Book One: Water

Chapter Six: Imprisoned


Xena was laying on a saddleless Appa's stomach when Sokka returned from his foraging mission. In his hand is a small brown bag.

"Great, you're back!" Aang shouts running up to him. "What's for dinner?"

"We've got a few options." He digs around in the bag and pulled out a handful of nuts. "First, round nuts and some kind of oval shaped nuts, and some rock shaped nuts that might just be rocks. Dig in!" He throws the rocks to the side.

"You're kidding, right?" Xena says, staring at the measel amount.

"Seriously, what else ya got?" Katara asks.

Sokka shrugs his shoulder. A large bang echos through the forest suddenly and they all share a startled glance.

"What was that?" Sokka asks.

Momo blinks then drops a little rock onto another larger rock and another bang rings out.

"It's coming from over there!" Aang yells, pointing.

"Shouldn't we run away from huge booms, not toward them?" Sokka yells as Aang and Katara take off.

Xena jumps down and gives Sokka a small shove to get him moving. They quickly catch up with his sister and Aang behind a moss covered log. They peeked over the log. Standing in a dry riverbed was a boy around their age dressed in the colors of the Earth Kingdom.

"An earthbender!" Katara gasps, when he lifts another boulder and throws it into a wall.

"Let's go meet him," Aang eagerly says.

"We should approach cauti-" Xena starts, but Katara is already down the slope.

"Hello there, I'm Katara. What's your name?"

"Why do I bother?" Xena facepalms and watch as the boy takes off, blocking the passage with rocks.

"Nice to meet you!" Aang shouts after him

"We just wanted to say hi," Katara whispers dejectedly

"Hey, that guy's gotta be running somewhere. Maybe we're near a village and I bet that village has a market!" Aang says suddenly.

"Which means no nuts for dinner!" Katara clasps her hands together in joy.

"Hey! I worked hard to get those nuts!" Sokka complains and then mumbles, "Yeah, I hated them to."

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Xena shifts from one foot to another. Everyone else is looking at the stalls excitedly, but she's distracted by the state of the town. It's almost as if an oppressive fogs hangs over the town. She watches as the others head into a nearby shop, but instead of following she moves to one of the stalls.

"What can I get for you?" The merchant asks.

"Actually I was wondering if I could ask a question."

"Go ahead."

"What's going on with this town, everyone around here seems jumpy."

The merchant leans closer. "Fire Nation," he answers, nodding to a group of Fire Nation soldiers exiting from one of the shops.

As she watches, they knock on the door of the store the others had gone into. She thanked the merchant and slipped into the shop behind the soldiers. Katara is holding a bowl of berries, Sokka and the earthbender from earlier are examining an apple, and Aang is leaned against a barrel. His hat slips when the lid of the barrel flips, upsetting his balance.

"What do you want?" The store owner asks. "I've already paid you this week."

"The tax just doubled. Wouldn't want an accident, would we?" The captain smirks, creating a flame. "Fire is sometimes so difficult to control."

The woman sighs and brings out a small wooden chest and hands most of the coins inside to the captain.

"You can keep the copper ones," he says and drops them onto the floor.

"Nice guy," Sokka says sarcastically before asking, "How long has the Fire Nation been here?"

"Five years. Fire Lord Ozai uses our town's coal mines to fuel his ships," She answers

"They're thugs; they steal from us, and everyone here is too much of a coward to do anything about it," The earthbender says and crosses his arms,

"Quiet, Haru." His mother snaps,"Don't talk like that."

"But, Haru's an earth bender, he can help."

"Earthbending is forbidden," His mother explains. "It's caused nothing but, misery for this village. He must never use his abilities."

"How can you say that?" Katara demands. "Haru was born with a gift. Asking him not to earthbend is like asking me not to waterbend. It is apart of who we are."

"You don't understand," Haru's mother whispers.

"I understand that Haru can help you fight back. What can the Fire Nation do to you that they haven't done already?"

"They could take Haru away. Just like they took his father."

Haru tenses as his mother says that.

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"My mom said you can sleep here tonight, but you should leave in the morning," Haru said, leading them into a barn behind his house.

"Thanks I'll make sure Appa doesn't eat all you're hay," Aang says just as Appa takes a bite. Katara runs out after Haru when he leaves. Xena sits down on a pile of hay with a quiet sigh.

"What's wrong, Xena?" Aang asks.

"I have a bad feeling about staying here," She answers.

"You know what would take your mind off of it?" He asked with a grin.

"You offering?" She asks, standing up.

"Sure." He grabs his staff. Xena smirks, stands up, and pulls her swords from her back.

"What are you two doing," Sokka asks curiously.

Ignoring Sokka Xena takes a stance, "your move, airhead."

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"It was so brave of Haru to use his earthbending to help that old man," Katara tells them excitedly.

"You must have really inspired him." Xena rolls over to look at her.

"Everyone should get some sleep. We're leaving at dawn," Sokka orders, curling up in his sleeping bag.

"Dawn? Can't we sleep in for once?" Xena complains with a yawn.

"Absolutely not. This village is crawling with Fire Nation troops." Sokka turns to Aang and continues, "If they discover you're here, Aang, we'll be eating fireballs for breakfast. Good night."

"I rather eat fireballs than nuts," Katara teases.

"Good night," Sokka growls forcefully, causing the other three to laugh.

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"They took him! They took Haru away!" Katara shouts, running into the barn.

Xena jolted awake from where she was dozing in Appa's saddle.

"What?" Aang asks.

"The old man turned him into the Fire Nation. It's all my fault; I forced him into earthbending," Katara cries.

"Slow down, Katara. When did this happen?" Sokka asks, placing a soothing hand on his sister's shoulder.

"Haru's mother said they came for him at midnight," She answers.

"Then it's too late to track him, he's long gone," Sokka responds.

"We don't need to track him. The Fire Nation is going to take me right to Haru."

"And why would they do that?" Aang asks curiously

"Because they're going to arrest me for earthbending."

"And how are you going to do that?"

"I might have an idea," Xena offers against her better judgment.

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"I thought you were crazy at first, but this might work," Sokka says, while helping Xena roll a boulder over a ventilation shaft.

"Of course it will because I am a genius," Xena claims and placed her hand over her heart.

"And you're not full of yourself or anything," Katara says teasingly.

Xena smiles and then pats the boulder. "There are ventilation shafts throughout the mine. All Aang has to do is send an air current from that vent to this one right here. The boulders levitates and tada! Fake earth bending."

"Aang, did you get all that?" Katara asks a very distracted Aang.

"Sure, I got it," Aang said.

"Do you remember you're cue?" Sokka asked.

"Yeah, yeah, just relax," Aang says, continuing to play with a butterfly. "You're taking all the fun out of this."

"By this do you mean getting intentionally captured by a group of ruthless firebenders?" Sokka asks dryly.

"Exactly! That's fun stuff!" Aang says.

"Here they come! Get into places!" Xena orders.

Katara and Xena walk into each other on purpose.

"Get outta my way, pipsqueak!" Xena yells in a horrible fake voice.

"How dare you call me a pipsqueak. You barbarian!" Katara yells back and it takes a lot of restraint to not burst out laughing.

"What did you call me?" Xena demands, trying to stay in character.

"A barbarian," Katare repeats. "I mean look at you, you're all tattooed and stuff."

"You better back off!" She yells back.

"I will not back off. I bet elephants get together and make fun of how barbaric you are!"

"That's it, you're going down!" Xena growls, dropping into a crouch as if she's going to attack Katara.

"I'll show you who's boss, earthbending style!" Katara shouts and strikes a fake earthbending stance.

"I said, earthbending style!" Katara repeats when Aang doesn't respond.

The boulder levitates over the vent with Momo standing behind it, holding his arms up as if he's bending the boulder.

"The lemur!" One of the soldiers gasps. "Its earth bending!"

"No, you idiot!" Xena snaps at them. "It's her!"

"Oh, of course," he says in embarrassment.

"I'll hold her." Xena grabs her arms.

"You got twelve hours," she whispers as the guards move forward to grab the younger girl.

Aang and Sokka step out into the open as they lead Katara away.

"So Barbarian what now?" Sokka asks.

"Shut up," she orders, grabbing their arms and pulling them after her.

They watch silently from the river bank as a boat pulls away with Katara.

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"Don't worry Aang. Katara will be fine. She knows what she's doing."

Xena leans forward over the saddle when she sees Aang's worried expression. He nods his head silently and then gasps as a giant rigging comes into sight.

"Well isn't that nice," Sokka says sarcastically.

"Umm, wow. Yeah, this isn't going to be easy is it?" Xena asks worriedly.

"Unfortunately," Aang responds.

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Aang guided Appa around the many spotlights to a small blind spot that they'd found earlier.

"Stay here with Appa and move if a patrol comes around. I'll bring Katara back here," Aang whispers to them before slipping off Appa.

It takes him about fifteen minutes to find Katara and come back.

"Your twelve hours are up, where's Haru? We have to get out of here," Sokka whispers to her.

"I can't," Katara responds.

"But we don't have much time, there are guards everywhere," Sokka says uselessly. "Get on."

"Katara, what's wrong?" Xena asks in concern.

"We're not leaving. We're not giving up on these people."

Aang looks at Xena and Sokka then back to Katara.

"What do you mean you're not leaving?" Sokka demands and they jump off Appa to crouch next to her and Aang.

"We can't abandon these people. There has to be a way to help them."

"Maybe she's right. What do you say, Sokka?" Xena asks him.

"I say you're both crazy!" He replied.

A spotlight flashs overhead and they duck their heads.

"Last chance, we need to leave now," Sokka warns

"No."

"I hate it when you get like this," Sokka sighs, shaking his head as another light passes close to us.

"Come on, we better hide," Xena says as it sweeps back again.

They rushed through the rigging until they find a likely place to stay unseen in a large stack of boxes.

"We don't have much time," Sokka says, looking up at the moon. "What are we gonna do?"

"I wish I knew how to make a hurricane," Aang says.

They gave him confused looks.

"The warden would run away and we'd steal his keys!"

"Great plan, except for the fact that he'd take the keys with him," Xena snarks.

"I'm just tossing ideas around," Aang replies defensively.

"I tried talking with the earthbenders into fighting back, but it didn't work," Katara told us. "If there was just a way to help them help themselves."

"For that, they'd need some kind of earth, or some rock. Something they can bend," Sokka says, tapping his chin thoughtfully.

"But this entire place is made of metal," Katara complains, tapping the deck to prove her point.

"No it's not. Look at the smoke," Xena says, pointing to the black smoke wafting from the turrets. "I bet they're burning coal. In other words, earth."

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"There are the intruders!" A guard shouts pointing toward us.

Great. Xena pulls her swords out and faces the guards.

"Stay back!" Sokka yells, holding his boomerang. "I'm warning you!"

"Katara, stop!" An old earthbender insists. "You can't win this fight!"

"Listen to him, children. You're one mistake away from dying where you stand," The warden says.

Coal shoots up out of the vent behind us, scattering onto the deck. Aang coughs and tries to brush away coal dust.

"Here's your chance, earthbenders!" Katara cries out, holding up a piece of coal above her head. "Take it! Your fate is in your own hands!"

Haru started to move forward, but was stopped by the same man that had spoke to Katara.

"Foolish girl! You thought a few inspirational words and some coal would change these people? Look at these blank, hopeless faces. There spirits were broken a long time ago. Oh? But you still believe in them. How sweet. They're a waste of your energy, little girl. You've failed."

The warden whips around as coal hits him in the back of his head. Xena smirks sensing Haru twirling three pieces of coal above his hand behind her. The Warden snarled and sent a fireball at him but before it could reach Haru, his father makes a wall of coal to block it.

"Show no mercy!" The Warden yells.

"For the Earth Kingdom! Attack!" Haru's father yells and sends a large wave of coal at the firebenders. Xena spins fast and cuts into a group of three Fire Nation soldiers' spears. The cut pieces tinged to the deck and the soldiers blanch at the fierce visage of the grinning girl. They drop the useless shafts and disappear. Xena smiles and moved onto attacking other soldiers, dispersing a rogue fireblast with her swords. It only takes twenty minutes for the prisoners' rebellion to be completed.

"No, please! I can't swim!" The warden begs as the earthbenders bend coal under the firebenders and bend it out over the water.

"Don't worry, I hear cowards float," Haru's father jests and lets them drop into the water below.

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Haru pulled Katara away to speak with her once everyone was on one of the spare ships.

"I am, so happy that's over," Xena tells Aang.

"Why, I thought you like fighting?" Sokka asks.

Xena rolls her eyes. "I'm good at fighting, but I don't like it."

"She likes sparring though," Aang added.

"What's the different?"

"Sparring is fun and no one gets hurt, fighting's the exact opposite."

"To take back all our villages! The Fire Nation will regret the day they set foot on our land!" Haru's father suddenly shouted.

A loud approving cheer ripples through the air at his words. Xena smiles and takes Momo from Aang, rubbing the fur between the lemur's ears.

"Are you guys ready to go?" Sokka asks, turning to them.

Katara suddenly comes running up to us, hand at her throat.

"I lost Mom's necklace," She told Sokka worriedly.