A/N: I should be working on those other stories of mine but my interest for them dried up, so while I wait for much needed inspiration to hit I decided to start this story. I've never wrote anything Avatar related before so tell me if the characters seem completely screwy so I can improve and please take into mind that Sokka and Katara are still rather young in this chapter so might seem sort of… off.

This story has no pairings at the current time and probably won't in the future either.

Disclaimer: I take no ownership of Avatar: The Last Airbender those rights belong to someone else.

Prologue

Discomfort twisted its way up into the child's gut, his fingers tightened in response and bore into the plush cushions of the humming truck.

Cold air bit mercilessly at his exposed face despite the furry hood drawn over his head.

His nose had gone numb hours ago and his cheeks were sure to follow shortly but this wasn't what had Sokka at unease.

Sure the lack of heat in this vehicle was unpleasant but he could deny the tingling sensation with every ounce of stubbornness his young age had to offer. It was harder to ignore his need to simply scream out a senseless statement that maybe with all his mad hopes could make this situation stop.

He squirmed against the restraints of his seatbelt attempting to straighten up to a reasonable height that would allow him to see over the dashboard. He stopped his attempts shortly though worried that he would disturb his slumbering sister whose warm form was pushed up against his own.

So instead he focused his attention to their father in the driver's seat, noticing that that serious gaze was fixed intently upon the foggy glass. No, not on it… through it, at the furious winds of snow that beat against the outside of the truck with a constant sound- a sound that seemed to loll into the background as time progressed and the swishing of the windshield wipers had seized halfway through one of their many arches, stuck in the frost.

"D-dad…" Before Sokka had been unaware of his fear as he mistaken the cause of his trembling as the chill surrounding them.

As the words spilled from his chapped lips though he heard the stutter in his own ears and the noise disturbed him though his tongue drew on. "Wh-ere are we… going?" He tried to keep his tone steady but felt the crackle in his sore throat and knew he failed.

For a few drawn out seconds that seemed to trickle into the hours, Sokka had thought that their father was ignoring him. It was then that he was sure his heart sped up as the white mist somehow fled from his mouth slower with each held breath.

Then when the breath finally whistled out of his own lungs he doubted his ears as his father's voice wavered, "I'm… not really… sure." As all the doubts of these last couple days were exposed with that one statement, the creature --Sokka had defined as dread-- twisted up from his gut into his chest, squeezing his heart mercilessly.

He turned against his seatbelt, the strap digging into his thick parka.

He felt his sister squirm against him, her bright blue eyes flickering open to blink drowsily at him, though he was too distracted to notice.

"What do you mean?" Sokka felt all his confusion and fear surfacing as a more containable emotion. "How can you say that?" He shifted with discomfort, his cool blue eyes fixed on the floor as it seemed to bump beneath them with each snowy mound they ascended.

His gaze narrowed snapping towards the driver. "All this running." He felt the volume of his voice rising, attempting to cover the stronger emotions beneath it. "What's it for? Tell me dad… why?… why are we doing this?!"

He felt his sister tremble against him but didn't notice till his father told him to calm down because he was frightening her. In that instant he felt his muscles tighten, he never wanted Katara to have to feel fear specially if it was because of him.

He considered apologizing before the idea was cut short.

The engine was making a rather unpleasant trumping sound, the vehicle's shaking becoming more defined as it slowed in a thick bank of snow, it released a snort from under the hood and came to complete stop. Sokka sunk back in his seat and listened to the trunk's whines of protest as his father turned the key a few times.

His sister had clung desperately to his father as he opened the door and a freezing gust howled into the tiny compartment, scattering what little warmth it had managed to retain before.

Sokka pushed back against the cushions hoping they'd devour him as he rubbed his gloved hands up and down his arms trying to gather heat beneath the sleeves.

His mind was drifting as he squeezed his eyes shut listening as their father finally gave into his sister and brought her outside with him, and the door was slammed shut.

Suddenly cut off from all those loud sounds the rest had fallen to a dull melodic hum, its consistency slowly lolling him off to sleep, noises distancing themselves and fading into the background of his mind.

--

BANG!

--

Sokka straightened up biting back a cry as the seatbelt snapped him back against the seat. His fingers struggling desperately to the buckle that suddenly seemed extremely stubborn as his senses drown in the screaming of his sister.

Everything was happening to quickly for his whip lashed mind. Trembles traveling through his fingertips and up his arms as he kicked open the dashboard, panting against his restraints as he tried to twist sideways in them and grab the pocketknife.

It was only the faintest comfort when he felt the cool metal through his gloves and he began to saw wildly at the thick threading of his seatbelt. He begged and begged in his mind-- he couldn't calm down as all the terrible possibilities ran through his head over and over.

When it snapped he stumbled forward throwing himself at the driver side door but froze when he heard voices just outside.

"HOLD HER STILL!"

By the volume of their voice he could tell they were calling to someone some ways away and that their footsteps were soon headed in the same direct. Sokka straightened up and peered through the glass seeing the faint outlines of crystal water dancing through the whipping snow. His lips tighten-- Katara.

He wasn't going to let anyone hurt his sister!

Sokka slipped the knife in his pants' pocket and jumped into the driver's seat gripping the key that had been abandoned in the ignition.

A single twist and he felt the vehicle roar to life around him, hanging off the edge of the seat he hung his toes downward a pushed them against the nearest pedal. The truck trembled as snow lashed around it, then it suddenly surged forward.

Shadows scattered through the snow with yells of surprise, humanoid forms diving out of the way.

Sokka could see his father bowed figure as he was shoved face first into a distant vehicle, he tried to turn in that direction, the steering wheel cool beneath his numb fingers. The unfamiliar forms pointed their riffles toward him though and he had to swerve madly to the left to prevent the bullets from puncturing the windshield, hearing the clunks of them bouncing heavily off the side.

The tires lost traction on the ice and the speed was suddenly accelerating with no way to steer or slow down.

Sokka felt his breath catching in his throat and he pulled his arms over his head, wanting to do nothing more then to curl up in a feeble position and escape this awful situation-- he was going to die. And all he could think of was all the horrible things he hadn't been able to prevent.

This was not how he wanted to remember his life.

He wasn't sure if he screamed or not but there were dark splotches dancing across his vision when he returned to… consciousness?

A twang of pain raged through the back of his head as two identical eyes swam into focus in front of his face. Their mouth was moving and words poured out but to Sokka all it sounded like was gibberish racing across mountains, up and down, up and down… It caused the pain to sharpen and his eyes to tightened as tears pushed out.

The world was rocking and flickering occasionally to darkness. Where were they taking him?

The soft sound of crying filled him and his mind danced around the discomforting noise. He felt his mouth working to its own accord despite how dry his throat felt, "Ka… tara…" It barely reached the level of a whisper but had managed to slow the sobs.

"Sa… Sock… ka?"

Slowly he dared to force his eyes open taking in the small compartment his sister and him were currently occupying. Now it was at least clear that the shaking was not just in his head but instead the movement of the van.

"What's going… on?…" He kept his voice low even as he put his protesting muscles to work and found he could in fact sit up. He turned to his sister and felt a deep stab of anger at her condition.

Though she wasn't actually hurt aside from the few purpling bruises, they had done taboo by tying her up. The ropes were tethered in such a manner that it seemed that only fingers had any hope of movement and they were a rather unpleasant color due to a lack of circulation.

It didn't matter that Katara hadn't answered his question he was already working on undoing the knots. She was for some reason(beyond his understanding) sobbing again though and this drew the attention of the driver who turned in his seat.

Anger was clear on the man's beefy features, "shut up girl-" He paused, eyes swiveling to focus on Sokka who meet his gaze with one of nervous anticipation.

"What are you doing boy?!" His grizzly hand swept toward the siblings and caused the van to swerve when the remaining hand jerked in the same direction as its partner.

Sokka gripped the seat to avoid toppling forward when the man forced the van to a rushed halt on the slippery snow. The driver's door slammed shut and Sokka took this as the best opportunity he would get, turning his attention back to his sister.

He dug the pocket knife from its previously stashed place and attempted to cut the ropes with as much haste as possible without slicing into his sister. He was so focused on this task that he didn't notice the man reappearing before he was ripped away from his sibling.

They had him easily by the collar of his coat. "You better behave, its not necessary for us to take you… you're not "special" like that girl in there." Sokka released a sharp cry as his back made contact with the side of the van and the hand pushed against his throat. Fresh air was no longer making it past his mouth.

"Killing you would have no consequences. Maybe I should do that." He had already seen his uselessness flash before his eyes, he didn't not want to feel like he was going to die again, he wanted to make something of his life first.

He wanted to be able to protect Katara and anyone else he came to care about. To do that he needed to live.

--

The man spluttered, a dark steam of liquid bubbling out from his slightly parted lips where the words died moments before.

For a moment the grip tightened around Sokka's neck and darkness danced across his vision.

Sokka forced his numbing hand into motion and twisted the blade deeper into soft flesh ignoring the disturbing sensation of blood soaking into his gloves and the gurgles surfacing from their man's mouth.

The hand loosened and fell from his throat and Sokka slid limply to the ground.

The motionless body falling onto him as he sucked in a breath and oxygen raced to reach his brain, it was then things started to piece together. The blood was still pooling over him and his hand still gripping the soaked handle.

"Ka… Katara…" His fear surfaced in the half breathed name, his eyes widening as it became clearer.

"KATARA!" He couldn't help it, couldn't help but yell… how else was he suppose to react?

He was so very scared.

Scared of what he'd done.

Reviews are appreciated. Tell me what you think.