PARADOX

Chapter eight: Prison Break

"What do ya got?" I asked as Sokka came back from his foraging.

"We got several options, first round-shaped nuts, then some oval-shaped nuts, and some rock-shaped nuts that may just be rocks." he said throwing aforementioned rock-shaped nuts on the ground off to the side.

"No seriously, what do you got?" Katara said as if he was pranking us.

"That's all." He said.

I groaned. "You are the worst hunter/scavenger ever." I said.

Sokka looked at me with a hurt look on his face.

Momo had picked up the small 'rock-shaped nut that might just be a rock' and hit it against a real rock hard.

There was a thud and a tremor.

Momo looked shocked and surprised and lightly tapped the rock with the other rock just as another boom and a tremor came. Momo dropped the rock and flew to the safety of Aang's shoulders.

"Its coming from over there!" Katara yelled following the sound. "Shouldn't we be running away from the thing making the big booms?" Sokka asked.

I shrugged. I was never one for many words. Even before I had been dumped in the artic by myself.

I followed at a more sedate pace than Aang and Katara had took off running. We got to the place just as the boy ran away. Katara mumbled that she just wanted to say hello.

"That guys got to be running somewhere. There must be a village near here." Aang said optimistically.

So we all ran towards the town because no one wanted to eat the nuts Sokka collected.

Aang traded some of the nuts for a conical hat. It covered his arrow so none of us complained about not getting anything.

Katara found the earthbending boy's house and we found out that the Fire Nation had taken over this town.

We decided to stay that night. I spent some of my time asking Haru how to earthbend. He showed me a few stances in the safety of his barn but told me not to practice in town.

Katara took a walk with Haru somewhere, and when she came back it was late. We went to bed in the haystacks of the barn, the ones that were left after Appa had eaten a good majority of it.

We woke up the next morning to Haru's mother's frantic voice.

The firebenders had taken Haru in the night.

Katara, being the self-sacrificing person she is immediately made a plan to save him, which involved being captured herself.

I butt in with the fact, I was an actual earthbender and Haru had shown me some moves. Enough to move a rock at the very least.

It was agreed Katara and I would have a spat. I would earthbend at her and Aang would intercept the rock with another rock using airbending.

We positioned ourselves in the outskirts of the town where we knew the firebenders would patrol. Aang and Sokka were hidden in an underground cave with the vent to allow air to push a rock.

"Would you just shut up!" I yelled at Katara dramatically.

"Why should I?" Katara demanded sounding much more convincing than she did in the show.

"You're not the only one whose lost something in this damn war. At least you still have your brother and father. I have no one!" I yelled as I thought of sad things to make my eyes water.

"You've been an orphan since you were seven. You don't even remember your parents." Katara rebuked sounding much more harsh than in the episode. It must've been the topic.

I stomped on the ground like Haru had instructed me and kicked the rock hard sending it flying toward Katara at a reasonable speed. Katara also stomped on the ground and unlike the show Aang got his cue perfect.

'Katara's' rock blocked my rock spectacularly.

The soldiers who had been watching since my first outburst quickly moved in to arrest us.

We were dragged off to the prison barge, Momo following us so he could lead Aang and Sokka to us later.

When we got to the barge I let Katara do all the talking.

The slop they tried to pass off as food was horrible, not as bad as sauerkraut though. I managed to swallow it.

Katara who had never had something as awful as sauerkraut didn't manage to swallow the horrible concoction they called food.

Katara was determined to help these people even if they themselves had given up hope.

When Sokka and Aang came to rescue us that night Katara refused to leave them.

Aang managed to figure out that they were using coal to power the ship and that coal was earth that the earthbenders could bend.

Aang went to work blocking all but two vents. One vent he would blow air into and the other was where the coal would come out.

Katara made a rousing speech but nobody moved to fight. The warden made fun of this, and turned his back on us.

Haru bended a piece of coal at the back of the warden's head and showed it was him by hovering three pieces of coal just above his palm in a circular motion.

The warden turned to attack Haru only to be blocked by Haru's father.

The rest of the earthbenders attacked and the firebenders fought back but eventually Haru's father had the whole crew of firebenders hovering over the ocean on a bed of coal.

He dropped them into the water making a wise crack about cowards floating.

We left the barge after hearing that the earthbenders were going to take their town back. We were quite a distance away when Katara realized her necklace was missing...

A/N: I'm sorry, this chapter was really short and not as well written as the others. I didn't really like this episode much... I will probably redo it at a later date if I get enough requests. Please review. It makes me want to write.