Okay, so we've got a plan to get out of the city. That's good. But we haven't got a plan to get out of the palace. That's bad. This isn't going to be easy…Katara thought, staring blankly at the cell wall. One time, the stone had been new. Now, however, it was damp, with little cracks in the wall. None of these cracks were large enough to escape from though, and even if they were, the escapee would just find his or herself in the next cell, probably with an angry and confused cell mate.

It had been approximately an hour since Cai had left them, murmuring about "needing to get back to the Dai Li" before he was discovered. Or something to that effect.

Truthfully, Katara hadn't been paying attention. She was thinking of all possible forms of escape, ranging from the plausible (Cai somehow steals the keys and they all fight their way out of Ba Sing Se) to the ridiculously stupid (Azula coming in and letting them go, begging for forgiveness). As much as Katara hated to admit it, she wasn't sure which one was more likely to happen at this point. Cai had repeatedly told them that he wasn't allowed access to the keys, despite Katara and Toph's ideas. Iroh had kept silent, and this worried Katara.

He was an old man and there was no denying this fact, no matter how she looked at it.

In fact, everyone had been silent for the past few minutes. Katara knew there was nothing anyone could say to make the current situation better, so that's probably why nobody tried. This made time pass incredibly slow. What made time pass even slower though, was the fact that nobody knew exactly what time it was. Katara assumed it was time for food, as her stomach rumbled slightly and every few minutes Toph complained that she was hungry with Iroh muttering something about tea in the background. Now was one of those few minutes.

Ignoring the comments, Katara shifted and tried to make herself cosy. It wasn't easy, considering the hard stone floor and the cold, metallic manacle still clasped around her wrist. However, despite this, Katara managed to get somewhat comfortable. Her thoughts wandered to what Aang and Sokka were doing, if they had realized yet that she, Toph and Iroh were coming back anytime soon.

She thought of the fire that Sokka probably had going back at the camp. It was so cold in the cells…Sokka had probably caught something or collected fruit for them to eat…meanwhile she, Toph and Iroh didn't know when their next meal would be.

The vivid image of a roaring fire and delicious food imprinted itself in Katara's mind. Oddly comforted by this, she allowed her eyes to slowly shut.

"I've got it!" Toph exclaimed, making Katara jump and knock her head against the wall.

"Unless that sentence begins with 'this is how we escape…' you're going to be sorry you made me cranky." Katara mumbled irritably.

"Hey, I'm used to Cranky Katara. It's like your natural emotion." Toph told her, much to Katara's infuriation.

"Oh yeah? Well you're-"

"Katara." Iroh interrupted. "Toph." He looked at each of the girls as he spoke their names. "We're all a little…cranky. Let Toph explain what she means and Katara can go back to sleep. Does that sound good?"

Katara nodded, despite being annoyed that Iroh was talking to them like three year olds. Toph nodded also, then explained her idea.

"Just before we got brought here, there was an earthquake. At first it was me, trying to stop the Dai Li from capturing us. I wanted more of a fight than that pathetic excuse for bending that they pulled on us."

"Is there a point to this? Because I'm tired." Katara muttered.

"I'm getting there Sugar Queen." Toph shot back. "Anyway, what if Cai was there? According to what he told us, Azula killed his dad just before she heard that we were in the city. And he would've wanted to help us escape then."

"Can Cai Earthbend?" Katara asked, stifling a yawn.

"Well, he's a Dai Li agent. Don't all of the Dai Li have to bend?" Toph asked, sincerely for a change. The girls looked at Iroh.

"How should I know? I have knowledge about the Fire Nation secret service, not the Earth Kingdom one."

"There's a Fire Nation secret service?" Katara asked, eyebrows raised in surprise.

"Uh…no." Iroh said, unconvincingly. Katara rolled her eyes and smiled, before turning to Toph.

"All the Dai Li agents that we've met so far were benders, so it would make sense if Cai was one too."

"Well then. It was Cai who caused the earthquake." Toph said, self-satisfied.

"You woke me up for that?" Katara asked grumpily.

"It was bugging me." Toph shrugged.

You're bugging me, Katara thought, but knew better than to say anything if she wanted to get to sleep.

"Wake me up when you've got an escape plan." She told Toph and Iroh. She then turned into the position that had been so comfortable before.

Snuggling into the stone wall (which wasn't easy) Katara closed her eyes and, after a few more minutes, felt sleep rise over her again.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

"Oh for God's sake!" Katara exclaimed, banging her head on the wall again at the noise.

BANG!

Someone was knocking - no, pounding - on the door. There was one more loud bang before the rustle of keys and the scraping of a turning lock could be heard.

If this is Zuko then I'm going to kill myself, Katara decided. She was in no mood to talk to anyone, especially not stuck-up Fire princes who couldn't make their minds up on anything.

Luckily (or not, depending how you looked at it) it was a Dai Li agent. Katara didn't recognise this one, but then again, he kept his head down and his eyes averted. He nodded to someone outside, who then came in and placed three bowls in front of Katara, Iroh and Toph.

Peering into the bowl, Katara recoiled. The contents of the bowl looked disgusting. At a guess, Katara assumed that it was soup, yet she was sure that even Sokka could cook better. It appeared to be merely water (dirty water at that) with crushed up leaves and a little bit of soil mixed in for good measure. As a final insult, the "soup" also appeared to be cold.

Katara grimaced and looked up to the agents in a questioning manner.

"Your dinner. Princess Azula's orders." The first man spoke, his voice low.

"What is it?" Toph asked, pulling a face.

"Your dinner." The man repeated, pushing the bowl towards her.

"Okay, I'm blind and even I know that looks gross." Toph complained.

"I'm with Toph. You don't happen to have any tea, do you?" Iroh asked politely.

"You're lucky to be eating at all!" The agent snapped. "Either eat it or you starve."

"Think I'd rather starve." Toph muttered, yet brought the bowl up to her lips. Katara and Iroh followed suit.

They say looks can be deceiving…they obviously don't say it about this. Katara thought, barely managing to swallow the foul liquid. Oh Gods this is…wait.

The room began to spin violently, and the colours of the Dai Li agents uniforms blended into everything else. Katara felt hot, too hot for comfort. Her breathing quickened, and she could feel herself swaying.

Sons of bitches drugged the soup…

Katara looked at Iroh and Toph, who appeared to be experiencing the same symptoms as she was

I hate the Fire Nation…Katara thought, beforepassing out on the cold, stone floor.

A/N:

Katara loves the Fire Nation really :P

Sorry it took awhile to update again, stupid school is driving me insane…well, more so.

Don't forget to review, and thanks to those that do : )

(for anyone who's wondering what happened to Zuko and Azula don't worry. Good things come to those who read the next chapter...coming soon! lol)