Ch 1:

"He's here!"

"Let's go, Katara!"

As Sokka grabbed her hand, Katara turned to Aang one more time.

"You'll be careful, Aang? Don't forget to use your signal if you get into trouble. Zuko has a lot of soldiers. It won't be easy to hold them off. If you have to leave..."

"Katara! He'll be fine! We have to go, now!" Sokka jerked on Katara's arm while worry filled her eyes as she looked at Aang. He grinned at her.

"Don't worry, Katara. I'm too fast for Zuko. I'll see you in less than an hour."

Katara waved goodbye as Sokka pulled her into the forest. The two siblings raced towards the shore. As they ran, Katara couldn't help but feel guilty about leaving Aang to face Zuko alone.

Sokka led her to the edge of a cliff, about twenty feet above the ocean.

"Can you bend from here?" he asked.

Katara gave him an arching look. "Of course, I can! What do you think the word Master means?"

"Hey hey calm down! It's not like I'm a bender. You're the one who's supposed to know about all the Magic and spiritual stuff!"

That made her grin before throwing her own snipe at him.

"Just be quiet and stay out of my way."

Katara stepped up to the very edge and began to breathe deeply. With every inhale, she raised her arms and pulled the water up towards her, steadily getting it closer to her and Sokka.

"You're doing great! Almost there!"

Without breaking her concentration, Katara pulled water from her water skin with one hand and slammed it into Sokka, flushing him backwards.

"What was that for?" he shouted after he was done spitting water.

"Shh" Katara demanded. Sokka muttered something under his breath but Katara ignored him.

It didn't take long for the water to reach them. As soon as it was level with the cliff, Katara froze the top of her pillar. Sokka leapt out onto the ice first and immediately began scrambling to find a way to hang on. Katara gave him another flat look as she followed him onto the ice.

"Sokka, we won't be dropping that fast. You don't need to panic like this. I'll keep the water steady."

"You might lose control! What do I do then? I'm just a poor bendless guy who'll be falling into the ocean over a chunk of ice."

"Sokka!"

"I like to be prepared! Now come on! We're running out of time. Zuko's probably already found Aang!"

Katara scowled but did as requested and began to reverse her movements from before, pushing her arms down as she bended down instead of up, taking them to the surface of the ocean. The last five feet she simply dropped them, smiling as she made Sokka scream.

"Oh, you poor bendless guy," she said.

Sokka simply muttered again, something she didn't catch.

"What was that?"

"Nothing. Just remind me to never team up with you again. Let's go."

"Ok, this is the part where you'll want to hang on," Katara told him as she iced her feet to hold her steady. She repeated the process for Sokka, and molded handholds into the ice for him as well. Once Sokka was ready, Katara leaned forward and reached her arms towards the horizon, before snapping them to her sides, sending her ice float shooting across the ocean. She kept near the cliffs, making it nearly impossible for Zuko and his soldiers that were probably scouring the island by now to see them unless they came to the edge.

Katara began to round the island, coming near to the place they'd seen Zuko and his crew disembark. Sokka cried out.

"There's his ship! About fifty yards from the shore!"

"I see it," Katara called back.

"This is the risky part. You have to go fast. Remember, if Zuko sees us, he'll head straight to the beach and come back to his ship."

"I know. Hold on tight!" Katara said before she snapped her arms again, this time keeping them a bit flared behind her. Her fingers were flexed as if they were actually pushing against the water, making Sokka and Katara shoot across the water. She leaned her body towards the direction of the ship and the ice followed her lead. As soon as they had a straight shot to it, Katara straightened and refocused on getting her and her brother to that ship as fast as possible.

"Almost there. Almost there. Almost there," Sokka began to chant.

They had nearly made it to the ship when they heard the horn. Katara looked down at Sokka, dread across both their features.

"They saw us."

"What do we do, Sokka?"

"We hurry," he said grimly.

Katara nodded and brought them swiftly to the side of the ship before shooting the ice up to the deck, simultaneously shattering the ice boots that connected Sokka and her to her ice float. The siblings tumbled onto the deck before leaping up and dashing towards the tower that dominated the back half of the ship. Katara summoned water from the ocean, trying to save what was in her satchel, and blasted open the single door, taking down three guards who were running up behind it to reach the deck.

"Nice shot,"Sokka said with a grin before unsheathing his club. He took the next two guards who came up the hallway at them, bashing them on their heads and knocking them out. Zuko apparently had taken most of his soldiers because no one else came at Katara and Sokka as they headed down the ship. When they reached the engines, Katara wished Sooka luck before dashing further below. Pretty soon, the stairs ended and Katara knew she had reached the bottom of the ship.

"This should be good," she said as she pulled water from her satchel. With swift movements, Katara began to bend the water to slash across the floor, making an x in the ground. She knew she didn't have much time but if she could just break through the metal, she would succeed in sinking the ship.

Katara could sense the metal was extremely thick with every cut she made. She couldn't even feel the ocean that was surrounding her.

The cuts she was making were only a few inches deep when she heard boots stomping on the staircase above her. Furiously, she bended even faster. She could hear them getting closer and knew soon they'd be at the engines. Katara prayed that Sokka had been able to get off the ship. If he could make it to the water, he would be ok. He'd always been a strong swimmer and if they tried any fire attacks on him, Sokka could hold his breath for a very long time.

Just a little more, Katara thought.

"There's someone down in the hull!"

Katara whipped around in time to see a soldier running at her as he called for reinforcements. He raised a spear, and thrusted it at her. Katara almost smirked as she danced out of the way. The boy soldier trying to take her on could hardly be older than Sokka and was much slower than her brother.

Katara had to make this quick, before any experienced soldiers found her. She swirled her water over her head, freezing it before clubbing it into the poor boy's head, effectively knocking him out. Katara rushed to the stairs and charged up them. Running footsteps were echoing around her and Katara couldn't tell what direction they were coming from. She was nearing the engine level when she met the first wave of defenses. Five soldiers, three firebenders and two foot soldiers rushed down towards her. The fire blasted at her forced her to leap backwards in a spin and then duck to keep from being burned. She quickly stepped into her waterbending stance and circled her water around her waist. Rushing at the soldiers, Katara twisted and lept, knocking the water against her attackers and swiftly taking them down before continuing her mad dash up the stairs. The next few soldiers who came to meet her were rewarded with whippings to their chests, sending them tumbling over the stair railing.

Katara was nearly to the top of the stairs when another group of soldiers caught up to her. They came running up behind her, blasting fire at the door she'd been planning to go through. The metal turned white from the heat of the multiple firebenders. Katara raced up the final few steps before turning her attention to the soldiers. Water spun out in a wave, taking down the first soldiers before Katara recalled it. Forming a wall of ice, Katara used her fists to punch daggers from her wall to stun or pin back the soldiers. She soon realized how swiftly this move was wasting her water and resorted back to whips and jets of water that were easier to return to her meager supply.

More and more soldiers came, never giving her a chance to use her water to cool down the door behind her. It was becoming harder to keep fighting. She couldn't risk her water being turned to steam so whenever fire came at her she was forced to duck, spin, or leap away. The firebenders had now realized this and were attacking with more ferocity every minute.

The fire drove her away from the door and began backing her into a corner. Her moves were becoming desperate as she began to feel exhaustion settling over her. She fought and dodged, slowly giving ground as they pushed her further from the only door she knew of that would allow her to escape.

So consumed was she in keeping herself from getting burned, she almost missed hearing the door open. Katara spun towards it, planning to rush outside and suffer whatever fire came her way but was stopped in her tracks by Zuko's flames, just before his foot came up and smashed her into the wall.
Darkness ensued instantly.