Chapter Two:
The Rescue

"You, what!?"

Aang smiled timidly at Sokka's screech. "I kinda got captured…"

Sokka kept staring at him with some mixture of disbelief and disgust, but hey, it got him to stop complaining about the frogs.

"How could you be so careless!" Katara said, more worried than angry.

"I was careful!" Aang said. "But there were these archers -"

"Archers!" Sokka wailed.

"Yeah, and they pinned down my clothes so I couldn't move. They took me to a fortress and locked me up there -"

"Fortress!"

"I think they were going to take me to the Fire Nation. And Zhao was there, too."

"Zhao, too?" Sokka groaned. "Katara, we are never going to let Aang out on his own again. Imagine what would have happened if he couldn't escape!"

"That's the thing. I didn't escape; I was rescued."

"Rescued?" Katara said. "By who? Where are they?"

Aang twiddled his thumbs nervously. "Yeah, about that… He was wearing this creepy blue mask the entire time - almost gave me a heart attack when he first came in, swinging his swords and everything - and then when we almost got away, the archers shot the mask and knocked him out. I wanted to carry him back but there were too many arrows and - and I had to leave him." His face turned downcast. "I have to go back and help him."

Sokka was silent for a moment, as if about to argue, before he gave a defeated sigh. "A rescue for a rescue. I guess it's only fair."

Katara nodded, before adding. "So you didn't get to see his face."

"Actually, I took off the mask when he was unconscious and…" He hesitated. "Look, you might not like who he is, but you guys have to promise me you'll help. Or at least don't try to stop me from trying to rescue him."

"Who could it be? Prince Zuko?" Sokka scoffed. When Aang just looked at him guiltily, Sokka's face went slack. "You're kidding. Right?"

Katara's face was aghast. "Prince Zuko rescued you?"

"And now we have to rescue him."

"Woah, woah, hold on." Sokka's mental gears had ground to a halt. "You do realize that 'Zuko' and 'rescue' do not go together, at all."

"Why would he try and rescue you?"

"To take the glory of capturing Aang for himself, duh!" Sokka shouted, before turning to Aang, hands pressed together and trying to act as rational as possible. "Look, Aang, I know you're all big on the 'there's good in everybody' thing but it's Prince Zuko we're talking about. You know, the guy who crashed into our village, burned down Kyoshi Island, and sent pirates to kidnap us. Not a good guy."

"It's my fault Zuko got captured. If I hadn't gotten caught he wouldn't be in this mess."

Sokka's eye twitched. "Aang, he's Fire Nation, Zhao's Fire Nation, I'm sure he'll be fine."

"But don't you remember Roku's Temple? I don't think Zhao's going to be kind to him just because they're both from the Fire Nation." Aang pleaded. "Look, I know you don't like him but he's not a bad guy. He just ended up on the wrong side of the war."

They stared each other down before Katara huffed and pulled them apart.

"You're right, Aang. I'll help." Here, Aang cheered and whooped while Sokka's jaw dropped in disbelief. "I don't like it, but I'm not about to owe any debts to Prince Zuko."

They both turned. "Sokka?

"We're going to regret this and when we do, don't come crying back to ol' Sokka because he already told you this was gonna to happen!" He fumed, but scooched in closer to their little circle. "So what's the plan? We can't exactly just break into a Fire Nation stronghold."

"No, we can't. I don't think stealth is an option anymore now that they're on high alert."

"And we'll have to make sure we're out of range of those archers." Katara said.

"Which leaves us with what?"

Even with the seemingly mountain of a task in front of them, Aang couldn't help but grin. It was good to have everyone on his side again.

"The place is a stronghold not a prison; we'll wait for them to come to us."

It had all happened so fast. They'd shaken him awake, picked him up and shoved him out the door with his hands still tied behind his back. They'd made him walk out to the cart - well, 'walk' might not be the word, more like a mixture of hopping, dragging his bad leg and leaning heavily on the guards.

He'd planned on staging some sort of fight when they were walking him across but found that it was all he could do not to fall flat on the face Then they'd shoved him into the cart and Zuko found himself stuck in another metal box with too much time to think.

He'd let another chance slip from his fingers but he couldn't just give up. He couldn't just accept that Zhao, of all people, had beaten him and now he was being carted back to his father as a disgrace. There had to be a way.

The wheels started and they were on the move. He would have to think fast.

Maybe... maybe he could break the door? Trick them into opening it? Take a chance when they were moving him from the cart to the ship? And then what, crawl his way to freedom? He had two hands behind his back and only one leg in use. The idea of using his bad leg made him writhe, and the unchanged bandage and lack of food and water had not helped.

Maybe...maybe…

Zuko slammed his head into the wall. What was the point? Even if he managed to get free, and that was pitifully unlikely, there was no way of going home. His father had made that painfully clear.

He'd spent his entire life grasping at straws and now even that luxury had been taken from him. The wheels kept turning. Zuko hung his head, knowing fully well that he could do nothing to stop it.

Eyes closed in defeat, Zuko almost toppled over when the cart suddenly stopped. I've already accepted my fate, he grumbled, can't I just have a smooth journey the rest of the way?

The world's answer was no, he could not, because the commotion outside just got louder; guards shouting, fires crackling, ostrich-horses stampeding away panic. Zuko's eyes were wide when the door swung open to show the Water Tribe boy with a ring of keys in his hands, looking like he'd want to be anywhere else but here.

"Are you going to sit there all day, jerkbender?" He rolled his eyes. "C'mon, follow me!"

He turned back around to face the scuffle outside, not knowing the gargantuan task he had just given Zuko: walking. Calling for help was not an option, not when your rescuer was your reputed enemy and you have no clue how any of this was happening, so Zuko sucked it up, got up on his knees and stood. He took a step. He crumbled on the second. The strain, plus lack of food, water and basic rest, took their toll once more, and Zuko was out cold before he even got back up to his knees.

"Ew! It's green." Sokka observed, quite unhelpfully.

The three of them, plus the unconscious firebender, were riding on the back of Appa, flying away from the scene as fast as the bison could take them. They all sat around as Katara unwrapped the linen from said firebender's leg. She looked at the wound again and could confirm that the edges of it were, in fact, a sickly tinge of green.

"It's not great." She admitted. "Whoever treated this barely cleaned the wound and the bandages haven't been changed in days."

"Do you think he can walk again?" Aang asked, peeking over her shoulder.

She dabbed the lesion with a damp cloth. "Not anytime soon."

Suddenly, Zuko stirred, eyes still half-lidded and delirious.

"Where am I?" His eyes cleared enough for a hint of suspicion to grow in them. "Why did you save me?"

There was a moment of silence where they all questioned whether or not they should amuse the half-awake firebender, before Aang cleared his throat and put a hand on his chest.

"Because you saved me, Zuko."

He squinted his eyes as if he were trying to decipher those words. "We're enemies."

"That doesn't change the fact that if you hadn't rescued me, I'd still be trapped and Sokka and Katara would still be sick out of their minds."

"I only rescued you so I could capture you myself."

"I don't think you're a bad person because of that. We just ended up on different sides of a war." Aang reasoned. "And besides, you're not trying to capture us now."

"I…" Zuko's face was pained, as if he wanted to say more. Or maybe it was just the bad leg. Either way, he never got the words out before he fell unconscious once more.

"...Sorry." Katara said. She might have gotten a bit too forceful on that cleaning.

AN: Eyyy, he only fainted twice this chapter. That's improvement. Also, a heads up for anyone who follows what I write, I'm competing in the Pro-Bending Circuit right now! Which means I'll be writing things different from what I usually write, but hey, I'd say that's a good thing. Probably won't affect the update schedule for this. Anyway, review! Say hi! I don't care! See you next week!

Next up: The Recovery
In which Zuko is hurt, has nowhere to go, and the gaang has gifts.