Trapped and Confused

AN: My story seems to be little appealing….any suggestions on how to make it better? Oh, by the way, the rating has increased and you might have noticed why.

Kushai and Katara

"It must be Prince Zuko who captured us," Katara dropped to the floor disappointedly. If that was true, then why was the boat moving? Wouldn't he still be looking for Aang? Or was it that old fashioned trick that meant to take his friends and lead him straight to his enemy?

"No….it couldn't be….." Kushai shook in disbelief. How could Prince Zuko do this to her? How had she gotten into this mess?

"Kushai? Are you alright?" Katara asked with concern. The younger girl walked over to Kushai and put a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"No Katara…Prince Zuko wouldn't…he wouldn't take me here…" The girl put her face in her hands as she stifled sobs.

"Was that why you asked me that question? If I had ever been in love? You love him don't you?" Katara asked, taken aback by her own voice. Oh no…would she betray her? Would she just leave Aang, her, and Sokka for Prince Zuko?

"No…I don't…I hate him…I hate him…hate..," Kushai struggled against her will, she'd break this spell that the Prince had put upon her. She'd break it in half, and throw it back at that pompous, stuck-up, Prince!

"Is that really how you feel? Great, now we have something in common."

Kushai and Katara turned to find the source of the voice. Kushai stroked a tear away from her cheek and tried har to hide her puffy, red eyes. But it was sort of hard to miss them as her eyes widened into huge marbles.

"You're not Prince Zuko," Katara winced, oh great…there are more people looking for Aang. Not that she didn't know that practically the whole fire nation was after him. But on boat and searching?

"Thank you for noticing. It would be quite insulting to compare me to a banished Prince," Commander Zhao snickered menacingly. This was no man to mess with Kushai realized. But wait…maybe this man knew to Prince Zuko's banishment..

"Why was he banished?" Kushai stood up bravely. She was going to get the answer for this. Yes she was, no matter how threatening this man looked.

"Oh, that doesn't matter. He was just being his foolish se-"

"You will answer my question!" Kushai stormed on, eyes flaring. Being with Prince Zuko so much had taught her how to become angry and look threatening. But this wasn't because of learning, this was anger that had swelled up inside at the man, this was total rage! When she got this rage, she was dangerous!

"My, you are brave to give me an order. But you should be lucky that you prove useful to me, or I would have killed you by now," The man walked over to the girl. "Tell me, is Prince Zuko fond of you? Like you are of him?"

"This interests you in no matter! I will repeat my question, why was he banished?" Kushai took a step towards him, this time without backing up.

"ARGH! You are foolish as the Prince! You have no respect for people of higher caste than you!" Comander Zhao growled and grabbed her arm. Kushai could feel his hand becoming hot and realized he was burning her skin. She yelped, jumping back many feet, only to hit the back of her head on the wall.

"That should hopefully teach you some manners to commander of the fire nation. Next time, think before you act!" Commander Zhao hissed at Kushai and turned around to Katara. "I hope you have more common sense than her. You see, if you treat me like you should, we will get along fine."

Katara grimaced, this reminded her of the Commander in the jail when Katara had helped the earthbenders. She couldn't stand these people, but was lucky enough to be able to control theurge to slap him across the face.

Commander Zhao gave Kushai a last look, turned on his heel and stomped out the door. Locking theit securely after him.

"URGH! How dare he!" Kushai flailed her good arm in the air, and kicked the door furiously.

"Kushai, calm down. Please show me you arm," Katara walked cautiously over to the enraged girl. She tried to avoid the flailing arms and legs, but at last Kushai calmed down. She fell to the floor with a 'thump'.

"Can I see you arm?" Katara questioned calmly. Kushai sighed and reached her hand out for Katara to see. Katara gave out a small squeak as she saw the burn. It wasn't severe, but it looked painful! Katara got out the canteen of water she had been carrying and carefully waterbended it to clean the burn.

"…Ouch…echkkefsf..ksdh…." Kushai twitched and yelped as the burn seemed to, once again, catch on fire. But it was quite the contrary.

"Ooh…I'm sorry! I'm trying to help it, but at the moment it seems like the opposite is taking affect," Katara apologized frantically.

"It's ok…it's not your fault…I shouldn't have argued with him," Kushai sighed in defeat. As much as she hated to admit it, she was not in proper shape to challenge Commander of the fire nation. At least not now.

"I can't believe it…Prince Zuko was banished? I know he wanted some sort of honor back…but he was banished?" Katara asked in disbelief. That's why he needed to capture Aang….the Avatar. It was the only way to restore his honor?

"Yes…I didn't exactly know either. Even if it was hinted a little when I was on the ship," Kushai thought for a little while. No wonder he was so….angry.

"Kushai, you should rest. Hopefully it'll heal quickly," Katara gestured to a mat in the corner of the prison cell.

"Thanks Katara, and I swear, we will get out of this mess. And when we do, I'll show that Commander what happens when he messes with us!" Kushai smiled a little. She looked at her burn that was now covered in some cloth Katara had found in her bag and touched it gently. "Thanks again Katara, without you here….I would be nothing. And this burn would be killing me, I don't know how to heal burns whatsoever!" Kushai giggled a little at her own stupidity, then she crawled over to the mat and soon was asleep.

Aang and Sokka

"NO! Turn right, I mean left! I mean….TURN THAT WAY!" Sokka pointed here and there as Aang started sweating frantically.

"Umm Sokka….which way is 'that way'?" Aang questioned innocently as he stopped tugging on Appa's reins. "And could you please calm down? I'm getting a bit nervous, and Appa agrees. Don't you Appa?" Aang bent down to the fluffy monster who sounded a groan in agreement.

"You're right Aang. I'm sorry, but Katara and Kushai might be in big trouble! Who knows what Prince Zuko has done to them! He might be starving them, drowning them, burning them….AGH! AANG, GET APPA TO MOVE FASTER!" Sokka's calmness advanced to his usual protective habit.

"Ah…Just a little longer Appa. Prince Zuko can't be that far away…" Aang sighed and patted Appa. (Indeed he isn't…)

Prince Zuko's quarters

Knock, knock, knock!

Prince Zuko ignored the knocking as he realized it was just his Uncle. He continued meditating, but found the candle's light growing as the knocks didn't stop. The Prince shot up in frustration and the candles flared dangerously.

"WHAT IS IT UNCLE?" Prince Zuko shouted angrily and threw open the door to see Uncle Iroh's fist right in his face, ready to knock once again.

Prince Zuko swat the fist out of his face.

"The Avatar's here to see you," Uncle Iroh prompted uninterestedly and yawned. "I'm going to get some tea…." The retired General walked off to his own room and left Prince Zuko standing therein confusion. But not for long, the Prince set a run for the deck where once again, the weird looking creature was standing. While the bald kid was standing there with a determined look on his face, the other boy was staring into space, but soon realized that the Prince was there.

"Where are they?" Sokka was the first one to speak.

'Where are who?' Prince Zuko wondered, but pushed away the thought.

"I see you finally came to your senses, hiding from me was never going to work," Prince Zuko took a step towards the Avatar and got into a fighting stance.

"That's not why we're here. Let them go, they never did anything to you!" Aang once again confused the Prince with this.

Princ Zuko shot a fire blast at the boy, who just jumped into the air to avoid it.

"We won't hurt you if you just surrender Kushai and Katara to us," Sokka reasoned, and this time wasn't bluffing! Even though it was very tempting to whack Prince Zuko on the head with his…boomerang. Oh…that he didn't have…Sokka realized.

"AND, our stuff back…" Sokka frowned as he realized he had nothing to attack or protect himself with.

Prince Zuko stared in confusion, "I don't know where your friends are! Now, fight you coward!" Prince Zuko shouted, but then remembered his banishment….

"Please Father, I only had the fire nation's best interest at heart. I'm sorry I spoke out of turn!"

"You will fight for your honor."

"I meant you no disrespect. I am your loyal son!"

"Rise and fight Prince Zuko."

"I won't fight you."

"You will learn respect," Ozai said coldly. "And suffering will be your teacher."

Prince Zuko shut his eyes as he remembered the fire blast aimed right towards him and the pain when the fire touched his face.

"Wait, you're kidding right?" Sokka opened his mouth at gape. If he wasn't kidding, then they had walked right into the trap. Nice Sokka….nice…

"I DON'T LIE!" The words slipped Prince Zuko's mouth. He was tired of people calling him a traitor and such.

"GAH!" Sokka ducked as a fire came speeding in his direction. Sokka then sat down and started hitting his head on the deck.

Prince Zuko stared at Sokka, "What is he doing? Agh…never mind," Prince Zuko shook his head.

"But if they aren't here…where are they?" Aang asked anyone who was listening.

"Commander Zhao…" Prince Zuko froze for a second. KUSHAI! Prince Zuko all of a sudden turned around and ran to the navigator's room. "Find Commander Zhao's ship," Prince Zuko ordered harshly.

"But we don't know whe-"

"FIND HIM!" Prince Zuko interrupted, he looked out the window to see the Avatar mounting the beast. "NO!" Prince Zuko shouted, nearly startling the navigator out of his shoes.

He ran outside to the Avatar and pulled Sokka off, who had been trying to get up on Appa as quickly as he could.

"You aren't going anywhere!" Prince Zuko snickered as he pushed Sokka into one of the guards.

"Leave him alone!" Aang commanded as he flew up into the air, landing in front of the Prince with a blast of wind that pushed Prince Zuko back 2 feet.

"Surrender yourself, and I won't hurt him," Prince Zuko stopped for a second thought. They could find Commander Zhao's ship quicker than he could. And Commander Zhao could easily capture the Avatar once he came to rescue his friends. He had to prevent that!

"You're looking for your friends…Commander Zhao has them. I will make a deal with you. Lead me to him and I won't hurt you or your friend, and I will let you escape, but only once," Prince Zuko looked at the airbender.

"…….Deal," Aang nodded, but then thought over how it would be odd to go on a wild goose chase when you didn't even know what you were looking for. And more importantly….all alone…unless Momo and Appa counted that is.

"But there is one problem…I don't know what I'm looking for, and I also don't have anybody to help me," Aang turned to the Prince questioningly.

"Is your…animal…faster than this boat?" Prince Zuko asked, to Aang the question was totally out of the blue.

"Yes….why?" Aang raised an eyebrow, he didn't like wherever Prince Zuko was going with this.

"I'll go with you," Prince Zuko couldn't believe a word he was saying. But he needed to rescue Kushai….and he couldn't let Commander Zhao capture the Avatar!

"…………Say what?" Sokka wriggled in the guard's grasp. He couldn't believe his own ears.

"You heard me. It's the only way, there are many fire navy boats out here. There's no way for you to tell which one is Commander Zhao's" Prince Zuko hissed at Sokka. It was embarrassing enough to sit next to the Avatar without trying to capture him. It's not every day you see Prince of the fire nation sitting by the Avatar on a flying…cow? Um, that didn't matter…

"Ok…but Appa won't like it!" Sokka yelled, clearly offended that 'he' was going to take Sokka's place.

"Just don't hurt my friends…" Aang sighed, he didn't like this idea at all. What if he was lying? What if he pushed Aang off? Or Momo for that matter….and what if he betrayed them and did hurt Sokka...Kushai, or Katara?

"Quit your thinking before I decide to burn your friend to ashes," Prince Zuko hissed at Aang who immediately hopped on Appa.

Prince Zuko stared a second at the thing, and wondered how to get up. Sokka had yearned for a moment to rub something in his face so-

"The tail," Sokka grinned as he put a little 1 under his score table that he kept in his head.

"Pft…I can get up any way I want, but seeing that it is how you usually get up," Prince Zuko frowned as he walked up to the beast….what was he doing there…?...

AN: Did you like it? It took me like 3 hours to write this! PLEEEEEEEEEASEEEEEEEEEE REVIEW!