A/N: Thankyou to everyone who is reading this. And a special thankyou to those who left a review or followed :) It really means alot!


"I want to hide the truth,

I want to shelter you.

But with the beast inside,

There's nowhere we can hide."

- Imagine Dragons


The sunlight is bright and it's making me squint. I put a hand over my eyes to block the light coming down. We're so close. I'm so close to Aang that I can almost feel it. We're less than a mile outside of the city now. I've had a few lingering doubts about finding him. Things like, "Well what if he didn't get your letter?" "What if he's in the Southern Water Tribe?" But I've managed to push those thoughts aside. I just have a good feeling that Aang will be waiting for me. And if he's not… well, I'll cross that bridge if I come to it.

Chen is sitting on a rock across from me, kicking a pebble across the grass. It doesn't seem to be having a good effect, because really, if you're gonna kick a pebble you need ground that it can bounce off of. And grass doesn't do that. He seems somewhat lost in thought, too. He does that a lot lately; gets lost in thought. The other day he made a big fuss about going back into the village to send an urgent letter. I didn't want to, I was worried that we might run into Mr. Lip Piercing and Mr. Big Arms again, but he was very insistent. Chen has a very stubborn quality about him that is unrelenting. Sometimes I like it, sometimes I don't. He didn't tell me what the letter said or who it was for and I didn't ask. But he made it seem like a big deal, so I went with him. Actually, I hid in the woods on the edge of town while he went to the postal building, but still. He's been much calmer since then, not so uptight all the time. It must have been some letter.

Chen's pebble bounces out of foots reach and he glances up to meet my gaze. I smile. "Are you ready to keep going?"

He shrugs. "We're almost to the city."

"Yeah…" I frown. "Which is why I'm excited to keep going!"

Chen stands, swinging his black bag over his shoulders. He's wearing his green Earth Kingdom robes. "Alright." He nods.

I stand up and catch his arm. "Wait. What is it?" I ask, turning him to face me.

"It's nothing." He shrugs casually and gives me a lopsided smile.

He turns to leave, but I catch his arm once more. "No, c'mon. Tell me."

He looks back at me, slightly chewing the inside of his cheek with his eyebrows pulled together in concentration. I have to look up at him because of our height difference and doing so means getting the sun in my eyes. I grab his forearms and pull us underneath the shade of a tree. "Better. Now, tell me." I plead.

"It's just… what's gonna happen after we get to the city?" He won't meet my eyes now.

"What do you mean? We're gonna find Aang." I frown, not quite sure of his meaning.

Chen's head tilts to the side. "No, I mean…" He gestures between the two of us, "What's gonna happen?"

Oh. Well, to be honest, I hadn't really given it much thought. Chen and I have been together every minute of every day for the past three weeks; it's hard to imagine waking up tomorrow and him not being there. That being said, I hadn't exactly planned on all of this happening.

I don't like serious talks very much. So instead, I reach forward and pull Chen close to me by the collar of his shirt. I give him a quick, hard kiss on the mouth. I've come to really like kissing. Chen and I have been doing a lot of it over the past seventy-two hours. Today, he tastes like mint leaves. I smirk. "Well, I guess you can introduce me to the rest of the crusaders."

Chen's face falls into a small smile. "That easy, huh?"

"Why not?"

He sighs. "There's something I need to tell you." His face and posture has turned serious now and his voice has suddenly become very low.

"Okay…" I lean back slightly. I don't like the way this sounds. "What is it?"

Chen's golden eyes bore into mine. "It's… well, it's hard to explain. I don't actually know where to start. I mean, I've been wanting to tell you…" His voice trails off slightly as he searches for the right words.

Suddenly, whatever Chen's about to say no longer matters. Because I can hear Aang's voice. And he's calling for me.


"Aang!" I shout in return, sprinting toward his voice. I knew it. I knew we were close. I knew he'd be here. I just knew it! "Aang!" I yell again, dodging a branch that hangs low and in my way. I vaguely register Chen's footsteps behind me as he tries to keep up.

I burst into the clearing and finally see Aang's familiar bald head, he's wearing green robes that look similar to Chen's. His eyes widen when he sees me. "Katara!"

We rush toward eachother and he catches me in a tight embrace, pulling me as close to him as he possibly can. I wrap my arms around his neck and shoulders. "I was so worried about you." I whisper against the collar of his robes.

"You were worried!" He protests, pulling back to look at me. "I came back and you were just gone!"

"I know, I know. It was the Fire Nation. They outnumbered me and brought me back to a prison. But we escaped. I…we… got out." My mind is in a jumble as I try to rearrange the events from the past three weeks and choose what I want to tell him first.

"I'm so glad you're alright." Aang gives me another tight squeeze before we finally release eachother.

"What have you been doing?" I ask, feeling out of breath from excitement.

Aang grins widely. "I found an earthbending teacher! Her name is Toph. She's really incredible. She's waiting for us back in the city. Come on, let's go!" He grabs my arm and starts to drag me along when I remember that Chen is behind me.

"Oh, Aang, wait." I turn back to Chen. He's standing with his hands behind his back and an unreadable look on his face. I smile at him encouragingly. "This is Chen. He, um, rescued me from the Fire Nation prison I was in. And he helped me travel here."

"That's great! Thankyou, Chen. Hey, are those dao swords?" Aang asks happily, peering over Chen's shoulder at the blades.

Chen's brows furrow and then he smiles slightly. "Uh, yeah, they are…"

"Cool! Will you show me how to use them? Hey, we should get to the city! Toph is waiting for us." Aang takes my hand again and we start to walk along the forest.

Without warning, a ball of fire comes whirring out of the opposite direction and lands right at my feet.


Within seconds, the three of us are surrounded by Fire Nation officers.

"No!" I hear Chen shout. I glance nervously from helmet to helmet. Aang is the first to react, bending a gust of air out and knocking down seven men at once. How could they have caught us so fast? Have they been following us the entire time? Did I unknowingly lead them right to Aang?! What have I done!

I bend the water from the two closest trees and they snap and collapse on a few of the soldiers. A blast of fire hits me on my right side, just below the ribcage, knocking me back into Chen. I scramble to my feet and send a jet of water out in front of me, aiming for whatever soldiers I can hit. I manage to knock three of them over, but as soon as I do, more soldiers are there to take their place.

They move in fast, much faster than I have time to bend the water out of the trees around us. I can hear the sound of Chen's swords clinking together and blocking fire away from him. I can hear the whoosh and gusting whirs of Aang's airbending as he fights to keep the soldiers back.

There's fire everywhere I look now. Thick, black smoke is starting to cover the entire area. I have no idea where I'm aiming my water. I can hear it sizzle as it reacts with all of the fire around me, but I can't tell if it's having any effect. My eyes start to water and I can feel myself wheezing as I inhale the smoke.

Another fire ball hits my back and I fall forward onto my stomach. People are shouting. I can't see anything.

And then I feel a bunch of hands on my body, grabbing me and lifting me into the air. I scream as best I can and flail against their grip. But their fingers dig into my skin, burning me into submission. "Aang!" I choke out. "Run!" But the word comes out more like a whisper. The smoke is so thick that I can no longer speak. And the burns are so painful that I can no longer move.

I hear Chen's voice again. He yells my name once, in a frantic way, and then something heavy is placed over my head, all the air is gone, and all that's left is darkness.