Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar or any of its characters.
Smoke. That was the first thing that Sirena's mind was able to process as she awoke. 'Why would there be smoke in my room?' She gently rolled to her side, hoping to get away from it; all she wanted was to sleep. Once she was on her side she tensed up suddenly remembering her burns, only she didn't feel anything. No pain, no discomfort. 'Something's not right…?' She gently opened her eyes and was greeted with a giant blue blur. As it began to focus, she realized it was the side of the tent. She shot up into a sitting position. She looked down to see that she was wearing some type of coat covering blue fabric and furs along with blue tights and a belt around her waist. Where the hell was she? This didn't make any sense. She started to look around and saw that the smoke came from a small fire in the corner of the tent. She wasn't on the ship anymore. Panic started filling her body. Why wasn't she on the ship? How did she get here? Where was here?
She lay back down and closed her eyes trying to remember, but everything was so foggy. She remembered being on the ship, leaning over the railing looking into the ocean when someone grabbed her arm and pulled her over; after that, the only thing she could remember was seeing water all around her.
Suddenly she heard the flap of the tent open and soft footsteps coming towards her. Sirena kept her eyes closed and waited for the right moment. Once she felt someone's hand touch her arm she immediately jumped up, startling the person next to her. She looked over and saw that it was a girl about her age with long brown braided hair and tan skin. She was surprised to see someone her age, but she didn't have time to think, just to run. Quickly as she could she jumped out of whatever she was laying in and ran towards the opening. She was almost there went she felt something cold slip around her leg. Sirena let out a small yelp and fell to the ground. She turned around to see the girl standing and walking towards her; Sirena looked down to see that her foot was covered in ice. 'So she's a waterbender.' Sirena glared up at her and the girl suddenly stopped and frowned at her as if she was hurt that Sirena was looking at her that way.
"I'm just trying to help you," she said. Sirena just looked at her used her other leg to side-sweep her and knock her off her feet. She landed on her foot, shattering the ice that surrounded it.
"Like I'll be dumb enough to believe that." With that, Sirena scrabbled to her feet and headed out the door and crashed into two people. She didn't have time to acknowledge them; she quickly scrabbled off of them and headed into the woods.
"Wait! Please!" Sirena kept running away from the voices. She just wanted to get back to the ship. There was only one reason why someone would want to kidnap her. She felt tears burn in the back of her eyes; she wouldn't go back to Zhao, she wouldn't, she couldn't, she would kill herself before that would happen. Sirena soon heard foot steps behind her. She looked back and saw two figures behind her. She was so focused on what was happening behind her that she didn't notice the shadow that flew over her. She did, however, notice the giant white beast that landed in front of her. Her legs stopped so suddenly that the rest of her body didn't know and she was sent forward towards the ground. She landed on her stomach and looked up to see the creature again. Her breath was caught in her throat; she wanted to scream and run but her body was frozen. She slowly looked back and saw two people behind her, the girl and a guy standing next to her. She was sure crashed into two people when she ran from the tent. She slowly turned back to the giant beast in front of her with an arrow on its head. She slowly got to her feet and looked for a opening to run again, when a voice stopped her.
"Please don't run again?" Sirena looked up to see a boy on top of the monster; he wore an orange and yellow outfit, and he also had an arrow on his head. He jumped down and landed next to the girl behind her 'How could he jump that far?' She quickly backed away from them. The girl opened her mouth to say something, but Sirena cut her off.
"I won't let you take me back." She watched as one of the boys, who was wearing blue just like the girl, leaned towards the girl, who Sirena guessed was his sister, and whispered something in her ear. Sirena started to slowly back away, when the girl's eyes locked with her again.
"We don't want to take you anywhere," she said as she put up her hands as if in surrender. Sirena just glared back at her, not trusting anything she said.
"Oh really? Then why did you attack me back in the tent?" The boy looked back at his sister.
"Katara..?"
"I wasn't trying to attack you. I was trying to stop you from running so you wouldn't cause anymore harm to your arms." She motioned with her head for Sirena to look at them. Sirena slowly lowered her head and looked at her arms and saw that they were looking extremely better.
"That doesn't mean anything. You could just be healing me before you send me back to him!" The boy from atop the white monster looked at her with confused eyes.
"Take you back to who?" Sirena looked between all of them; why were they acting like they didn't know? They already captured her, so why were they acting like they had to trick her into coming back? A pounding slowly started in the back of her head. None of this made any sense; she just wanted to be back on the ship with Zuko, General Iroh, Kane, Chef Cho and everyone else. Not here in the middle of nowhere cornered by a group of people that she didn't know and who could be leading her to her end.
"Look, we promise we're not trying to take you anywhere. We're just trying to help you," the oldest-looking boy said out of the group. "We found you and brought you here to help you," he said as if he was speaking to a child. Sirena felt the heat of anger grow from within her.
"You found me? I was on a ship, how could I have possibly ended up here?" she said as she sent a glare to each of them. Maybe they didn't take her, but someone did and she was going to find some answers if it was the last thing she did. They looked at each other as girl slowly opened her mouth only to close it as if she couldn't find the right words.
"We found you in our fishing net.." She looked at the little boy in orange as if he was insane.
"That's the best you can come up with. You could have tried a better lie." The pounding in her head was getting worse; she had to get away or something.
"It's not a lie, it's true." She could feel herself getting dizzy and her vision was getting hazy.
"Are you okay?" She couldn't tell who said it, but before she could say anything she felt herself falling; leaves and dirt were under her and she could feel a twig poking in her side, but she couldn't move. She didn't know what they did to her but she could feel her end coming soon. She heard foot steps around her and someone touching her forehead. "Can you hear me?"
"Help… Zu…" Before she could finish her sentence, the darkness engulfed her and she passed out in someone's hands.
"Prince Zuko. How may I be of service?" the captain asked as Zuko walked into the room. Zuko looked around the contents of the room looking for his Uncle.
"Have you seen my Uncle?" he asked as calmly as he could. For some reason he had a feeling that something wrong had happened.
"I believe I saw him with Kane, heading towards the kitchens. Sir." Zuko let out a sigh and quickly turned and left the room. He needed his Uncle; something was happening and he was sure that he would know what it was. Zuko quickly made his way to the kitchen just as Iroh and Kane were leaving.
"Prince Zuko!" His Uncle shouted. Zuko let out a growl.
"I'm standing right here Uncle. I need your help with something."
"As do we, Zuko. It seems that Miss Sirena is missing. We've been looking for her. when you saw her this morning, did she say anything?" Zuko felt his breath catch in his throat. Sirena was missing. She couldn't have left, they were in the middle of the ocean.
"You saw her this morning? Sir?" Zuko turned to the soldier and saw how his eyes showed how he hoped that it wasn't true. Zuko could never understand that boy; there was something about him that Zuko just didn't like, and now him staring at him like he was a prize-winning octo-squid just helped fuel it even more.
"I don't see how that is any of your concern," he said as he shot a glare at him. Kane quickly turned his head and mumbled an apology. "Uncle, I need your help." Zuko didn't want to think about Sirena leaving. 'She didn't, she's just hiding somewhere on the ship wanting some peace and quiet to think things over.' He knew that she wouldn't leave without saying good bye to his Uncle or anyone else for that matter.
"Very well Prince Zuko. Soldier Kane, would you like to continue the search on your own?" Kane nodded and bowed towards Iroh and Zuko and quickly headed away. He wanted to get as far away from Zuko as he could. One thing that he couldn't shake from his head was that Zuko saw Sirena this morning; it must have been after he left. He thought, now Sirena is missing and Zuko already burned her once. Kane quickly pushed the thought away from his mind. Zuko would never do anything like that, no matter how hotheaded he was.
Sirena winced as she opened her eyes to see the blue of the tent again. She slowly sat up and looked around to see the girl again sitting in the corner. She appeared to be sleeping. Sirena quietly moved her legs to the side and stood up from the cot. As she stood her knees wobbled and her legs almost collapsed, but she caught her self and stood up straighter. Shaking her head to clear it, she made her way out of the tent. 'Why would they help me again? They would have shipped me off by now, wouldn't they?' All these thoughts that were floating though her head were just giving her a bigger headache. Maybe they weren't working for Zhao, but she still didn't believe that crazy story about them finding her in a fishing net.
Sirena looked around and saw someone sleeping in a blue sleeping bag by the fire, and the giant white beast sleeping further away. She made a mental note to stay far away from it and any other ones that were out there.
"He won't hurt you." Sirena jumped and spun around to see the orange-wearing boy from earlier standing behind her. "I know he looks big and scary, but he's really friendly," he said with a smile. Sirena just stared at him; there was something strange about this boy, like he knew something really big but wouldn't tell anyone.
"Whatever." Sirena watched as his smile fell from his face. "Just keep him away from me," she said as she turned around and headed away from him.
"Wait!" he shouted as he ran after her. Sirena quickly turned around again and ran up to him and clamped her hand over his mouth. She softly shushed him and looked around to see if anyone was coming.
"What is wrong with you?" she said as she removed her hand after she was sure that no one was coming. "Haven't you snuck out before? You don't make noise," she said as if she were speaking to a child, which she was. She watched as he stumbled a little after being released without any warning. Once he got his balance he stared up at her with a confused face. "What?"
"Why are you trying to sneak away?" Sirena let out a sigh and considered just walking away when his voice cut through her thoughts. "You don't still think we kidnapped you, do you?" Sirena looked at him and could see the hurt and worry in his eyes. She could tell that he didn't want her to think that about them. She felt her stomach flop with guilt for what she had said earlier.
"No," she said as she looked to the side. "I don't think that you and your friends kidnapped me."
"Then why are you running away? Whoever you're afraid of, we can help you." Sirena couldn't help but feel anger boil up in her. He didn't know what she went through? What she felt? Who she had to give up because staying in the same place too long would cause problems? But he was talking to her as if he did; it made her so mad that she just wanted him to fall off a cliff and get swept away by the ocean.
"You can't help me."
"How do you even know, maybe –" He was cut off as she lifted her head and sent a glare at him.
"How are you going to help me? You just don't get it; he's going to kill me when he gets his hands on me." Her voice was starting to rise as she was slowly backing the small boy back towards camp. "What are you and your little camping buddies going to do? Sic your giant monster on him? You can't do anything; the only thing I can do is disappear. Now why don't you leave me alone and let me get it over with!" she yelled at him. She couldn't explain it, she just wanted to break something. It wasn't fair, she didn't ask for all of this, she just wanted to be with Zuko and everyone else back on the ship where she was happy.
Before she knew what was happening, tears started pouring from her eyes and at the exact moment every muscle in her body just stopped and she collapsed to the ground on her knees. She couldn't deal with it anymore; she didn't want to be here. Soon the tears turned to sobs and she hung her head and let everything pour out of her. She felt an arm slide across her shoulders; she didn't even bother to look over to see who it was. "I just want to go back…" she mumbled to herself as tears continued to fall.
"Why don't you?" The question shocked Sirena so much that she turned to the boy who said it. She looked into his grey eyes and saw that he was serious. "Why don't you? How do you know he will find you there?"
"H-he will… you don't…" She pulled away from his arm and stared him. He was just a kid, so why did it look like he'd lived so many lives?
"I don't who is chasing you, but from what you said it doesn't sound like he's found you yet. You can't run away from your family."
"I left to protect them too," she whispered.
"They would have wanted you to stay where they know you would be safe. Not lost in the woods." Sirena listened to his words and knew he was right. Even though she didn't leave on purpose, it would look that way. Kane, General Iroh, everyone, even Zuko, would be worried sick about her. She suddenly felt horrible and sick to her stomach;, how could she put them though all of that? Zuko was right, maybe Zhao wouldn't even find her, but she was so focused on running, and as much as she hated to admit it, on getting away from Zuko too.
It hurt too much just thinking about him, how he didn't have any feeling for her like she did for him. "I can't even get back now," she said as she hung her head as tears started to build again. After all that happened she still couldn't get back, not even to see them one more time.
"Yes, you can." Sirena and the boy both looked up at the new voice that joined their conversation. The girl, Katara, stood near them with a small smile tugging on her mouth. "We could take you," she said as she kneeled down next to her and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"They're on a ship," Sirena said. The boy jumped up with a smile.
"That's no problem. Appa can fly. Katara's right, we can take you back. Everything will be alright." Sirena looked between the two of them. She couldn't believe what was happening. There was a way for her to get home.
"Wait, who's Appa?" she asked. Katara pointed towards the white beast that was sleeping peacefully couple of feet away.
"That's Appa, Aang's flying bison." Sirena assumed that Aang was the young bald boy smiling at her. As she looked at them, she couldn't help it when tears fell from her eyes.
"Wait, don't cry!" Aang half yelled, the smile falling from his face when he saw the tears.
"No, I'm happy! Thank you, I'm sorry for any problems I caused," she said as Katara and Aang gave her a smile and wrapped their arms around her.
"It's no problem. We're glad to help," Katara said, and then with a sigh she turned towards Aang. "Now all that's left is to tell Sokka." Sirena watched curiously as Aang's smiled lost some of its shine. He and Katara both looked at each other and let out a sigh. Sirena didn't know what was going on but she had a feeling that Sokka wasn't going to be very happy about their trip.
Okay here's the new chapter, sorry its just a filler but it does set the new chapter of what will happen further in. Plus we finally get to meet the Gaang. Hope you enjoyed it and review please.