"Sokka, wake up!" Katara whispered very loudly. "What..." Sokka answered half awake. For the
past few nights, Sokka had rolled over onto Katara's bed. Almost always, he woke up to hear her
scolding him for it. But that night was different. Sokka was in his own bed. Something was wrong!
I guessed this meant I had to get up. "What is it now Katara?" I asked "Aang, I think I saw
combustion man!" she answered nervously "It was probably just a nightmare..." Sokka said
annoyingly "What's going on..." Toph said kind of tiredly "Katara thinks she saw combustion
man." Sokka said "I KNOW I saw him!" She said "Can I just go to sleep?" Sokka said "We can
check tomorrow, Katara..." "No, we should check now." Toph said "I agree. If he is out there, he
could kill us in our sleep. Is that what you want, Sokka?" Zuko said, just suddenly coming out of
the dark "N-no..." Sokka said, sounding a little more awake "Good. Then let's go." Zuko said as
he grabbed his swords. We searched around for a while and found a few animals lurking around,
but nothing else. "See, I told you there was nothing out there!" Sokka said annoyingly. We all
went back to sleep except for Katara. She just sat there, turning her head at every sound that was
made, whether a snore or an animal snapping a twig. I got up out of my bed and went and sat
down next to her. "Katara," I whispered, "try to get some sleep. Don't worry, if there is anyone out
there, I will protect you." "Thanks, Aang that's sweet of you, but I KNOW I saw him." Katara
whispered rather loudly. "Well, we already checked and we didn't." BOOM! Suddenly I got
stopped right in the middle of my sentence when there was a loud boom! And Katara screamed. I
jumped up to see what had happened. "Is everyone all right?" I asked "Zuko is hurt! Quick Katara
get over here!" Sokka said "It looks like you were right about combustion man, Katara!" Katara
grabbed some water and started to heal Zuko's arm wound. " It's not to bad, but it got pretty
close." Katara said "I'll go search for him. Toph! Come with me!" I said quickly "I'm with ya,
twinkle toes." Toph answered. We got right to searching for him, but we still couldn't find him after
searching for a little longer than ten minutes. "He might've run after he shot at us." suggested Teo
"That doesn't make sense to me." Said the Duke "Everyone quiet down! He could be listening in
to our conversation right now, so we need to be careful of what we say." Zuko said in a low voice.
"Everyone?" Toph said in a know-it-all tone "Yes, be quiet EVERYONE." Zuko said again, a little
louder. "We need to do something; we can't just sit here and wait for him to shoot at us again!"
Katara said in a panicky tone "Don't worry; we will have someone stay up and keep guard. I'll
take the first shift." Zuko said "I'll take second." I said "Third" Sokka said "Who will take fourth?"
Zuko asked waiting for an answer "I will." Katara suddenly said "No, right now you are not very
stable so I don't think..." "I don't care what you think! I can take fourth watch if I want to! I'm not a
little girl anymore!" She said angrily to Sokka, who said "Fine, but don't alarm everyone unless
you're sure." "Okay then, it's settled." Zuko said, and we all watched him take his post for the first
shift.
--
"Katara's gone, Aang! Get up!" Sokka said, wide awake now. "Huh..." I said half-awake.
"KATARA IS GONE! GET UP GET UP GET UP!" Sokka yelled into my ear. "Oh, OH! Are all the
others here?" I said, getting kind of panicky. "Yes, but we need to find Katara NOW." He said in a
manly-brotherly tone. We had Sokka and Toph search one side of the temple, Zuko and I search
the other, and Teo and the Duke watch the little campsite we had set up. We searched
everywhere throughout the temple, but we couldn't find her. "I can't believe I lost my sister..."
Sokka said despairingly "Don't worry; we will keep searching for her." Zuko said. "But what if
combustion man killed her? What if it wasn't even combustion man?" Sokka said. "It could be
someone else." I said. "But who?" asked Teo. "I think I might know who it was." "Who, Zuko,
who!?" Sokka said have angry half despairingly. "We already know there was an explosion,
right?" "Right." "But the one thing I didn't realize until now is that the explosion only hurt me."
"So?" "So that means it was probably not combustion man, because I sleep right next to you, and
it would've hurt you to." "Ok, good point, so you're saying it was a fire bender?" "Yes, and I
believe you know who I'm talking about." Just as we were figuring it out, a giant flying ship thing
came out of nowhere, and Azula was standing on top of it with a beaten-up unconscious Katara.
"Katara!" Sokka screamed "I'll get her." Zuko said, and he jumped onto the flying ship. "So, you
figured out it was me, huh Zu-zu?" Azula said menacingly "What did you do to Katara!" Sokka
yelled angrily "Oh nothing, she just tried to get away, so I set her straight." Azula said, and then
laughed treacherously "You MONSTER!" Sokka yelled and then threw his boomerang at her.
Azula simply threw a little bit of lightning and it was off course. "Get her, Zuko!" Sokka yelled
hopefully and angrily. I fly up to Azula, who now had her eyes looking back and forth between
Zuko and I. She looked confident she could beat us easily, but I was determined to get Katara.
"Give Katara back." I said "Make me." She just answered back menacingly "I will." I threw some
wind at her, but she just used her lightning. And then Zuko and Azula started a one-on-one kind
of duel while I tried to get Katara. I dodged the lightning blasts and got so near getting Katara that
if I had breathed she would have felt it, but just as I was about to get Katara, Zuko yelped loudly.
"Zuko!" I screamed as I saw him fall off of the flying ship. Luckily Toph caught him, but he was
hurt, badly. Azula saw her moment and started to fight me. We fought fiercely for awhile until she
suddenly said "I will kill Katara if you don't come with me." I immediately surrendered. "Now let
Katara go!" I said "Ok…if that's what you want." She smiled freakishly and dropped Katara over
the side of the ship. "NOOOOO!" I screamed and ran off the side off the ship. I flew faster than I
had ever flown before, and caught Katara. But she was too heavy, and she was slipping! "Help!
I'm losing her!" I yelled down to Sokka, who gave me a horrified look, but then said "Drop her, I'll
catch her!" "Are you sure?" "Yes. Do it!" I reluctantly let go of her, hoping with all my might that he
would catch her. I didn't get to see because right after I let go, something hit me, and I started
falling myself. My back stung, but I flew right back up as I was falling. I had gone into the avatar
state! Azula shot lightning and fire, but to no avail. My avatar state self beat her just enough to
make her leave us alone, for now, but I blacked out right after.
--
I woke up to see the Duke watching me and then I heard him say "Hey, Aang is awake!" "Aang,
are you ok?" "You beat Azula and made her leave us alone." Teo and Toph made some remarks,
because Sokka was over by Katara and Zuko. "How are they?" I asked "Zuko got an injury on his
right leg, it's pretty bad, but when Katara's ready she can heal him." Sokka said "What about
Katara?" I asked a little nervously "She is not unconscious, just asleep. She has quite a few cuts
and burns, but I don't think anything is permanent since she can heal herself." Sokka answered
"Good." I said with a puff of relief "How do think Azula knew we were here? She would've had to
have a snitch." "I don't know." I answered "I think Zuko is behind this. He just joined are team, and
he still could have been lying." "But, why?" "Think about it, only he got hurt in the explosion, and
Katara said that if the hit had been a little bit deeper, it would have been bad. And I overheard
them talking and Katara sounds like she still doesn't trust him, and she was the only one that got
kidnapped and beaten up. Azula set this up to make it sound like she was after Zuko, which in the
end she probably turned on him, and she was after you and Katara." Sokka said quietly and
sounded like he didn't trust Zuko either. "Maybe it's just you, Sokka. I mean, Zuko got hurt pretty
badly." I said reassuringly "I'm telling you, it was all a set up." He said "Well, I'll keep my guard up
for anything suspicious, but right now we have to think of somewhere new to move to." I said, to
keep his mind of Zuko "Fine, but we are going to talk about this later with the others." And with
that last remark, he was gone back to work. This really made me think about what had just
happened. Then I wasn't sure about Zuko, right before I had just decided to trust him and then I
had this wavering over me, but for then it was all I could do.