship?" asked Sokka

"No, it was more like a merchant ship"

"A merchant ship? Are you sure?"

"Yep"

"This doesn't make any sense, why would they be on a merchant ship?"

"Are you sure it wasn't a Fire Nation ship?"

"Yep, they left about three days ago" they decided that it was worth a shot, and went for it. They thanked the man and ran back to Appa.

O.O

They flew over the water for what seemed like forever, until they saw a small dot in the distance. They got close enough where Aang could use his glider to get to the ship. When he set foot on the ship he pointed his staff at them. "Where is she!" a few moment later Appa landed on the ship and Sokka jumped off. "Where's Katara!" Sokka yelled. The crew just continued to look at them strangely, until the captain came. "What's the meaning of th…..the Avatar" he said when he saw Aang. Aang looked at the crew, no of them looked anything like Fire Nation. "No, it's not his ship"

"You're the Avatar…What are you doing on my ship?"

Sokka spoke up "We thought this was someone else's ship." He explained the situation to the captain.

"I see," he said "we pasted a ship just yesterday. It might be the one you're looking for."

"Thank you" Aang said with a bow. They ran back to Appa. "Yip yip"

"How are we going to find them? There are so many merchant ships"

"We'll find her Sokka, we have to"

"This is all my fault"

"No it's not Sokka"

"Yes it is, if I had just been a better big brother she wouldn't be in this situation. I was supposed to protect her" he hung his head. Aang didn't know what to say to make him feel any better.

O.O

As they pasted ships while they were headed to a nearby port, they scanned each ship to see if they saw any of Zuko's men. But they had to land soon because, a. (Because Appa needed to rest and b. (Because they were tired too. They didn't even set up camp. They just went to sleep on the ground. When they woke they started strategizing, trying to figure out where Zuko's ship was, and where they were.

"Aang did you hear that?" Sokka whispered

"Hear what?"

"I think we're being watched" then a fire ball came bursting through the bushes. "Run!" they ran as fast as they could, it was no doubt who sent them. While they were running Aang got an idea.

"Sokka, I know how I can save Katara"

"How?"

"I have to let them capture me" Sokka almost stopped running.

"What! Are you crazy? You can't just give yourself up!"

"It's the only way to get Katara back. And you know Zuko can't catch me, I'll escape like always"

Sokka had to think about it, he does have a point, but it's too risky, but it would get Katara back. He sighed "Fine. But be careful" Aang nodded. He stopped but Sokka keep running. And soon found Appa.

Aang turned to face the firebenders. He put up a fake fight. They caught him and took him back to the ship.

When he got to the ship he couldn't see Katara anywhere, he figured she was down in the prison hold. But he didn't see her in any of the cells either (he was put in the one at the end of the row). A door creaked open and footsteps came toward him. He stood in front of the door with his hands behind his back. "So, I finally have you" Zuko said with a smirk.

"Where's Katara?" Aang asked

"She's fine, for now."

"What have you done to her? Where is she?"

"I told you, she's fine, so you better behave, Avatar, if you don't want her to get hurt"

"I need to see her"

"No"

"I knew it, Katara's not here, she escaped"

Zuko leaned in closer to the cell door "If you knew she wasn't here, then why did you get yourself caught" Aang opened his mouth to respond but he didn't have a comeback. "That's what I thought," he started to walk away"and another thing, if you misbehave she'll pay for it" and with that he shut the door...