Disclaimer: Why must I go through this torture? glances at group of lawyers Oh, yeah. Well, I don't own Avatar.

Intertwined

Chapter 3: Crossing Paths

Katara sighed again, fixing her grip on the basket filled with supplies. She loved her brother, she really did, but sometimes he came up with such crazy ideas that it just made her want to hit him over the head until he finally got some sense. Since getting everything needed, with enough money left for the next town they stopped in, she had been wandering around aimlessly, not wishing to be a sitting duck at the rendezvous point. All she really wanted was to leave and not come back again.

Don't be silly. There's nothing here to afraid of, only bad memories, and those can't hurt you. Besides, do you really want to let Sokka know how much this place affects you? Katara sighed. She really had to get a grip before she saw him again, or he'd never let it go.

She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she wasn't paying any attention to where she was walking, and thus didn't see the boy in front of her until she walked right into a strong arm.

"Sorry," Katara mumbled distractedly, not bothering to look up into his face. It wasn't until she had walked a ways ahead that she realized exactly whose arm that could have been. Spinning around, she was relieved to see that there was no one recognizable behind her, Fire Nation or other.

Now, back to trying to think of why I'm so bothered by being here again.

Other than the obvious?

Of course… Wait a minute, am I talking to myself!

Yup.

Oh gods, I'm going crazy…

Yes, now go back to pondering the mystery of this place.

La la la, I'm just going to pretend that I am NOT being told what to do by a voice inside my head… I really AM going crazy.

Being too occupied with the fact that she was possibly losing her mind, Katara's feet had led her to the opening into the forest. Figuring that Sokka and Aang would be coming back soon enough, she allowed herself to sit on the ground, leaning against the front of an unoccupied bench, so she'd be harder to spot to anyone just scanning the crowd. Better to be safe than sorry. She kept her eyes on the ground.

Well, what's so bad about this? There doesn't seem to be any sign of him. Besides, what's the possibility that he'd remember us?

She let out another sigh. She'd been doing that a lot today. No matter how much she reassured herself, there was a nagging at the back of her mind that the three shouldn't have even been there again. Katara's head snapped up, eyes wide with realization.

That's it! We stopped here before, to the North Pole, just like now. If we're back, that means…we got turned around! But how? Not good…

Katara was so absorbed in her thoughts (once again) that she didn't notice what was happening behind her until she felt the dead weight fall on her.

Stupid peasant. Doesn't even recognize royalty when she walks into them.

Zuko was in a really bad mood (A/N: When isn't he?). He had been walking around the market, looking for the stupid Avatar, for well over two hours, with absolutely no luck. His men, who had been trudging after him, had been dismissed just a few moments ago, allowing them to do spend the rest of the time in port as they wished.

And now some peasant girl had had the gall to walk into him, a prince, mumble an apology, and walk off, all without once looking at him. He was about to send a fireball her way, to scare her, when he took in her clothes. Water Tribe.

And exactly how many Water Tribe members do you know that would be in an Earth Kingdom port? Two. The Avatar's companions.

Since this obviously wasn't that buffoon of a warrior (Zuko gave an un-princely snort), it had to be the Waterbender. If it had been the boy, it would have been too easy to just walk up and grab him, but her skills with water had improved, so he would have to look for an opening.

I just had to dismiss my men. Great, Zuko thought sarcastically as he started to follow the girl. I don't even have Uncle to help.

Zuko kept close to the girl, but not so close that she would notice him. Not, it seemed, that he should have bothered. She seemed to be off in her own little world. This would be too easy. She would lead him right to her precious Avatar.

Stupid girl.

Just as he thought that, she turned suddenly, eyes wary. Zuko had just enough time to duck behind a stand, successfully hiding himself.

Okay, maybe not so stupid.

When he risked a peek, he saw that she had started walking again. Seeing that it was safe to come out, and knowing to be more cautious, he brought the distance between them back to what it originally was.

Why is she just wandering? Come on, go to the Avatar. Go to the Avatar.

Zuko repeated this mantra in his head, hoping that she would somehow get the message and obey. But, with the luck he'd been having that day, she just stopped and sat in the dirt like the peasant he was, leaning back, head down.

YES! Something finally goes right! He did a little happy dance, in his head, of course. An emotionally detached (except for anger) prince would never really do a happy dance in public.

This was his chance. The girl had her guard down, which gave him the chance to creep closer. When he was barely two feet from her, though, her head snapped up. Zuko froze, unsure of what to do. When moments passed and she continued to stare ahead in a daze, he realized that he hadn't been noticed in the least.

Finally closing the space between them, he didn't notice the boy walking up behind him, knife raised, ready to strike. As Zuko reached out to grab the girl, he found that he couldn't control his movement.

That was when he felt the explosion of pain at the back of his head.

And then he knew nothing more.

As Sokka lazily picked at his teeth, he started walking to the trio's meeting point. As much as he hated to admit it, his sister's words had been worrying him. He knew it was stupid to let something like that distract him through an entire meal, but that was exactly what it had done.

Look what Katara did now. You ruined a perfectly good, delicious, warm-back on topic now-meal focusing on whether you were going to get knocked out before the next bite! Just relax. Everything's fine.

Still, he found himself hoping that Katara was waiting so he could protect himself. Better yet, he wanted her and Aang there so they could leave right away.

As he came into view of the opening in the wall, his blood froze. Katara was there, all right, but so was Prince Scarface. Unable to move, he watched as the git crept closer to his baby sister.

Come on, Katara. Look behind you, stand up. Do SOMETHING, anything!

He knew that shouting, or doing anything to warn her would be dangerous. So when her head snapped up, effectively stopping the prince, Sokka did a silent cheer, thinking that she had finally heard the creep. That was cut short when he saw that Katara seemed to be only thinking, or concentrating on something.

Realizing that it was up to him to protect her, he pulled his knife from its pouch and walked over to Zuko, who was, luckily, still frozen in shock, or fear of being discovered.

At least he's too focused on Katara to notice anything, or anyone, else. Ugh. Sokka made a face at that thought.

Just as Zuko was about to wrap his filthy arms around her, Sokka used the knife's handle to knock him out.

What he hadn't thought of was that, since the firebender had been leaning forward, the force of the blow sent him over the bench. Sokka winced as Zuko fell onto his sister, causing her to squeak with fright.

"Don't worry," Sokka reassured as he came into Katara's view. "I knocked him out."

"No, really? I hadn't noticed!" Katara snapped sarcastically, mad that she had been caught off guard like that, and in front of Sokka at that. "So why, exactly, is he laying on me?"

"Oh, uh, that. Let's get him off you."

Katara sighed with relief at having him off of her. He was really heavy.

Must be all that armor.

So they wouldn't attract any suspicion, it was decided that they would put the unconscious Zuko in the forest, and come back into the city to wait for Aang. As they sat on the bench, Sokka realized that he should be yelling at her for being so irresponsible.

"Katara, how could you let him get so close to you? Why didn't you see, or hear him? What if I wasn't there to stop him? You'd probably be halfway to his ship by now! For being so worried, you definitely aren't alert enough!"

"Sokka, it's okay! Calm down, alright?" Katara figured she would wait until they were back on Appa to tell him and Aang about her idea. Then they would be safe.

"How can I calm down when my baby sister was almost kidnapped!"

"What almost happened?" Both teens jumped as Aang joined them. Neither had heard him come.

As Sokka explained what had happened, Katara found herself scanning the crowd, looking for other Fire Nation men. When she heard that her brother was finished with his (exaggerated) recap, she turned to see that the monk's eyes were wide with surprise, and slight confusion.

"Why did you take him into the forest? What are we going to do with him?"

"Well, we can't let him wake, find his men, and come looking in the forest for you," Katara reasoned. Then she got an idea. "Maybe we should keep him with us, until we leave. It'd be a lot safer."

"Yeah, that'll really work. What would we use to make sure that he doesn't attack us if he wakes up too early? In case you've forgotten, he's a FIREBENDER!" Sokka couldn't believe his sister's ideas sometimes,

"Well, we could use metal chains," Katara suggested. "If he tried to melt those, he would just hurt himself."

When Sokka didn't say anything, instead choosing to fold his arms over his chest and mumble something incoherent, Katara smirked slightly, knowing that she had once again out-smarted her brother. Aang sat silently through all this, looking troubled. Katara was the first to notice.

"Aang? Are you okay? You're awfully quiet."

"Um, it's nothing. Well, doesn't this seem kind of cruel?"

"Not really. Listen, all we're going to do is keep him restrained until we leave, so he doesn't try to hurt you. He'll probably be out cold the whole time anyways. Don't worry," Sokka tried to reassure the boy, but instead made the whole thing sound much worse.

"What Sokka is trying to say is that we have no choice, Aang."

"Okay. But where are we going to find metal chains?"

"Leave that, to me."

And with that, Katara led the two boys to a blacksmith (A/N: or whoever would make metal chains, I'm not really sure), where, with some of the money left over from buying the supplies, they bought enough to keep Zuko harmless (they used Sokka to check, earning them weird looks from people).

Once they got to their campsite (with much grunting and, gasp, actual work from Sokka, who was the one to carry Zuko), the most important thing for them was to secure the firebender in case he came to earlier than expected. After unceremoniously dumping the heavy teen on the ground, Sokka proceeded to take his armor off. This Katara had no problem with. It was only when she saw that Sokka had started taking Zuko's shirt off that she stopped him.

"What are you doing? Isn't it enough to take the armor off?"

Sokka gave her a weird look. "If he doesn't have his shirt, it'll hurt a lot more if he does try to melt the chains off. Don't worry; we'll be gone soon enough."

With the firebender's shirt off, he wrapped the chains around his legs so that if he tried to send fire from his feet, he would just burn his own feet. Sokka maneuvered his arms so they were behind his back, palms facing each other. Satisfied with his work, Sokka sat back on his heels with a smug smile. Katara had already busied herself with packing their new supplies onto Appa.

"Slight problem, guys. I think that, while we were gone, someone might've done something to Appa's tail," Aang said, worriedly looking over the fluffy monster's tail. "It could take a couple of days to heal."

"Well, what's his tail needed for, exactly?" Katara asked, rubbing Appa's side.

"Um, actually, it, uh, is what allows bison to fly," Aang answered sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.

Hearing this, both Katara and Sokka in what they were doing. As they stared at Aang, his words finally sunk in. 'Someone might've done something to Appa's tail.' Katara's eyes widened in shock as she figured out who that someone was.

This is exactly what I was worried about.

"Guys, do you think it was-" She never got to finish her guess, though, because, at that moment, a familiar voice spoke out.

"And I am lying on the ground, why?"

A/N: Hey everyone! I have one thing to say. WOW! I really didn't think I'd get so many reviews for only two chapters. I feel so loved. Sorry for taking longer with the update than for the first chapters, but school is most important for me right now. I'll update at least once a week, and that's all I can promise. Anywayz,I think this is the longest...anything I've written in one sitting. I guess you could say I felt guilty. ; ) This isn't really a cliffie because you know who was talking. Please review!

Disclaimer: The part about the metal chains is not my idea. It belongs to Suave Boogie.