Disclaimer: Don't own Avatar. Never have, never will.

Chapter 8 : The Plan I

-Katara-

The next few days passed in a haze. Katara was only vaguely aware of herself throughout, and in later days she would wonder how she managed to do anything right. But the numb state she had taken to was fine by her, compared to what she had been feeling. She didn't know it yet, but the apex of her pain had passed.

Zuko didn't come to visit her during the day. She had woken up and he had already left, but she refused to dwell on the memories of the night before. She simply sat and thought of what she would do when she had escaped, as if nothing had ever happened between her and Zuko. She could still feel the pain of knowing she was leaving him, but her mind had already let go of him, and was persuading her heart to do so as well. But nonetheless, she didn't sleep. She stayed alert, staring at the door, trying hard not to act like she'd been expecting anyone when a servant came in with her meals.

Long after her dinner arrived, Katara began to get impatient, and the blank shock started to ebb a bit. Why can't he hurry up? She thought to herself. She began to count the seconds, which passed slowly and torturously. But this became boring not long after two minutes had passed, so she alternated between pacing and sitting. Pace, sit, pace, sit. It was a monotonous cycle, and she was glad when Zuko finally arrived to break it.

"Come with me," he said, "and if you value your own life, don't make a sound."

Slightly melodramatic, Katara thought, but it couldn't be helped. She experienced that familiar swooping sensation again, and found it was quite a lot harder to ignore when it was brought on by Zuko himself, and not just the thought of him. But she scurried out the door without a word.

"Don't forget the way," he whispered. They walked in silence for a while, navigating the twisting corridors. Katara counted the doors and turns as they went, One, two, three, four doors, past the first right, one, two doors, turn left, one, two three… Before she might've wondered how on earth she would remember the way, but now she wondered how on earth she would ever forget it. Finally, they came to a stop.

"Your friends are in these three rooms," he said, pointing to three consecutive doors. "They don't know that they're right next to each other, though." Before she could say anything, he set off again. Katara began to count doors again, but she realized that they were just going down every flight of stairs, and she became aware of a certain stench as they descended. Zuko led her to another door, where the stench was so strong it was almost overwhelming. "The beast and the lemur are in here," he said with distaste.

"God, Zuko, don't you ever give them baths?" she whispered in spite of herself. He scowled at her before leading her back up to her room.

When they got up to her room, he opened the door and stood aside to let her in. She glanced at him, and then walked slowly to her cot. When she turned around, he was still there. They both opened their mouths to say something. Katara's something was along the lines of 'I love you,' but she knew it would be no more useful than rubbing salt in a wound, so she exhaled as if she could expel the words with her breath. Zuko shook his head, swallowing whatever he was going to say as well, and closed the door. But it was a long time before Katara heard the lock click, and slow footsteps leading away from her door.

She slept that night wondering what he stopped himself from saying, and wondering whether he would regret not saying it.

The next day, her mindset was that of grim determination. Apparently it had taken her until that day to realize how much she hated her room. Or rather, her cell. One could hardly call it a room. It had nothing in it, nothing except the cot and her blankets. And the other pair of clothes she had bought when Zuko had taken her out to the city. Even though she had been happy when they had bought those, the memory now stung.

Out of reflex, she reached up to finger the pendant on her mother's necklace, but her fingers bumped gently against the necklace that Zuko had given her. She paused, stopping her hand on the way up to her mother's necklace. Slowly, she undid the clasp on Zuko's necklace, and took it off, laying the pendant in her hand. She gazed at it for a moment before noticing her eyes were swimming with tears. She blinked them back and carefully stowed his necklace in her pocket. She wouldn't let it go, but Aang, Sokka, and Toph would be pretty suspicious if she was taken prisoner and came out with new clothes and a new necklace.

New clothes, she thought with a start. She could hide her necklace, but she couldn't hide her clothes. And they would certainly wonder where she had gotten her mother's necklace back. And the best part was that she would have to explain away these kinks in the plan.

She jumped about a mile when the servant came in with her breakfast. "God, do you have to scare me like that?" she exclaimed impulsively. It earned her a smart slap across the face from a deeply disapproving servant who was, inconveniently, not one of the timid teenagers. The door snapped shut, and the lock clicked decisively. She scowled at the closed door and stuffed a meager portion of bread in her mouth. She chewed slowly, thoughtfully. Then she began to rip at her clothes, and rubbed food into it. Once she was done, they looked thoroughly worn. She hoped that Sokka and Aang wouldn't notice they were different.

The day passed monotonously compared to what was in store for the night. Irony is strange, but we can't do anything about that. The lunch servant came, and then the one bringing dinner. Sure enough, he locked the door behind him. It was a long time until she heard the click of the door unlocking. She stood up swiftly, hoping Zuko had unlocked the others' doors. She poked her head out into the hallway, and he was a fair ways down it already. She stepped tentatively out of the threshold and he glanced back once to show he knew she was there before continuing down the hall. She took this to mean that the others were unlocked, too.

She sped down the hallway, silently, carefully, checking at every turn to see if there were guards. Luckily, there didn't seem to be any guards patrolling the halls. She covered the area between her room and Aang's room (or Sokka's, or Toph's, she wasn't sure whose room it was) remarkably fast compared to when Zuko had showed her the way. When she reached the first door she reached out to open it, but stopped, reached up, and removed a pin from her hair. She examined it carefully; it was a bit big to pass off as something she'd picked the lock with, but it would have to do. She rattled the doorknob once before opening it. Whoever was inside had to know that she had picked the lock.

The room, it transpired, was Toph's, which proved to be useful. When she opened the door, she caught a glance of Toph sitting in a corner. Her clothes were ripped and dirty from the fight they had had before being captured, too. Her hair showed signs of her not getting shower privileges, though. Katara momentarily wondered whether she should've rubbed some food in her hair, too. It's messy enough to pass off as dirty, she thought. And anyway, it was too late for that. But all in all, she had done a good job at making herself look beaten up. Toph didn't look too underfed, anyway. She slipped into the room, and Toph looked up in surprise. "Katara, how--?" she began.

"Shh!" Katara hissed. "Someone came in my room to give me food, but he was a scrawny little thing so I knocked him out with the tray. I don't know how much time we have, and I don't know where any guards are. Can you feel where the others are?"

"I can feel Twinkle Toes walking around," she whispered. "I can't tell what room he's in, though."

"Come on," Katara said. "If you can feel him now, maybe you'd be able to find his room if we go into the hall." They hurried out silently, and Toph walked experimentally down the hall, Katara trailing close behind.

"He's here," she deduced, pointing to a room two doors down from hers. Katara wordlessly went to work on the lock. She shoved her hairpin in the keyhole, fiddling around with it until happenstance made it click. She turned the knob and entered Aang's room. Aang looked similar to Toph and Katara, but rather skinnier.

"Aang!" Katara cried, rushing forward to hug him. He didn't even have time to say anything, but he hugged her back tightly.

"You know," came Toph's sarcastic whisper. "Maybe we can save the mushy reunions until after we're off this thing, okay lovebirds?" Aang and Katara let go, and they both blushed. Aang smiled, though. Katara, however felt sick rather than smiley.

"Katara," Aang began.

"I knocked out the person bringing me food and was trying a bunch of doors," she answered his unasked question. "Now come on." They rushed out the door. The urgency of their mission was starting to affect her, though, and she had to keep remembering to act like no one had planned this. She went to a door that she knew did not hold Sokka and tried the lock. To her surprise, it sprang open, but it was an empty store room. She moved on to another door, but Toph stopped her.

"Wait," she said. "You said you were trying doors on the way to my room?"

"Yeah," Katara said. She kept her voice calm, but a flicker of panic rose in her chest.

"So that means there's a trail of unlocked doors that leads right to us," Toph said. Katara exhaled imperceptibly. "We have to stop trying doors." She walked around again, much more slowly than before. Aang and Katara stood perfectly still, careful not to cause vibrations that would distract her. Finally she walked up to Sokka's door and placed the ball of her foot on it, keeping her heel on the ground. "I think he's in here," she whispered.

"What if it's someone else?" Aang asked.

"We improvise," Katara said grimly, going to work on the lock. After she scraped it against something in the keyhole that made her hairpin click, she turned the handle. All three of them let out a sigh of relief when Sokka was in the room, even Katara. Sokka was asleep, but in contrast with the others, his clothes weren't ripped at all, and they were only dirty because he hadn't washed in a long time. He didn't really fight, though, Katara though, recalling the squabble they'd had before being captured.

"No wonder I couldn't see him in here!" Toph exclaimed. "He's asleep!" She walked forward and hit him on the head. "Wake up!"

Sokka sat bolt upright, brandishing his hand as if he were holding his boomerang. "Who there?" he asked groggily, and then, "INTRU—" But Toph clapped a hand over his mouth before he could continue shouting. He struggled for a bit, but Toph hissed in his ear, "It's me, you idiot!" He suddenly stopped moving and a look of comprehension dawned in his eyes. Toph let go of him.

They came back out into the hallway and Sokka opened his mouth to ask questions, but Katara cut him off. "Let's go," she said. Sokka opened his mouth again, looking very determined to ask his question. But he was cut off again, this time by Toph.

"But which way do we go?" Toph asked.

"We're below deck, right?" Katara asked, yet again silencing Sokka. "We'll just keep going up."

Sokka tried to speak again, this time looking determined to have his voice heard, but Aang said, "We can't go anywhere without Appa and Momo."

"Now wait just one second!" Sokka began loudly.

"Shh!" all three of them said in unison, turning on Sokka. He quieted down grudgingly as they continued their debate.

"Where do we find them?" asked Katara.

"Toph, do you see them?" Aang turned urgently to Toph. She shook her head. The three seemed to deflate, out of ideas. Katara couldn't think of a way to lead them to Appa without it looking suspicious.

"What do we do now?" she asked bluntly.

"The bison whistle," Sokka said, cocking his head at the others. "Do you still have it?"

Aang and Katara stared at him. She wondered why s he hadn't thought that. But Toph interjected, "Yes, yes, he's very smart, but we're wasting time."

Aang seemed to come out of a reverie and retrieved the bison whistle from deep within the tattered folds of his clothes. He blew it hard. Nothing happened. He blew again. Suddenly Toph's head pricked up, staring at nothing. She flexed her toes and placed her feet squarely on the ground. "Blow again," she said. Aang obliged, giving it a long, hard blow, and then looking at Toph.

"He's below us," she said. "I don't know how far down, but he's below us."

Without exchanging words, the four searched, silently and quickly, for a stairway. When they did, they went down and Aang blew on the whistle again. Again, Toph told them to go down. Katara could smell him from here, but the others didn't seem to notice. They descended a few more flights of stairs, and then Katara pointed out the smell. "Can you smell that?" she asked.

Sokka sniffed the air, curling his lip in disgust. "That must be him!" Aang blew on his whistle again, but this time they could all feel Appa fighting against whatever was holding him to answer the call.

"Down," Toph said, and they went down yet another stairway. Once they reached the landing, Toph said "There isn't another floor beneath us. He's that way." She pointed down a hallway to the right and they went hurtling down it. Sure enough, they reached the place where Appa was kept. It was obviously at one of the ends of the ship because of the way the wall was shaped. Apparently accommodating Appa was a surprise to the sailors, because it was carpeted so thinly in hay that you could see the metal floor underneath it. The and in addition to that, the hay was growing mold, telling Katara that they probably hadn't changed it since they were captured. Appa looked no better off; his fur was matted and he stunk. His pen was actually the end of the ship closed off by rough structure of wooden planks. Appa would've torn right through it if it hadn't been for the metal shackles holding him down. When they arrived he let out a roar of delight. "Shh, boy!" Aang said. Appa stared at him dolefully. "We're going to get you out of here." Appa strained against his manacles, trying to lick Aang's face.

Sokka stepped forward and began hacking at the wooden gate with his boomerang. It didn't take too many blows to buckle enough to allow the four through. The four climbed over the broken beam and Aang ran right into Appa's filthy fluff, giving him a big hug and saying, "Did you miss me, boy?" He answered with a loud bray and a lick on the side that soaked Aang's clothes with bison spit. Sokka looked disgusted, and was about to say something, but Katara cut him off.

"Come on, let's get him out of these shackles," she said. They were about to get to that when a distraction arrived in the form of Momo. Rather, in the form of Momo letting out a loud squawk.

"Momo!" Sokka said, kneeling down and letting him out of the chicken wire cage he was in. Momo immediately flew a lap around the pen joyously and landed on Appa's head. Katara's heart filled with joy as she watched Momo nuzzling Appa affectionately. She was happy to be with her friends, and anxious to get off the ship. It was almost as though she'd forgotten what life was like before Zuko.

Even though he was overjoyed by Momo's sudden appearance, Aang immediately started working on one of the shackles that bound Appa. He fiddled with it and pounded it and even tried Airbending… nothing worked, not even when Sokka tried to beat them apart with his boomerang. "These aren't going to give," he said in frustration. "They're welded together!"

"The chains would be a lot easier to break," said Sokka, pointing them out. He began to hack at those, but Toph caught his boomerang in her hand as he brought it down.

"Hold on there," she said. She picked up part of the chain and pulled it tight. "Now try." He tried. And he failed. So he tried again. And yet again, he failed. While Sokka was battering the chain, Katara was looking through the other chains in search of weak links. She found one attached to one of Appa's front legs that had rusted and summoned Sokka over. It broke easily, and it allowed Appa to curl around and chew the other one off, but he couldn't reach the back ones, and they held firm.

"How did they even get him in here?" Toph yelled in frustration. She realized how loudly she'd just shouted and whispered, "I mean, how did they even get him in here?"

"That door!" Katara said in surprise, noticing a huge trap door in the ceiling. They all looked up at it.

Then Sokka said, "Aang, do you think you could keep that door open with Airbending? Then maybe we could get on Appa and get out of here! I bet he could break the chains by flying away."

Aang eyed the door doubtfully. "That thing is solid steel. I could keep it open for Appa only, but I couldn't keep it open for all of us."

"Why not?" Sokka asked in confusion.

"Think about it," Aang said worriedly. "If we were riding on Appa, not only would I have to keep a strong enough stream of air, but I'd have to change its direction, too. I can't hold something that heavy unless that's the only thing I'm concentrating on. If I ride Appa, too, it'll slam shut when he's only halfway through the door." Sokka seemed to deflate. "You guys could get on," Aang said slowly, "And I could go up the way we came…"

"We're not leaving you Aang!" said Toph loudly. Katara noticed a something else in her voice, too that she couldn't quite put her finger on.

"We're not leaving you," Katara said in determination, disregarding Toph's tone of voice.

"Katara," he said, staring at her with wide eyes. "I'm not going to let you get hurt. You guys get on Appa and I'll—" With this statement Katara remembered that being with her friends did not guarantee her an escape from mixed emotions. She glanced at Toph, who had a hard expression on her face and was staring at Aang.

"You do know you're talking to Katara and Toph, don't you?" Sokka interrupted loudly. Aang narrowed his eyes at Sokka.

"Got any ideas, then?"

"Yeah," Sokka said. "You let Appa go and we all go up the way we came." A look of indecision crossed Aang's face momentarily, but staring at Katara, he seemed to resign himself to the worst.

"Okay," he said. "Now stand back." He breathed in deeply, bringing his hands up in front of his face and then back down to his midriff, folded them like he was praying, and closed his eyes. He opened his eyes and leapt forward, sending a blast of air at the door. It creaked open, lifting one or two feet. Katara watched the sweat drip down the side of his head with the effort it was causing him to keep the air going. Suddenly the air stopped, the door fell down with a giant thud, and his knees buckled. Katara scurried forward to support him before he fell to the ground, knowing perfectly well that it was sending all the wrong signals.

As she took his arm and put it around her neck, he mumbled, "I can't do it."

"Yeah, you can!" Toph said. "Stand up!" Aang did, looking at her in surprise. Katara stepped back. "You're trying to move this huge metal thing, right? Well that's almost exactly like moving a rock, except you're doing it with Airbending!"

"What are you saying?" asked Aang.

"I'm saying," Toph said, "that you need to approach it like you're moving a rock. So what's the most important part of Earthbending?"

"Your stance," Aang said promptly. "It has to be steady and strong, like a rock."

"Very good," she said. "So if you have a strong stance, you'll be able to more that door. Rocklike!"

Aang paused and said, "Are you sure this will—"

"Did you not hear me? Rocklike!"

Aang slid obediently into his Earthbending stance. He breathed deeply again, and brought his hands to his midriff, imitating what he had done before. Then he let out a blast of air. This one lifted the door slowly but steadily. And what they saw did not please Katara.

There was another trap door above that, just as heavy as the other one. Katara glanced at Aang. His eyes widened in dismay for a moment, but he kept up his stream of air. His eyes narrowed in total concentration, and his eyes and arrow started to glow. He himself started giving off powerful waves of air as his blast of air got stronger. All three of them took a step back as the room was filled with the light of his eyes and arrow. Katara clutched Sokka's arm and squinted at Aang's bright silhouette, holding up a hand to shield her eyes from the flying hay. She could hear Toph shout triumphantly, and all of a sudden, the air got so strong that all the trapdoors above the one Aang had been working on snapped open as easily as they would have if they were made of cloth.

All at once Aang's glow faded and the air emanating from him stopped. He let out a sigh as the avatar spirit left him, and Katara again ran forward to catch him. He was as limp as a rag doll, but smiling. "Good one, Twinkle Toes," Toph said.

The only problem with this moment was that each of the doors had made resonating clangs as they opened, and they could hear turmoil on deck. Suddenly, Sokka threw his boomerang straight up in the air.

"What was that for?!" Toph exclaimed.

The answer came in the form of a man falling from the sky.

One of the crew members had apparently spotted them, looking down through the doors, and Sokka hit him with his boomerang. He hit the ground with a sickening thud, and Katara was sure she heard something crack. "Come on," Aang said. "We have to get out of here." Aang, Sokka, and Toph began to get on Appa, but Katara paused. She glanced at Appa, then back at the man on the floor. Then quickly she ran up to him, kneeling on the floor and taking his wrist in her hand. As much as she deplored the Fire Nation in general, she was hesitant about leaving one of them to die. When she reached him, she saw his face was pale, and a dark trickle of blood was creeping down it. But she saw his chest moving up and down faintly. "Katara, come on!" Aang shouted, deflecting a fireball with a blast of air that sent it spinning off course. It landed on the hay and ignited it immediately.

"I'm not letting him die here!" Katara shouted over the roar of the flames. She took his pulse, knowing she didn't have a lot of time. It was weak, but there. She quickly assessed the situation in her head. If she left him here, he'd die anyway, and her efforts would've been for nothing. Making a decision, she lifted him up and dragged him towards Appa. She was lucky he was only 17 or 18; if he wasn't, she'd never have been able to lift him.

"Katara, what are you doing?!" Sokka screamed. Katara ignored him and heaved the boy onto Appa. She climbed up onto the saddle and yelled, "Appa! Yip, yip!"

Appa grunted and put his weight on his hind legs. Then he kicked off the ground, soaring through the doors and snapping the chains as easily as if they were made of string. When he flew out the last door, they knew they were free. At this point a good portion of the crew was out, and firing at them without mercy, but Aang held them off with great shelves of air that sent the fireballs right back to the Firebenders. When they were just feet above the deck, Katara pushed the kid who Sokka had hit off and onto the deck. If it was in the cards for him to live, then she had just handed him his best chance.

They soared higher, and Katara stared at the droves of Firebenders below them, seeking out one in particular. She saw him standing behind the railing of an elevated deck, shouting orders. He looked up at the same time as she noticed him. They stared at each other for a moment, and then Zuko sent a stream of fire at them. Katara and Toph ducked and Sokka flattened himself against Appa's head, but Aang wasn't fast enough to stop it. "Appa!" he screamed. It grazed Appa's back, and he let out a roar of pain. Once it had passed, Katara and Sokka stepped forward and began hitting the flames that had ignited on the saddle with their sacks, putting it out quickly. Toph stayed clinging to the side of the saddle.

"Toph!" Aang yelled. "Why didn't you try to put it out?" Toph's look of shock turned to anger in an instant.

"You didn't do anything either, Twinkle Toes!" Toph said, firing up at once. "And besides, it's hard enough for me to see on Appa anyway, but fire doesn't make vibrations, so I couldn't see it after it hit."

Aang looked like he was about to make an angry retort, but Katara cut him off. "It doesn't look too bad," she called, examining the burn. "The saddle and his fur took most of it."

Aang sat down on Appa's neck and gave him a big hug. "Are you okay, boy?" Appa only rumbled in reply. Katara sank down in the saddle, staring out at the clouds. If there was any conversation continuing among the other three, Katara lost track of it then. She couldn't believe what had happened in the last few months. Nothing had gone according to plan.

Katara stared into the clouds, stained navy with the gathering darkness. It was all over, but she could feel Zuko's necklace burning a hole in her pocket.

I broke every rule in the book by falling in love with him. And yet I was always wondering whether or not what I did would upset him, she reflected. Thinking it all over, she realized that she had become absolutely dependant on him in a very short time. It was so fast… she thought. And it wasn't like any of the fairytales Mom used to tell. I know love isn't like that in real life… but if that really was love, it's not worth it.

Later, when they had all fallen asleep, Katara pulled her necklace out of her pocket. She played with it for a moment or so, playing with the pendant and chain. She leaned over the side of her saddle and held her fist out. She opened her hand and let the necklace slide from her hand. She watched it fall until she couldn't see it anymore, and then she just stared at where it had fallen. Never again, she vowed. She would never fall in love again, she'd never let herself down so far again. If that was love, then she wanted out. If feeling hurt so bad, she didn't want to feel.

She went to sleep far later than the others. She might've stayed awake longer if not to banish whatever was at the back of her brain, a nagging sense that something was missing.

A/N: Well, this was another long POV, so I'm putting them in separate chapters again. First order of business, I got my best review ever today, from robstarluver, and it was:

"ah! u cant let them kiss so early, it takes time!! love takes time!"

IT DOES TAKE TIME, DOESN'T IT?! -happy dance- And it will take time. This was really helpful to me, and it actually changed the way the entire story's been going. And I think it'll be better now. Or at least, I think my new idea's better than my old one. At the end of this chapter she was rethinking everything and essentially lost her nerve. You'll just have to wait to see how she changes because of this, though XP So, robstarluver, here's a bunch of cookies. -hands robstarluver a bunch of cookies-

So after I post Zuko's POV for this one (which will probably be a short one, because there's a lot of space to fill), the story's taking a way different turn. I know I got at least one review for one of my earlier chapters asking for more of the other characters, and that's what I'm doing. Katara and Zuko won't be in every chapter anymore. Depending on the content, it might be Katara and Aang, or Zuko and Iroh, or just Toph or something. In fact, it won't be Katara/Zuko again for a while yet. I'm excited!

Also, I'm nearing fifty reviews. Please help me get there!

-- S W e e T R e B e L L i o N