Disclaimer: I don't own avatar the last airbender or any of its characters. I doubt any 14 year olds do.

Forgot to put that on the prologue, so yeah. Enjoy :)

Chapter One

Sokka sat staring out the window at the rain that tapped persistently against it. Katara still hadn't arrived and it had been a week now. He sighed and closed his cobalt eyes, falling asleep on the table.

oOo

Mai's eyes flashed in the darkness and she lifted the latch on the window that separated her from Katara's brother. The boys face was squashed into the table and a puddle of drool had formed beneath him, he muttered something about boomerangs and frowned in his sleep. Mai smirked, by the looks of it this boy would be easy to fool. She slipped his boomerang from its sheath and stabbed a piece of yellowed parchment into the table next to his face.

Mai disappeared out the window and watched as the rising sun made Sokka stir in discomfort. His eyes fluttered open and he jumped back at the sight of the boomerang embedded in the table. The chair collapsed beneath him and he landed on the floor, winded.

She bit back laughter at the sight of him and smiled when his eyes widened in shock at the message she left.

We have your sister. If you want to see her again alive you will follow these instructions carefully.

Sokka's head stuck out the window and he looked around, not noticing Mai who stood in the shadows.

'Katara.' His broken hearted whisper was followed by a tear slowly tracking down his cheek.

oOo

The bar was dark and crowded with large men who stared at Sokka like he was an animal ready to be attacked and eaten. He walked to the bar and sat the last stool. The woman next him turned and he held his breath.

'I see you decided to save your sister.'

He nodded. The letter had instructed him to stay completely silent.

'Well then, come with me.' She stood up and her willowy figure loomed over him, threatening, though Sokka had the feeling that it was unintentional.

She led him out the bar through the back exit and they walked through the labyrinth of the streets that spanned out across the fire nation. It was silent but for the sound of their footsteps and Sokka felt the need to talk or at least make some kind of noise. 'So, err,' His voice cut through the silence and he winced as Mai's head snapped up. 'What do I call you?'

She glared at him. 'You were told not to talk, don't make the mistake again.' She looked down. 'And you can call me Dão.' She added as an afterthought.

'Dão? As in Knife? That can't be your real name.'

'I told you not to talk!' She hissed at him and Sokka looked to the sky.

'Tui give me strength!'

Preoccupied as he was, with looking at the moon, Sokka didn't notice the litter that covered the ground and he fell with a crash. Mai whirled around to face him and rolled her eyes in annoyance when she saw what had happened.

Sokka had some type of drink covering his feet and sandals and fire flakes in his hair. Mai dragged him to his feet and carried on walking.

Smack! Smack!

The sticky leather sandals slapped the paving with every step Sokka took and Mai's eyes narrowed a little more with each step he took. She forced herself to breathe slowly and continue without punching her captive.

'Where's Katara?' Sokka suddenly remembered why he was with her and his voice was no longer a whiny squeak, it became commanding and Mai had to look at him to make sure it was his mouth that those words came out of.

'I'm taking you to where she'll be. Don't worry.'

'You mean that she's not there yet?'

'Not yet.' Her voice signalled that she wouldn't take any more words leaving his lips. Sokka scowled and bumped into her when she stopped abruptly.

She lifted a grate from the ground and shoved him in the hole, jumping in acrobatically and landing lightly on her feet over Sokka who lay confused on the floor. His wolf tail had come out of its binding and his dark hair lay around him like a halo.

'Where are we?' Sokka's voice was riddled with fear as he looked around what appeared to be an underground office. Mai glared at him and he sat up. 'Hey Dão your little note said I shouldn't talk on the journey. It never mentioned the destination.'

Mai sighed at the thought of having to endure him talking for the next few hours. She grabbed a chair and he sat in it obediently, the threat of Katara's wellbeing hanging over his head like a cloud. She secured him quickly with strong ropes and used the wraps over his wrists to gag him.

Sokka's cobalt eyes betrayed enough emotion that he didn't have to speak to communicate. They glazed over as he thought about Katara, and Mai didn't miss it.

'I'm going to get your sister now.' She laughed and climbed back out the grate, replacing it behind her.

oOo

Her plan was simple and she smiled at the beauty of it. Once she had located Katara she knew that it would be nigh on impossible to capture her, so instead, she took Sokka first. Mai knew he would believe her without proof of Katara being missing. But Katara would come quietly as long as she had something of Sokka's.

And there she was, standing not more than eight feet from Mai, wandering down the street, finally on her way to meet her brother. The streets were teeming with life and the midday sun beat down on her as she tried to keep up whilst looking like she wasn't stalking the girl before her.

It was really quite hard.

Katara stuck out like a sore thumb in her blue water tribe clothing that was covered in a sea of red and gold and black. She glanced about her every few minutes, knowing that someone was following her. She reached a fork in the street and turned off into the side road that was empty but for one homeless man who was unconscious in the shadows.

Katara pulled the wine from the bottle the man was holding and pressed herself to the wall of the alley, knowing her stalker would turn the corner at any moment.

oOo

Mai cursed. She had lost Katara, somewhere the girl had turned the corner and Mai had missed her doing so. She shrugged to herself and made her way back to Sokka's room at the inn to wait for the water tribe girl to appear.

oOo

She tugged at the furniture and the table fell over with a satisfying thump. Despite Mai's skill with any number of weapons and her average skill with acrobatics, she didn't really have much brute strength which would have come in useful right about then. She carried on making a mess that could have been mistaken for a fight and then sat on the roof and waited for Katara to appear.

It took longer than she expected.

oOo

Katara waited in the shadows of the alley for several minutes, surprised her stalker hadn't appeared yet. After ten minutes she tired and bent the borrowed wine back into the bottle. After twenty minutes Katara finally decided to move, and she took a long convoluted route through the city before finally ending up at the inn that she and Sokka had arranged to meet at.

By this time it was dark and the stars had begun to twinkle in the sky. Mai stirred on the roof, her boredom edging away to be replaced by anticipation. The waterbender had walked into the building just a moment ago and Mai was ready to hear her screams.

And Katara did scream. She walked into the room and slipped on a vase that had 'fallen'. The floor went out from under her and Mai slunk into the room to make her grand appearance. The smirk that Mai had on her face was quickly wiped away and replaced by a look of extreme surprise.

The water tribe girl, Katara was unconscious on the floor and certainly didn't see Mai's grand entrance. She scowled and dropped a large amount of water on Katara's face.

Katara blinked and a dark face swam into her vision. It looked mildly annoyed.

'Oh good, you're alive.' The voice matched the face, dark and bored. 'I know you're in no condition to move right now. Probably. So just listen, I have your brother and unless you come with me, you'll never see him again.'

Katara spat, she'd hit her head and had been left with a dizzying concussion that made her world spin. 'How do I know you really have Sokka?'

Mai smiled, she'd been hoping that Katara would ask that. She waved a blue necklace before Katara's eyes, which widened first in surprise and then in fear. It was the necklace Sokka was going to give to his girlfriend Suki. It had taken him months to carve it.

'I see you recognise this necklace then. I took it from your brothers' pocket after I tied him up.'

'Take me to see him.'

Mai frowned. 'You're in no position to bargain with me.'

Katara was still on the floor and unable to move, she knew if she sat up she would vomit. But that didn't stop her from flicking some water from the vase of flowers into Mai's face. 'I wasn't bargaining.'

Mai pulled out one of her shuriken daggers. 'Well you should have been.'

The dagger twirled between her fingers and Katara's eyes fixated on the blade.

'Now are we going to see your brother?'

Katara nodded meekly.

'And are you going to be quiet while we do so?'

Another nod.

'Alright then.' Mai stood up and pulled Katara up with her. The world spun again and Katara stumbled.

'I can see this is going to be a fun journey.' Mai drawled as Katara collapsed in her arms, her stability gone.

oOo

They finally reached the office, by sunrise. It took the entire night because Katara lost consciousness several times and Mai couldn't carry her very far. They also had to travel at snail's pace, which annoyed Mai to no end, so that Katara wouldn't vomit. Which she did. Twice.

Of course when they got into the office Katara fell asleep where she landed. Sokka's hair was still out of its wolf tail and he had fallen asleep, despite the stress he should have been under. Mai stared in amazement. He still managed to drool and there was a small puddle on the floor that was growing rather rapidly. She slid the necklace back into his pocket and sat down, ready for the mind games.

oOo

Katara woke with a pounding headache but she felt better than the day before. Her brother was staring directly at her, still tied to the chair. She rushed over and tore at the rope with her fingers, not bothering to try and untie it. Her fingers came back bloody and Sokka turned to face her, free.

'Are you ok?'

'Why wouldn't I be? You're the one who was captured Sokka.'

'What? No, Mai told me she had you.'

'Oh no.' Katara breathed deeply. 'She tricked us. She didn't have me Sokka. She caught you and used you to catch me.'

Sokka's tan face turned red with embarrassment and he looked at the ground. 'I'm so sorry I put us in danger Katara.'

'It's ok. We'll get out of this, just wait and see.'

Mai stepped in and pointed to Katara. Two men dressed in black walked in, with an almost casual demeanour and grabbed one of Katara's arms each. She screamed and Sokka grabbed at the men, trying to pull them off of her. The larger one punched him in the throat and Sokka fell with a cry.

'SOKKA!'

'Leave now or he gets hurt in ways that'll do much more than bruise.' Mai stared at Katara as she made eye contact, unblinking. Katara looked long enough to see that Mai was serious and then her body went slack in submission.

'Ok. Ok.' She whispered and then men carried her out of the room, through a labyrinth of what should have been sewer systems.

'Where are we?' Katara breathed in wonder, though she hated to admit it, she was impressed.

'You're inside the Gunners Fold.'

Katara was shocked into silence. The Gunners Fold was a group of assassins that worked in the Fire Nation. Nobody crossed them if they wanted to live. All the commoners knew that the Gunners only killed on commission unless people got in their way. And most Gunners love to kill, so it was any excuse to do so.

'Where are we going?'

'My, my, you're full of questions today.' Mai sighed, uninterested in every aspect. 'If you must know, we're going to the main hall. You're going to The Gunners Lead. Of course you probably don't know who they are. They're the leaders of The Gunners Fold.'

'It's pretty self-explanatory.' Katara muttered.

'What? No fear?' Mai's voice dripped with sarcasm so Katara decided to do the same.

'Oh no. Inside I'm a petrified little baby. Really.'

oOo

The journey was short, although unsurprisingly Mai still found herself bored. They reached the grand doors that signalled the main hall and Katara was surprised to see a symbol for each nation carved into it.

The guards stepped away from Katara and pushed open the doors with an almighty shove that left them banging against the walls. Mai all but waltzed in there to show the Gunners Lead her prize.

'Dão why have you called us here?' The first Lead spoke, his voice was deep and solemn.

'You know my commissioner. Well here's my plan: I want lovely little Katara to join us.'

'WHAT? NO! I'LL NEVER DO IT!' Katara's screams made Mai smile a little.

'You will. If your brother's in danger. And,' she paused dramatically, 'he is.'

'I can't kill anyone. Not ever.' She whispered, even though she knew she would. For Sokka. He was the only family Katara had left, the only person she had to remind her of home.

'Your commissioner is someone of importance Mai so we will follow this through. But do not come to us with such an unruly plan again. She is your responsibility.' The first Lead spoke again. Then he turned to Katara. 'Congratulations.'

Just a quick note :)

Sokka says 'Tui give me strength' because there is no avatar and no war Yue doesn't become the moon spirit and Tui doesn't die. The characters don't know each other except Katara and Sokka (obviously) because they're siblings.

I still put Sokka with Suki though because I just love them together and because there was no war they could have met on their travels anyways so yeah.

Also just a reminder that Sokka isn't as mature as he is by the end of avatar because he hasn't faced everything he had in the original story line. He will develop through the story though so.. yeah :)

Thanks to moonwilow for my first review! :D