"Uncle, I don't know what to do," said Prince Zuko pacing in his room in front of the fire, his uncle Iroh was sitting at a small round table with a half finished game of Pai Cho.

"Perhaps the answer lies without instead of within," said Iroh as he stroked his beard and moved another piece forward, Zuko turned around.

"What is that supposed to mean, Uncle?" he asked as he sat down in front of his uncle. Iroh took a drink of tea.

"You are thinking too hard Prince Zuko. Take a rest and the answer will come to you. Perhaps a game of Pai Cho will suffice to keep your mind off of the task at hand?" he said.

"Uncle, my throne is already on the line. The sooner I deliver the Avatar to the Fire Lord, the sooner things get back to normal," he said as he studied the game board.

"But do you want things to get back to normal Prince Zuko?" he asked as he studied his nephew. Zuko moved a piece diagonally and looked up.

"Of course or I wouldn't have spent the last two years searching for the Avatar without aid," he said. Iroh studied his nephew through lowered eyelashes. He is getting more complicated every day, he thought and once again studied the game board.


"Sokka sit down!" said Katara as Sokka strode passed her for the thousandth time. Sokka spun around.

"And do what sit here and wait? No thanks," he said and began pacing again. Katara shrugged and started to meditate again. Tatiana had long since went to sleep. Sokka surveyed the sleeping girl through his eyelashes, she was prettier than Suki, much prettier. And he really didn't like the fact that Suki could almost beat him at hand to hand combat. He shook his head to clear it and looked at the walls again. The objective of the moment was to get himself, Katara and… Tatiana to safety. And getting misty eyed over a girl that he had only known a little more than a day wasn't going to get him out of the brig and off of the fire navy ship any sooner.

He jumped as Tatiana turned over, her back was too him now. He sighed wishing that the fire benders hadn't taken his boomerang now he couldn't even polish it. He linked his fingers together in his lap as he sat on his crate and let his head drag down with fatigue.


Tatiana snapped awake as she heard the door too the brig open, she stayed laying down but watched through lidded eyes as the brig door was opened and a bucket was thrown in. As soon as the door was closed she sat up and crawled over too the bucket. She hesitated and looked at Sokka and Katara. Sokka was hunched over on his crate and Katara lay slightly curled on the floor. She shrugged and looked into the bucket, it looked like it belonged in the rubbish with it's handle nearly torn off. A knotted sack was stuffed into the bottom of it. Tatiana looked back at Sokka who was snoring slightly. He would want me to wake him up, she thought.

Her fingers hesitated as she fumbled with the knot in the sack. The contents of the sack weren't very heavy and she could feel something round and hard, and something soft. She sighed and tried to rip the sack with her fingernails.

"What are you doing?" said Sokka from behind her back. She turned around and held the sack up to him, he stared at it. "Where did that come from?" he asked and he took it.

"Someone just threw it down here," she said. "I didn't want to wake you in case it was nothing," she said in answer to his questioning glance. He tried to open it.

"I can't open it. Do you have a knife or anything?" he asked.

"No," she said for the first time wishing that she carried a weapon. She had never really needed one because of her earth bending skills. But now that she wasn't anywhere near earth that she could use she felt helpless. She sighed and fumbled with the folds of her skirt.

"Oh," he looked over at Katara and sighed. "Girls really should learn to carry weapons," he said. Tatiana decided not to comment as she searched her pockets for something to eat. She had a total of three pockets, one on her shirt, one at the hem of her skirt for her money pouch, and one at the top of her skirt that was concealed by her shirt. Inside that pocket Tatiana's fingers grazed the handle of something cold. She grasped it and brought it out of her dress pocket. It was the comb Eram had given her, she sighed again, although she had thought she had dropped it when the first fire bender had captured her it still didn't help much.

"What's that?" Sokka asked seeing something shiny in her hand.

"Nothing, just a comb," she said and showed it too him. He pushed the bag off of his lap and onto the floor of the ship and reached out to take the comb. Sokka examined it for while. Tatiana felt weird having someone examine something of hers, namely a gift from another boy.

"It looks like real silver," he said as he hefted it in his hand. He's holding it like it were some kind of weapon, she thought.

"It probably is," she said, for the first time wondering what Eram had given her had cost. Probably not much, or he wouldn't have given it too me…unless he really does like me... she shoved the thoughts away and concentrated on the bag with unknown contents on the floor. Tatiana grabbed it and once again tried to pry the knot apart.

A sudden idea struck her as she looked at the discarded bucket. The handle of the bucket was almost off and had sharp points on the end where nails where sticking out. She grabbed the bucket and began to pry off the handle. Sokka looked at what she was doing and put the comb in his boomerang sheath to help her.

Sokka held the bucket as Tatiana yanked the rest of the metal off of it. "There, do you think there is any way to sharpen this?" she asked as she noted the broken end of the metal.

"No, just use the other end," he said as he handed her back her comb. Their fingers brushed as she grasped the end of her comb. She blushed, and even the smallest hint of color touched Sokka's face. She put her comb back in her skirt pocket and grabbed the knot in the sack.

Tatiana was about to cut the cloth, "Wait. Let me do it," Sokka said. Tatiana looked questioningly up at him from where she sat. "What if it's something dangerous in there?" he asked as he took the sack from her left hand and the jagged metal out of her other hand.

"Well it's not anymore dangerous for me than it is for you," she said crossing her arms.

"But if it were something dangerous-" he said.

"What's dangerous?" said Katara as she sat up.

"Nothing," he said, Katara looked too Tatiana.

"He thinks that there is something dangerous in that sack," she said pointing too the sack in Sokka's lap.

"Well is there?" she asked.

"There could be," Sokka said. "Just let me open it," he said as he began sawing on the thread of the sack. In a few short seconds there was a large hole in the sack, n apple showed through the hole along with a loaf of bread.

"See, just food," said Katara as she picked out the apple.

"Wait don't eat it!" said Sokka grabbing the apple away from Katara's open mouth. She glared angrily back at him.

"Why not? I'm starving Sokka, you of all people telling me not to eat," she said still glaring.

"They're fire benders, remember?" he said. Katara looked dubiously at the sack. "They could have poisoned it or something."

"I doubt that they would poison their only hope for capturing the Avatar," said Tatiana. Sokka looked at her.

"Then at least we'll die with full stomachs instead of dying with empty stomachs," Katara grabbed another apple and bit into it with a crunch, some of the juice from the apple landed on Sokka's face. Katara giggled as he wiped it off with the back of his hand.

Tatiana looked at the bread wantonly. It looks fresh enough, she thought as she reached for it. She ripped off the top of the loaf and began eating it as Sokka rummaged through the rest of the items in the sack. It turned out to contain four more apples, an orange, another loaf of bread, and a small wedge of cheese. Sokka helped himself to a large portion of the loaf of bread that Tatiana had already tore off.

Well he can eat, she thought as she glanced at Sokka shoveling down a huge bite of bread.


Sokka had finally given up on pacing and sat on his crate again, Katara was meditating near the shackles, and Tatiana sat under the door combing out her hair. When the door opened again, jerking all of them out of whatever stupor they had been in, Tatiana's comb got stuck in her hair as she jumped up.

As Tatiana jumped up a rope was thrown around her waste and she was lifted up into the hands of more fire benders.

"Tatiana!" yelled Sokka as he ran to grab her. Tatiana went struggling up into the hands of the fire benders where another blind fold was secured around her head. Sokka punched the wall as the door was slammed shut.

"She'll be okay," said Katara trying to sound sure for her brothers sake although her face bore a worried expression.

"For now," he said. They hadn't really told Tatiana anything about Aang except his name. What was going to happen when the fire benders realized that she didn't know anything about him?

(A little longer of a chapter. But I am already starting on the next chapter as you read. So I gave them some food, I can't have them starving to death can I? Next chapter: The Inquisition, what will the Fire bender's do too Tatiana when they realize that she doesn't know about the Avatar?-crouching bunny.)