This is only my second fan fic on this site so please feel free to let me know what you think! This story takes place after the Invasion, and it's my idea of what would happen if the group had gotten caught instead of being able to escape.
The Avatar stood chained between two pillars, his shredded clothes hanging loosely from his body, his head was down so that his chin nearly touched his chest, his breathing ragged. It had been nearly three days since anyone had come into the room to interrogate him, which also meant it had been three days since he had been given any sort of food or water. His mouth was parched and his stomach was cramping painfully, begging for food. His limbs were numb, his whole body aching from having to hold still for so long. Dragging in a ragged breath his mind wandered to his friends. From what he had overheard the guards say, they had escaped on Appa right before all the adults were captured and taken to the Boiling Rock prison. Katara, a pain went through him as he thought of her. When he had last seen her he was afraid of something happening to him, afraid that he wouldn't see her again, those feelings had overwhelmed him so much that he had ended up doing something he had been wanting to do since he had met her. He had kissed her. And now more than ever he was glad he had. He had come to terms that it would be a very long time before he would ever be able to escape, and he was grateful that he at least had that memory to keep him company during his lonely hours. As exhaustion swept through him, his eyes closed slowly, and his mind wandered back to that moment…
Aang wasn't sure how long he had been out, but he knew there was no way it had been more than twenty minutes. He had found that any chance of real sleep here was impossible with the position he was in. The chains that were around his wrist tore at the soft skin it inslaved whenever he dozed, and he could only ignore the pain for so long before he was pulled from sleep due to the pain. Tiredly he lifted his head to look around the room, and sucked in a startled breath upon the realization that he wasn't alone.
"Well, If it isn't the mighty Avatar." Said the man in the shadows, his voice cold.
"Leave me alone." Aang said, his eyes flashing with hate. How long would it take these people to realize he wasn't going to betray the world and help the Fire Nation?
"Now why would I do that Avatar?" Questioned the man, as he slowly stepped from the shadows. "When we have so much to do."
"Ozai." Whispered Aang, trying to ignore the fear that was rising up as the world's most powerful Fire Bender stood before him.
"I have heard you do not want to join us Avatar. I wonder why that is?" Questioned Ozai softly as he circled Aang.
"You have brought destruction to this world Fire Lord Ozai, I will not betray those who need me." He said, and despite his fear his voice rang clear and strong.
"That, young airbender, is exactly what I was expecting of you." Was Ozai's dark reply. He turned to the door and nodded his head at the guards.
"Let me go!" cried a familiar voice.
"No." Aang whispered, already beginning to struggle against his chains despite that pain shooting up his arms. How could she be here? Thought Aang desperately, I thought the guards said they escaped on Appa.
Three guards walked in, having a difficult time, as the water tribe girl between then fought with every step. She swung her fist violently, kicking at the legs of the guards who were dragging her. Her clothes were torn and dirty, her hair was loose, its dark mass tangling behind her as she struggled.
Throughout this Ozai stared at her, his eyes glinting with malice. He turned to Aang. "She's quite beautiful, for water tribe scum. Don't you think Avatar?"
At the word Avatar, Aang watched helplessly as Katara whipped her head in his direction. "Aang!" she shouted and struggled even harder to be free of her guards. Her eyes filled with tears as her struggles proved to be useless and she realized just how much danger they were both in.
Ozai's vicious laughter filled the room as he watched Katara's desperate attempts to get to her friend. Slowly he walked over to her and roughly grabbed her wrist, pulling her close to him. He looked sideways at Aang. "It would be such a horrible fate, if your friend were to get burned." He said slowly as a flame began to take form in his palm.
"Stop it!" Aang heard a voice scream, vaguely recognizing it as his own as he struggled against the chains.
Ozai ignored his pleas as the flame got dangerously close to Katara's face, forcing her to turn her head away and squeeze her eyes shut in fear. "Don't touch her!" Aang screamed again, oblivious to the rivlets of blood from the wrist chains making their way down his arm as he struggled.
Ozai looked at the boy and then said in a deadly voice. "You will do as I say."
Helplessly Aang nodded his head, knowing he would do anything to keep Katara safe. "Let her go and I'll do whatever you want."
"No Aang!" shouted Katara, her eyes flashing up at him in alarm. "The world needs you Aang!" she cried.
"You should be thanking your friend, because of him you will live to see another day." Reasoned Ozai as he signaled for the guards to take her away.
"No!" she screamed as they grabbed her arms, "Aang no! I'm not important," she told him, tears falling freely as she managed to get within a couple feet of him.
"You are extremely important Katara, never forget that." Aang told her, his voice fierce as he tried to convey with his eyes just how important she was.
"Aang, I love you!" she sobbed as the guards successfully dragged her out of the room and let the door close loudly behind them.
"It will prove to be difficult my lord. You must expect at the very least a few years before you can once again introduce him into Avatar training. If you try and introduce him into the familiar too soon then he could very easily begin to remember things that we don't want him to." Said the older man to Ozai.
"What about the water tribe girl?" Questioned the fire lord. "Could she be helpful in speeding up the process?"
"Unfortunatly no, right now we just need time, and a lot of it. He feels very strongly about protecting the world, and the monks have instilled a very strong sense of right and wrong. We will need time to re-program his mind to go against what he had been taught for tweleve years. Using her to try and hurry up the process will back fire. We do not want to be constantly re-uniting him with close friends." Replied the man as he looked back to Ozai.
"How long do you think it will take to make him forget everything?" He asked, his voice betraying none of his thoughts.
"That should only take a few months," at Ozai's raised eyebrows he continued "I am very good at making people forget things my lord, what will take the longest is making sure he won't remember."
"Very well. I will give you five years to re-program the Avatar. When I call on him in five years he is to believe that he was born fire nation, he will have gone to a proper fire nation school so that he becomes close to our great country. And of course, he is not to remember that he can bend other elements, that is absolutely essential to the plan." Stated Ozai.
"Yes my lord, however I'm not sure just how receptive the boy will be to switching his natural element of airbending to firebending." He said nervously.
"I am sure that you will figure it out. You don't wish to disappoint me." Said Ozai dangerously.
"Yes my lord, he will be ready for when you call on him." The old man reassured him quickly, knowing just what his fate would be if he disappointed the fire lord.
Content that his plan would go without a hitch, Ozai walked out the door and paused only long enough to say briefly to the guards, "kill the water tribe girl."
Katara awoke slowly, the wind gently tugging at her hair as they soared through the sky.
"Hey Katara, your awake!" yelled Sokka, relief filling his voice as he wrapped his sister into a bear hug which she returned fiercely.
"Hey sugar queen!" she heard Toph say excitedly "I'm glad you finally woke up, you were really starting to worry us." Katara turned and gave Toph a hug, not caring that the other girl wasn't into them.
"She's awake?" came a voice that instantly caught Katara's attention.
"What's he doing here?" she practiacally screamed as her eyes fell onto Zuko who was sitting atop Appa's head, stering the giant beast.
"Katara wait!" shouted Sokka as she began walking menacingly toward Zuko. "He saved us! We would be dead now if he hadn't helped us!"
"What?" she stopped dead and turned to look at her brother, disbelief etched into her face.
"If Zuko hadn't busted us out of the cells we were in then we would still be back in the fire nation facing death." Said Sokka quietly, his eyes haunted.
"Why would he do that," demanded Katara, " when all he's ever wanted was to capture-Aang!" the last word came as a scream as she realized just how he looked when she last saw him.
"Where is he?" she shouted frantically at her friends.
"We couldn't get to him Katara." Said Zuko softly, his voice full of sorrow.
"You have no idea what he's going through!" she yelled at Zuko. "There torturing him! We have to go back!" Pushing Zuko roughly aside she grabbed the reins and turned Appa back toward the fire nation.
"Katara wait!" Resoned Sokka, "we need help. There's no way we can get to Aang right now with just us."
"Sokka you don't understand!" she yelled, she didn't care how reasonable his argument was when all she could picture was Aang bloody and helpless in the same room as the fire lord. A shudder went through her at the thought. He needs us. She thought fiercly.
"They won't kill him." Said Zuko quietly. "They want to have him on their side, so while he might get hurt, they won't kill him."
"Oh well then that's ok." Said Katara sarcastically, her eyes scanning the sky waiting to see the lights of the fire nation.
"Katara." Said Toph sharply, causing the older girl to look back. "Look at us, we can't get to Aang by ourselves. We need help." Sensing that the other girl wasn't really paying attention she shouted, "look at us!"
Angrily Katara looked over at her friend and brother, and felt all her hope of saving Aang vanish. Toph had burn marks on her legs and feet, Sokka was nursing what appeared to be a broken arm, and both were covered in cuts in bruises. A glance next to her showed that Zuko wasn't in much better shape.
"We can't abandon him." She whispered mostly to herself.
"We aren't abandoning Twinkle Toes." Said Toph fiercely. "We are doing what it takes to save him. We won't be any help to him if we go in there and get ourselves captured. We have to think this through."
Not liking it, but accepting there was no other choice, Katara climbed back into Appa's saddle next to Sokka and Toph. Quietly she began to tend to their wounds while they started going over names of people who would help them save Aang. After a few minutes of silence Katara looked over at Zuko and back, a questioning look in her eyes.
"He's safe Katara." Said Sokka quietly. "He really did save us, and while I fully intend to keep a close eye on him, I really do believe he switched sides."
"I'll trust him once he helps us save Aang for once." Was her weak reply as she found she could no longer fight sleep, and her eyes drifted closed.