Book One: Water
Chapter Nine: The Waterbending Scroll
Xena loops the chains around her wrists and kicks the Fire Nation soldier in the chest as he steps closer.
"Stupid bitch," he growls and steps forward to grab her feet as she kicks out at him.
She growls and twists sharply to pull free. His hands heat up as he burns her legs. She bites back a cry of pain, but stops fighting against the soldier. He reaches up and unlocks the chains only to pull her arms behind her back and put on a pair of handcuffs. He leads her up on deck then forces her to her knees in front of Zhao. She glares at the ground
"So are you ready to tell me where the Avatar is yet?" He asks, crouching in front of her. She smiles faintly at the ground then look up at him.
"Nope."
"Suit yourself," He says then reaches out with a burning hand.
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Xena winces as her burns flare painfully. She's not sure how Zhao figured out who she was, but there was no way she was going to allow him to use her connection with Aang to find the airbender. But just because she wouldn't tell Zhao where Aang was didn't mean she couldn't check in on Aang.
"Would you sit down? If we hit a bump, you'll go flying off!" Sokka was telling Aang as he paced back and forth. "What's wrong with you anyway?"
"It's what Avatar Roku said. I'm supposed to master all four elements before the comet arrives." He says.
"Well, let's see. You've pretty much mastered airbending and that only took you 112 years. I'm sure you can master three more elements by next summer."
Aang stares at him wide-eyed. "I haven't even started waterbending and we're still weeks away from the North Pole. And then there's the fact that Xena is gone. What am I gonna do?" He asks despretaly.
"Calm down," Katara ordered and pulled him down. "Everything is going to be fine and I don't mind teaching you some of the stuff that I know. And sure that Xena is fine."
"Really?" Aang says ,glancing at Katara.
She nods then says, "Really, now all need is a good source of water."
"Maybe we can find a puddle for you to splash in," Sokka replies sarcastically.
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"Nice puddle."
Appa flies into the water and lands with a giant splash.
"Yeah! Don't start without me, boy!" Aang says, starting to remove his outer layer of clothes.
"Remember the reason we're here," Katara says stopping him mid-stride.
"Oh right, time to practice waterbending." He smiles sheepishly and puts his clothes back on.
"Great. So, what am I supposed to do?" Sokka asks.
"You could clean the gunk out of Appa's toes?" Aang suggests, handing him a leafy branch
"So, while you guys are playing in the water, I'm supposed to be hard at work picking the mud out of a giant bison's feet?" Sokka asks in disbelief.
"Mud and bugs!" Aang says with a smile.
Sokka shrugs and takes the branch. "Okay."
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Xena sighs and opens her eyes. She'd thought she'd be there when Aang began his waterbending training and yet here she was a prisoner of the Fire Nation. She growled and looked up at the chains. Her hands clasped the chains above her head as her breaths leveled out as if she was meditating. The metal under her hands begins to heat up quickly until it was glowing red hot. She jerks down hard and nothing happens. She grits her teeth and pulls again this time rewarded with a metallic screech as it breaks.
Dropping to the ground silently, she checks the guards position with her heat vision. Neither of them moves from their place by the door. The door opens outwards thankfully and she pushes it open hard, slamming it into the guard on the left's face before slamming the other into a wall. Not waiting to see if anyone had heard the sound of the two guards falling, she takes off through the confusing twists and turns of the ship's innards. Just as she manages to find her way onto the deck, the alarm sounds. She sighs before running forward to the edge of the deck and launching herself into the water. Feet pound on the metal deck above her as soldiers run around searching. She smiles faintly then swims away from the ship. The shore is close by and the reeds growing in the shallows offer good cover. It won't take them long to find out that she's no longer aboard and when they go to search off it, they won't think to look in the shallows when she could be long gone in the forest behind her. For now she'll wait.
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"I can't believe you got that so quickly," Katara told Aang in surprise. "It took me two months to learn that move."
"Well, you had to figure it out on your own. I'm lucky enough to have a great teacher."
"Thanks."
"So, what's next?"
"This is a more difficult move. I call it streaming the water," Katara says, shakily pulling water from the river.
Aang starts to stream the water like Katara swinging it around his body in a kind of dance.
"It's harder than it looks so don't be disappointed if-" Katara starts to say and drops her water as she realizes that Aang already has it.
Aang streams the water over his head with a flourish and returns it to the river.
"How was that?" he asks.
"Nice work," Katara says dryly. "Though the over-the-head flare was unnecessary."
"Sorry." Aang bows solemnly then smiles and says, "Well, don't stop now, keep 'em coming!"
"Well, I kinda know this one other move, but it's pretty hard. I haven't even totally figured it out yet. The idea is to create a big, powerful wave." Katara explains and takes a stance.
She raises her hands up slowly and the water rises with her until it reaches chest height before collapsing.
"So, like this?" Aang leaps forward and does the same move.
The wave towers over them and starts to fall towards Sokka.
"Aang!" The warrior groans before the wave swept him off of Appa. Aang apologizes softly.
"Looks like I got the hang of that move!" Aang says, perking up. "What else ya got?"
"That's enough practice for today," Katara says angrily
"Yeah, I'll say," Sokka said, looking down the river, "You just practiced our supplies down the river."
"Uh, sorry," Aang says guiltily. "I'm sure we can find somewhere to replace all that stuff."
"It was hard enough when you were just an airbender..." Sokka says and sinks beneath the surface of the water, letting out a mouthful of bubbles.
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Xena resurfaces out of the connection with Aang in order to watch as the soldiers began to search the woods. She shifts backwards quietly when one passes right in front of her hiding spot. He stops and looks around. She holds her breath hoping he'll continue walking. He does and she lets out a faint sigh of relief. She shifts backwards and trips over a rock in the water, landing with a splash in the river. She hears the shouts as the soldier spots her. "There she is."
"Quick, someone grab her."
She ducks as a fireball tears through the air above her. Shit. She lunges farther out into the water, taking a deep breath before submerging completely. A fire blasts hits the water in front of her; she jerks back in shock then turns to face the shore. Now she's pissed.
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Xena launches out of the water and starts attacking the group of soldiers, hitting their pressure points to render them unconscious. A fireball hit the water close by and she dodged out of the way. Zhao takes a firebending stance across from her. He launches two fireballs and then kicks a blade of fire at her in quick succession. She ducks away from the fireballs and then pulls the blade apart with her own bending, smiling faintly at his shock. If he really knew who she was then he should have known about her firebending.
A flash of anger crosses his face and he starts punching fire out in her direction. She tears some of his attacks apart and dodge others. Please Agni, let this work. She flips onto her hands to kick a burst of fire at him then whips back up, creating a fire dagger in her hand. Zhao flies back and hits the tree hard as the wave of fire slams into him. Unfortunately, Xena don't sense the firebender behind her until it's too late. He trips he rand forces her arms arms behind her back. Great, captured, again.
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"What was that all about, Katara?" Aang asked the waterbender curiously as they walked down the gangplank of a merchant's ship and back onto the street.
"Yeah, I was just starting to browse through their boomerang collection," Sokka added.
"I'll just feel a lot better once we get away from here?" The waterbender replies.
"Hey you!" A sailor, who Xena can tell is a pirate from Aang's memory, shouts at them, jumping down from the ship. "Get back here!"
Aang smirks and turns around. "Well, well, look who's come to their senses. Told you the haggling would pay off."
More armed pirates jump off the ship and rush towards them.
"I don't think these pirates are here to trade with us!" Katara cried out as they turn around and run, the pirates close behind.
The three ran through the market, turning a corner sharply. Katara froze a puddle behind them, causing one of the pirates to slip and fall. Sokka and Katara ran down an alleyway, bumping into the cabbage merchant's cart while Aang jumped through the small space between the top of the cart and the cabbages. Aang sent a blast of wind at the cart, throwing it into the pirates that were right behind them.
"My cabbages!" the merchant shrieked. "This place is worse than Omashu!"
Katara yelped as another group of pirates jumped out in front of them and began chasing them back down the street they had just come down.
"I hope that lemur of yours has nine lives!" A pirates shouted as they continued to chase the trio.
They didn't respond and kept running until they came to a dead end. They whirled around to face the incoming pirates.
"Now, who gets to taste the steel of my blade first?" The first pirate asked as he twirled his knifes around expertly.
"No thanks!" Aang stated, hurling a blast of air at the pirates.
The pirates stumbled backwards, and he snapped his glider open and ran towards them.
"Hold on tight!" Aang shouted to the others.
"I thought we were running away from the pirates!" Katara yelled, but grabbed onto the glider with her brother anyways.
"Just hang on!" Aang called out as he flew over the pirates' heads. Sokka and Katara had to step on the pirates head because the extra weight pulled the glider down slightly.
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"Did you really think you could escape?" Zhao asked, snapping Xena out of her connection with Aang. He was pacing in front of her.
She doubles over with a choked gasp as one of the soldiers punches her in the stomach.
"You will tell us where the Avatar is, girl, because I don't take well to traitors."
He motions to his men to take her back to the ship.
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"I used to kinda look up to pirates.," Aang said, snapping his gilder shut. "But those guys were terrible."
"I know. That's why I took…" Katara said, with a mischievous tone causing Aang and Sokka to look at her in shock when she held up a Waterbending scroll, "This."
"No way!" Aang gasped in surprise.
"Isn't it great?" Katara asked excitedly.
"No wonder they were trying to hack us up!" Sokka shouted angrily. " You stole their Waterbending scroll."
"I prefer to think of it as high risk trading," she joked, and Aang laughed.
"Good one, Katara."
"Sokka, where do you think they got it?" Katara asked seriously. "They stole it from a Waterbender!"
"It doesn't matter," Sokka snapped back. "You put all of our lives in danger just so you could learn some stupid, fancy splashes!"
"These are real Waterbending forms," Katara shouted. "You know how crucial it is for Aang to learn Waterbending!"
"Whatever." Sokka muttered, walking away.
"Well, what's done is done," Aang said calmly. "We have it, we might as well learn from it."
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"I just want to try this one move first and then it's all yours," Katara said, then handed the scroll to Aang to hold open. "Here, hold it open for me. The single water whip. Looks doable."
Aang, and Sokka watched as Katara attempted the whip but only succeeded in hitting herself in the forehead, leaving a large, red welt like a third eye. "Ow!"
Sokka started laughing at her and Katara whipped around to glare at him.
"What's so funny?" She demanded.
"I'm sorry, but you deserved that," Sokka stated then turned to Aang. "You've been duped. She's only interested in teaching herself."
"Aang will get his turn once I figure out the water whip!" Katara snapped then attempted the move again, only this time hitting Momo's backside. Momo screeched angrily at her, "Ugh! Why can't I get this stupid move?!"
"You'll get it." Aang said reassuringly and put the scroll on a tree stump before walking closer to the river, not noticing the glare Katara gave him. "You just got to shift your weight through the stances." Aang mimicked the moves on the scroll perfectly and created the water whip with his first try. "There, see?" Aang said with a smile, "The key to bending is—"
"Will you please shut your air hole?!" Katara screamed angrily and loomed over Aang. "Believe it or not your infinite wisdom gets a little old sometimes. Why don't we just throw the scroll away since you're so naturally gifted?!"
"What?!" She demanded seeing Sokka's glare then turned to look at Aang, who was staring at her with tearful eyes, making Katara instantly feel guilty. "Oh my gosh, Aang, I'm so sorry, I don't know what came over me. But you know what, it won't happen again." Katara picked the scroll up and handed it to Aang.
"Here, this is yours." Katara said softly, "I don't want to have anything to with it anymore."
"It's okay, Katara," Aang said with an airbenders natural forgiveness.
"What about Momo?" Sokka asked ,gesturing to the lemur rubbing his backside. "He's the real victim here."
"I'm sorry Momo." Katara apologized, kneeling behind the lemur and rubbing his ears.
"And what about me?" Sokka asked. "There was that time you—"
"No more apologies!" Katara snapped at her sibling.
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Xena sighed softly. If Zhao really wanted to know where Aang was, she would tell him. By the time he got there Aang would already be long gone. Besides it might be fun to lead the Commander on a wild goose-duck chase. With another quiet sigh, she drifted off into sleep.
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"What's wrong?" Aang asked, rubbing his eyes sleepily as Sokka looked through his bag. He frowned when he noticed Katara was gone. "Where's Katara?"
"She took the scroll!" Sokka said exasperatedly as he dumped out the bag. "She's obsessed with that thing. It's just a matter of time before she gets us all in deep—AH!"
Sokka yelled as a rope wrapped around his wrists and yanked him off his feet. He rolled away as the pirate in front of him attacked again, grabbed his club as he jumped to his feet and charged the pirate with a war cry.
Aang got into an airbending stance, glanced behind him and then spun around when he saw another pirate with a net attached to the end of two crossbows standing among the trees. The pirate fired the net and Aang launched a blast of air, but the air passed through the holes uselessly, allowing the net to tangle around Aang, capturing him. The captured airbender was grabbed by another pirate and was dragged away, while another knocked Sokka to the ground then ran after the pirate dragging Aang.
"Oh, what?" Sokka shouted as he stood up. "I'm not good enough to kidnap? AH!"
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"Nice work," Zuko praised the pirates when they appeared with Sokka and Aang then frowned slightly when he noticed that the girl with the tattoos wasn't with them.
"Aang, this is all my fault," Katara says guilty from the tree that she was tied to.
"No Katara, it isn't," Aang reassured.
"Yeah," Iroh countered, "It kind of is."
Zuko steps towards the pirate captain, the Waterbending scroll in hand, "Give me the boy."
"You give us the scroll," The Captain retorted without moving.
Sokka looked up at the pirate captain in mock surprise. "You're really gonna hand over the Avatar for a stupid piece of parchment?"
"Don't listen to him," Zuko ordered, glaring at Sokka angrily. "He's trying to turn us against each other!"
The Captain ignored Zuko and looked down at Aang, and addressed Sokka, "You're friend is the Avatar?"
"Sure is," Sokka confirmed with a sly grin that says 'I'm up to no good'. "And I'll bet he'll fetch you a lot more on the black market than that fancy scroll."
"Shut your mouth, you Water Tribe peasant!" Zuko snarled and pointed threateningly at Sokka.
"Yeah, Sokka, you really should shut your mouth," Aang whispered to said Water Tribe peasant.
Sokka shrugged his shoulders and looked at one of the pirates. "I'm just sayin' it's bad business sense. Just imagine how much the Fire Lord would pay for the Avatar. You guys would be set for life."
Aang bites back a smile realizing what Sokka is doing and then the urge to smile vanishes when he thinks that what Sokka is doing is a very Xena like move.
"Keep the scroll," The Captain sneered. "We can buy a hundred with the reward we'll get for the kid."
The pirates turn their back on Zuko.
"You'll regret breaking a deal with me."
Zuko and two of his soldiers send a wave of fire at the pirates causing them to jump back. One of the pirates threw a smoke bomb as cover.
Sokka and Aang begin to struggle with their ropes when three Fire Nation soldiers began running towards them. Four pirates jump in front of them and surrounded Aang and Sokka, throwing anothet smoke bomb and covering the area with the gray haze of artificial smoke.
In the meantime, Momo climbed down the tree Katara was tied to and hurriedly chewed through the rope binding Katara's wrists. "Thanks, Momo," Katara said as she raced towards the river and boats, "I owe you a bushel of apples."
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Aang coughed as he looked around in the smoke, yelping quietly as he dodged a knife that cut through his ropes at the same time. Then he had to dodge a pike with another yelp that cut the last rope and he began to quickly try and find his way out of the smoke.
"Aang, are you there?" Sokka shouted as he crawled on the ground, jerking back when a blade landed in front of him. He used it to saw through his rope bindings still calling for Aang.
"I'm over here!" Aang shouted back, "Follow my voice!"
"Where?" Sokka called back. "I can't find you!"
"I'm right here!" Aang yelled then scowling he airbended the smoke away, revealing the pirates and soldiers surrounding him and he immediately airbended the smoke and dust bac. "Never mind, I'll find you!"
Sokka crawled out of the smokescreen on his hands and knees, Aang vaulted over his head a moment later in a full sprint.
"Run!" he shouted over his shoulder as Sokka jumped to his feet and followed Aang's advice.
As they ran Aang glanced over at Sokka. "How did you know that the pirates would turn against Zuko if they knew who I was?"
He shrugged, "I don't know. Just thought it's what Xena would have done."
They found Katara trying with much effort and little success to push the pirate ship into the river.
"Katara, you're okay!" Aang shouted happily.
"Help me get this boat back in the water so we can get outta here," Katara ordered and the two boys joined her in trying to push the boat from the bank, the boat refusing to budge.
"We'd need a team of rhinos to budge this ship," Sokka stated as they stepped back.
"A team of rhinos," Aang started as a he looked over at Katara, "Or two waterbenders."
Katara smiled shyly at him and then the two moved so they were standing across from each other. They then began to push and pull the water until the boat rose up.
"Everybody in!" Katara commanded.
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"Sokka, can't you make this thing go any faster?" Aang asked worriedly as he looked back at the pirates rapidly gaining on their ship.
"I don't know how," Sokka called back as he tried to steer the wheel. "This thing wasn't made by the Water Tribe."
The pirates pulled Zuko's boat alongside the ship and jumped aboard, but are quickly swept away by Aang waterbending a large wave over the surface of the ship. One of the pirates managed to stay on and as he climbed to his feet, Katara created a perfect water whip, throwing him overboard.
"Hey, you did the water whip!" Aang congratulated excitedly.
"I couldn't have done it without your help." Katara stated and she smiled up at the bald airbender.
"Would you two quit congratulating each other and help me out?" Sokka demanded from where he was being attacked by two pirates.
Momo was also being attacked by the pirate's reptile-parrot. The lemur quickly began to scale the top mast, leaping and flying around it before entangling the reptile-parrot in the triangular flag.
Katara gave a terrified shout, "Aang, look!"
Aang looked up and paled slightly when he saw that the ship was heading towards a huge waterfall.
"Oh no…" He muttered then spun around when he heard the sound of knife leaving its sheath, coming face-to-face with a pirate, who was holding his knife threateningly.
Aang took a step back then pulled out the bison whistle blow it. While the pirate stood there staring at Aang in confusion, Sokka came up behind him and pushed him off of the ship.
"Have you lost your mind?!" Sokka demanded. "This is no time for flute practice!"
Aang ignored him as he stared in horror at the rapidly approaching waterfall.
"We can stop the boat!" Katara shouted suddenly and turned to Aang. "Aang, together, push and pull the water!"
The two stood with their backs to each other at the front of the boat and began to push and pull the water, creating two small whirlpools that stopped the ship from going over the edge.
"It's working, it's slowing down!" Katara shouted happily. "We're doing it!"
"But we have another problem," Sokka yelled back as Zuko's boat with the pirates in it sailed straight toward them.
The boat rammed into the ship, sending the three stumbling towards the edge. "Jump!" Aang shouted, grabbing onto Sokka and Katara's hands as they leapt off the boat and over the waterfall with a scream.
Appa appeared and the three landed on his back as the ship and boat fell to the bottom of the waterfall with a resounding crash.
"I knew a bison whistle would come in handy. Thanks, Appa," Aang stated with a grin.
"Yeah, we owe ya one," Sokka agrees, patting the ten-ton bison's side.
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"Aang, I still owe you an apology," Katara begins to say. "You were just so good at water bending without really trying. I got so competitive that I put us all in danger. I'm sorry."
"That's okay, Katara."
"Besides, who needs that stupid scroll anyway?" Katara asks.
"Is that really how you feel?" Sokka asks, pulling the scroll from his shirt.
"The scroll!" Katara exclaims reaching for it.
"Uh uh uh... First, what did you learn?" Sokka asks, pulling it away from her reaching hand.
"Stealing is wrong," Katara says snatching the scroll. "Unless it's from pirates!"
Aang and she both laugh loudly.
"Good one Katara," Aang manages to say through his laughter. His laughter faded as once again he remembered their missing friend.
So I've skipped Jet and the Great Divide episodes as they don't really add anything to the story. I'm going to put a poll up though to see if I should right a oneshot from Longshot's point of view of the Jet episode.