Summary: Sokka and Toph are captured and taken to one of Zuko's outposts. When force fails, Katara has to resort to another talent, one she didn't even know she had.
The Gang had stopped in a small town while on their way to Kyoshi Island. They needed to restock or there wouldn't be enough food to for them to make it all the way to Kyoshi.
"How much money do we have left?" Asked Toph.
"Not much," said Katara, "but it's enough for us to get some food."
"Well, I'm tired," said Sokka, "I think I'll just go to sleep while you guys get food."
Katara's head snapped around so fast, she appeared to crick her neck.
"Oh hell no Sokka, you are either going to go to the market with us or your going to stay here and set up camp. You're not going to go to sleep while everyone else does work."
"Fine," said Sokka, "I'll stay here and set up camp."
"I'll stay too," said Toph, "markets are not my thing."
"Me and Momo will go with you to the market, Katara," said Aang. "I can fly us there, so we can get back faster."
"Actually, Aang, I think it would be better if we walked. We don't want to draw attention to ourselves, you know, with Azula and Zuko on our trail."
"Okay," said Aang, "but it's getting late and we'd better hurry before the market closes."
"Yeah, go on," said Sokka, "me and Toph will take care of everything."
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1 hour later
Toph had gone to the stream to bathe, trusting Sokka to finish assembling the tents. Sokka was fast asleep in the half finished tents.
Toph was washing when she heard a noise, but she wasn't sure because she couldn't really tell in water.
"Whose there?" She called
No one answered.
Toph waded over to the other side of the stream and grabbed her clothes so she could kind of wrap herself up before getting out of the stream.
"Whose there?" She asked a little louder.
Still no one answered, but Toph felt something move, she turned, ready to earth bend when a piercing shriek echoed through the forest as Toph was grabbed from behind and pulled deep into the forest.
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Katara and Aang froze on their way back from the market.
"What was that noise?" asked Aang.
"It sounded a lot like Toph." Said Katara.
"We better hurry back to camp, I don't like the sound of this." Said Aang, "actually, I'm going to fly ahead to make sure everything's alright."
"And leave me here?" Asked Katara, "If that really was Toph, we need to not draw attention to ourselves. Come on, let's just hurry."
"Okay," Aang sighed, "Let's just hurry."
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Sokka's nap was interrupted by a scream from the forest.
"Can you keep it down?" Sokka yelled, "Some of us are trying to sleep."
He sat up and looked around, the campsite was deserted with the exception of Appa who was also sleeping.
"Toph?" He whispered. "Aang? Katara?"
A rustle came from the trees around him. Sokka pulled out his club and advanced slowly on the bushed. Right as he reached them, he paused, waiting, listening. It was completely silent, nothing moved.
Sokka jumped through the bushes, swinging his club madly, but then he realized there was nothing there. He sighed, and then turned around to go back to the camp.
He turned, gasped and swung his club, but a hand was quickly pressed over his mouth and he dropped it. He turned, his eyes wide to look at his captors.
"Well, well, well, the Avatar's companions." Said a familiar voice.
Companions? Sokka looked to his side and saw Toph, struggling to free herself from her captor.
"You two are coming with me." The figure stepped into the light and Sokka could see that it was Zuko.
It had been a while since either of them had seen him, not since they left Ba Sing Se. He looked pretty much the same, still dressed like an earth kingdom peasant, but he was leading a whole army of Fire nation troops.
Oh no, thought Sokka, this is definitely not good.
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Katara and Aang ran towards the campsite, but before they got there, they heard voices that they knew were not those of Sokka and Toph.
"What do we do?" Katara whispered.
"Get down," Aang hissed.
Together they crawled forward until they reached the edge of the bushes, peering through them, they saw Sokka, Toph, and even Appa, being chained up and dragged away.
"What do we do?" Asked Katara.
"There's too many of them for just us two to take."
"We can't just sit here and watch them take Sokka, Toph, and Appa."
"We have to," said Aang, "we're going to have to rescue them later. There's nothing we can do now."
So Katara and Aang watched helplessly from the bushes as their two best friends and animal companion were being dragged off to some unknown fire nation prison.
A/N: I'll try to update soon, review please :)