This is my first story so I do hope your expectations are not too high. Thank you to the authors who are in this. (Also, if you feel like joining in on the fun others, feel free to ask). This story takes place about a month after the end of season 3. :)
Sokka and Suki were roaming around the marketplace in Ba Sing Se. They had stopped by the city to see how the kyoshi warriors were doing. Sokka was looking at swords while Suki was getting some food, mostly meat for Sokka.
Sokka wandered around for a bit after not finding a sword that piqued his interest, and then heard some weird things coming from the center of the market.
"...and that is why it is our right to stand up against our former oppressors. We must have our revenge! And then there's the Avatar..."
Sokka was now concerned. "What?"
Sokka rushed towards the source of the words.
Suki looked back to ask Sokka a question, but he was long gone. 'Oh great,' she thought, 'now what's he up to?'
Sokka ran as fast as he could to the man in the center of a rather medium sized crowd.
The man was medium in height, and a little on the lean side. He wore a heavy looking cloak, and a green mask over his face. The mask itself was kind of disturbing, looking somewhat reptilian with red eyes and a sharp-toothed grin. As Sokka now shoved his way closer, he could now listen even more clearly to the protest that was going on.
"The avatar has basically saved the fire nation from what they deserved. He made sure to appoint a friend of his as ruler, instead of letting the people of the terrible nation even decide themselves. It's not like they even deserve to choose, but he shouldn't have even bestowed it upon himself. Why didn't we get a say in what happened. Kind of like how he let Buhmi rule both Omashu and now Ba Sing Se."
"You do realize that's kind of contradictory to what you just said."
The man looked at Sokka, though it was hard to tell if he was surprised, or amused.
"And what's your-"
"My name is Sokka, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't badmouth the Avatar."
The man put his hand on Sokka's shoulder.
"Why don't we hear from these people what they think if you don't want me to ramble on all day."
From the crowd, many voices surfaced.
"The Avatar has enough power to destroy a nation, he's dangerous."
"He saved the fire nation! He helped them escape justice!"
"The Avatar is evil!"
Sokka couldn't believe what he was hearing. "What are you people saying!"
The man now put his arm around him as he yelled to the crowd. "Here's one of the villains that robbed you of your vengeance!"
He threw Sokka into the crowd, where he began getting punched, kicked, and at one time cut by a knife. All while listening to the man speak.
"Yes, punish him. He is worse than any firebender! He is as horrible as the Avatar!"
Eventually Sokka was kicked in the head by someone and nearly lost consciousness.
After about a minute of this violence, there was a very loud, "STOP!"
Everyone looked up to see a water bender, about 16 years old, wearing her hair in two curls, and looking extremely pissed off.
Katara strolled over to Sokka, and anyone who tried to mess with her was quickly frozen. When she finally got to him, Suki had also arrived at the scene.
Katara helped get Sokka to his feet, while Suki helped take Sokka home. After the two were a safe distance away, Katara then focused on the man in the green mask.
"Who are you! Why are you bad-mouthing the Avatar, and attacking people?"
The man stared at her for what seemed like the longest time.
"Hey, I'm talking to you!" Again, no response.
Then the man did an earthbending move, dropping himself below the ground.
Katara went to run after him, but he closed the entrance behind him. She then looked at the crowd of protestors.
"Are you really against the person who saved you from getting enslaved or killed by the fire nation!"
A few of them looked a little uneasy, as the leader of the little rally was gone. Still, a voice came from a civilian.
"He let the fire nation get off scot free!"
Katara walked up to the man, who was much taller and much more heavily built. This didn't phase Katara though, as she stared him in the eyes while talking to him.
"What exactly is wrong with peace? Isn't that what we fought for in the war?"
"Yeah and what I said was being contradictory."
The man appeared behind Katara and kicked her in the back of the legs, making her fall to her knees. The man in front of her punched her in the face, knocking her out.
The man with the green mask looked towards the group of people.
"Those who work with the Avatar are evil and WEAK! We must defeat them! We must have JUSTICE!"
The crowd cheered. As they disbanded, the heavily muscled man and the man with the green mask stayed by Katara.
The man with the mask looked closer at Katara. He seemed to be analyzing her unconscious body.
"Osuushi, this is the waterbender girl... the one that is the Avatar's fiancé."
Osuushi nodded his head.
The masked man took away her pouch of water and dug a dart out of his pack.
The green masked man asked his accomplice, "Would you mind carrying her for me?"
Osuushi nodded again.
Katara started to stir and opened her eyes. "What?"
"Aw, she's waking up, how precious." The man jabbed her in the neck with the dart, making her go limp, though still conscious.
"Let's get going, sir." Osuushi looked over to see Suki and some of the kyoshi warriors running towards them.
"Of course." The man in the green mask opened a hole and the three of them dropped through it, and the hole sealed back up as the warrior women came to it.
Suki stomped on the ground where the men once stood. "DARNIT!"
Suki went to the inn room that she had gotten for Sokka. He was now sitting upright, looking a little better, but still a little weak.
He looked up at her with a weak smile. "It's a good thing I always have my little sister and girlfriend around to save me."
Suki gave a forced smile in return. Sokka could tell she was hiding something. "What happened?"
Suki sighed and told Sokka what happened.
Sokka groaned as he tried to stand up. Suki walked over to him to sit him back down. "You're in no position to be looking for her."
"I've got to though," he said, struggling against Suki, "I can't just lay here not knowing is my sister's getting maimed or killed or who knows what!"
Sokka continued to freak out until Suki slapped him across the face.
"Get a grip! Listen, we'll find her! Besides, it's Katara we're talking about. She can take care of herself."
That seemed to calm Sokka down. "Ok, but we should still try to hurry and find her. You know she is going to get married soon."
Suki nodded her head. "That's why I have the most serious and trustworthy people looking for her."
"Hey Suki!" The high-pitched sound came from a familiar looking kyoshi warrior. "Where should I start looking?"
Sokka gave Suki a disbelieving glance.
"TY LEE! REALLY!"
Aang had been a little late getting to Ba Sing Se because he still had some things to do with Zuko, like moving certain fire nation colonies out of certain areas and so forth. Aang had originally scheduled going to Ba Sing Se by himself, but then Katara had wanted to go too, and ended up going to Ba Sing Se ahead of him. Then he heard Sokka and Suki were going to be there, too.
'We only need Toph and it'll be a reunion.' Aang had thought about inviting her along, but he remembered that she never really did like Ba Sing Se, so he decided not to contact her.
When Aang had gotten to Ba Sing Se, most of the civilians seemed a little wary of him. He decided he would ask Sokka about this. Aang looked around some inns until he finally got the answer that Sokka was there. As he was about to go in, he heard Sokka and Suki whispering something.
"What the heck are we going to say when Aang gets here?"
"Uhh, I don't know."
"WELL WE NEED TO THINK OF SOMETHING! I don't think he's going to be heppy that his fiancé is gone!"
"I know, but I don't think he'll get mad at us."
"I know, but if he gets angry, the building is gonna go up."
"I thought he had that under control."
"After the fight with Ozai, something snapped in him."
Aang backed away from the door. Katara is missing. Why is she missing? Where is she? What happened?
Aang was about to walk into the room when Ty Lee came running up to him.
"Hey Aang, how's it going?"
Aang sternly looked at her. "What happened?"
Ty Lee sighed and told Aang about what happened.
When Katara woke up, she found she was in a nice room with a comfortable bed she was laying on. There were paintings of Ba Sing Se, Omashu, the North and South poles, and even a few of the air temples. What was weird is that the painter must have been brilliant, because the paintings looked extravagant. She then looked around the room for an escape, and saw both a door and a window. She looked out the window to see she was in some sort of cave, and if she were to drop, it would be 200 ft. downwards.
Click!
Katara turned around to see a man in a silver mask, resembling a bird's beak and two tiny black eyes. He was very tall, and scrawny looking. He was wearing a grey jacket, and black pants. He was standing by the doorway, casually standing there. Katara advanced toward him.
"Who are you?" She asked.
The man tilted his head, as if pondering her question, before finally shrugging.
"Let me go."
The man shook his head.
"Falcon, leave, will you? You're going to frighten poor Katara."
Both the man in the mask and Katara turned around to see an eighteen year old man sitting in a chair behind a desk. He had a pair of round glasses, and a white tuxedo on his pale, rather fragile looking body. He had a warm, pleasant face, with medium length black hair, and white teeth formed in the shape of a grin.
The man referred to as Falcon left, giving a quick bow to the man behind the desk.
Katara was now alone with this man. He was busy pouring tea into two glasses. She decided she was through with being polite. She waterbended the tea and held both of his hands to the wall, freezing the tea so he was stuck.
"Who are you, and why am I here!" Katara screamed.
The man looked at Katara, showing a little irritation.
"Now Katara, was that really necessary? I mean, you always were the calm one."
Katara furrowed her brow. "What do you mean?"
The man yawned. "Now now, one question at a time. First off I am Otokorashi Otoko. I am from somewhere you have never heard of, and someplace you'll never see.
Also, You are here because I am.
Next, what I meant was that usually it was Sokka who turned to violence first. But then again you are here without anyone to help you, so technically you were still the last to resort to violence, but still the first."
Katara was getting confused by the man.
"Oh yes, and you can call me Otoko for short, but soon, you'll be referring to me as master."
Katara glared at Otoko. "I don't think so. You're going to help get me out of here, Otoko."
Otoko whistled and soon Falcon came out of nowhere, restraining Katara's arms.
Otoko broke out of the ice. "I did hope you would be more cooperative, I mean, I gave you a luxury room and all. Maybe I know something that'll make you more willing to serve. But don't worry, you'll be able to leave as you like after this."
Otoko walked up close to Katara. She struggled against Falcon's grip, until Otoko placed a finger upon Katara's forehead. His finger started glowing, and soon Katara stopped struggling. She went limp. "That's more like it."
Zuko entered his palace after being away for a few days. He had, for the most part, gotten most of his new duties as fire lord caught up. They were very tedious. He had to settle affairs with either getting rid of fire nation soldiers and families from certain towns, (and that was easier said than done), or trying to help fire nation families settle affairs and be able to stay in the earth nation villages and such, (again, very hard).
Zuko was extremely relieved when he got home. However, his mood changed when he saw Rika and Tanpa Emosi, (two of the guards that worked there).
Rika, who was always smiling and cheery looking, was now bothered looking. Though Tenpa kept his usual emotionless expression.
They both bowed respectively.
"How was your business today sir?" Tanpa asked him.
Zuko didn't respond to him though, as he was to busy looking at Rika's worried expression.
He asked Rika, "What happened?"
Rika looked up at him and bit her lip. "Katara was... uhhhh..."
"What happened?"
Tanpa stepped in. "She was kidnapped by a man in a mask. We don't know where she is now. The avatar and his companions over at Ba Sing Se are sure to work on it."
Zuko rubbed his forehead. "Well, we have to go help them."
Rika nodded her head. "Yeah. let's go!"
As the two of them started walking towards the door, Tanpa shut the door and halted them.
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that." Tenpa's monotone voice didn't falter as he stood facing the now angered fire lord.
Zuko glared at him. "I order you to step down."
Tenpa shook his head. "Sir, you don't have the time to go and search for mistress Katara. You have your own duties as fire lord, and besides, the Avatar will find her."
Rika slouched. "Aw, you're right, but I still wanna be able to do something!"
Suddenly the doors flew open and a man with a red, dragon mask stood there. Before anyone could say anything, he started shooting flames all around the palace interior. Zuko and the two guards took cover.
Tenpa, still bored-looking, glanced over to Rika. "You can start by helping me defend the palace."
Rika flew up into the air and shot some fire at the masked man, while Tenpa ran back to his quarters.
Zuko was also shooting fire at the intruder. "Where is he going!"
Rika flashed a smile. "Oh he'll be back. He's just going to get something."
The intruder easily dodged and blocked the attacks, never really going after either of the two, but continuing to burn down the palace.
Zuko and Rika decided they had to put a stop to him, no matter what. They bother started to draw electricity in the air.
'Even if he can reflect one lightning bolt, there's no way he can deflect two.' Rika thought.
The man looked at the both of them as they released the lightning. He simply turned out of the way as the lightning flew by him, leaving him completely unscathed.
Just then, the man fell. Both Zuko and Rika were surprised at first, but then they saw Tanpa holding a weird contraption.
Tanpa yawned. "Well, that was uneventful."
The duo gave him an astonished look. They turned to look back at the intruder, but found only a small pool of blood and a note where he had been laying.
Tanpa walked over and picked up the note. 'Warm regards from Mr. Otoko.' He then looked up at the two of them. "Now I get it. We're going to Ba Sing Se."
The two gave him a questioning glance, but then Rika smiled. "Yay! We get to see Aang and the guys again!"
I'm terrible at ending chapters... and writing for that matter, but oh well. Sorry if it was worse than you were expecting, and sorry it took so long. Hopefully the next chapter will be sooner. Until then, good-bye. :)