THIS CHAPTER WAS EDITED AS OF 1/20/06

Hey guys, I'm sorry that this is still basically old material! I really thought last chapter was too long to be read in one sitting so I decided to separate the two in half. My writing has been severely delayed by the holidays (AKA TRAVELING) So my date for the next chapter will be longer; but it WILL be before 2006!

AND THANK YOU SO MUCH TO MY REVEIWERS! I FEEL SO VALUED!

Disclaimer:

Running at full speed comes to sudden stop in front of camera Huh? Oh, uh, hi there! Yea, can we do this later? Looks over shoulder apprehensively I kinda have to go—Fanficiton employee glares Okay Okay! uh, I don't own Avatar…at least not after he bro—CRAP! Ducks and narrowly misses getting hit in the head by a blue boomerang and a familiar male voice is shouting: There she is! Get her!

Huge eyes GOTTA GO BYE! Hurtles over fence and continues breakneck speed to escape three angry teens, two dressed in blue and the other in red and yellow.

Chapter Eight

In The Tower

Aang and Sokka:

As they came closer to the wall they slowed down, dashing from one large rock to the next in the brief moments when a guard wasn't walking by. After one such dash, Aang was a stone's throw from the wall; he glanced up and down the length of the wall, to make sure no guards were walking around on the bottom and then he studied the wall closer for the one weakness it was bound to have.

"See anything?" Sokka whispered from behind a rock shaped like a tree stump.

Aang wordlessly shook his head, and after ducking behind the rock incase the soldier walking by was looking down, he resumed his scrutiny of the wall.

Suddenly, he saw it; a metal bar covered hole out of which drained dirty black water. Aang's face lit up and he gestured wildly to Sokka to follow him as he dashed towards the drain.

Throwing themselves flat against the wall, Sokka and Aang tried to quiet their irregular breathing as they heard the footsteps off the men above them moving back and forth. Sokka suddenly bolted towards the drain pipe and then bent down to see how they could get through. Sokka peered closely at the short metal poles as Aang darted over.

"How are we going to get through these?" Sokka asked Aang so quietly the monk barely heard him. "My club can't break them."

Aang fidgeted and then bit his lip in indecision, an overwhelming sense of duty and great dread washing over him. "I could…"—Aang paused and then forced the rest of the words out of his mouth—"….melt them."

Sokka looked up at him so quickly Aang couldn't help but wonder if the Water Tribe boy had hurt his neck. Aang felt very uncomfortable under Sokka's piercing gaze.

"Can you do it?" Sokka asked softly, his voice serious. Aang swallowed hard and nodded desperately.

"I have to so we can save Katara…" He replied, his words in a faint whisper. Sokka nodded gravely and then moved away from the drain, and Aang noticed that Sokka made sure to have a large rock between him and Aang.

Aang turned and squatted, and began the breathing Jeong Jeong had taught him, and all the time, his heart pounded as he wondered if he really could melt the bars. For a splint second Aang closed his eyes in sheer agony and indecision but the image of Jet standing over an unconscious Katara suddenly flashed in front of his closed eyes.

Aang opened them with resolution, and gripping the one of the three poles he started to concentrate on heating his hand. He grew concerned when nothing happened and he only felt the coolness of the metal beneath his hand when he suddenly heard Sokka whisper softly: "You can do it Aang."

Closing his eyes Aang concentrated on a slight buzzing in his chest until with one, strong mental push a thin stream of smoke leaked between his fingers. Oblivious to the rising smoke even though he heard Sokka's sharp intake of breath, Aang mentally pushed again and the still alien feel of fire licked around his hands.

Still not opening his eyes for fear he would lose his concentration, Aang struggled to make sure the sudden energy flashing throughout his body stayed under control, and only allowed a small amount of the energy to escape from his finger tips.

After five minutes that seemed like a lifetime to the young Avatar, Aang felt the tight grip he had on the bar suddenly cease to exist. Opening his eyes, Aang saw the small flame in his hand suddenly disappear and the stub of metal with thick, steaming liquid pooling around the base.

"I did it…" Aang whispered incredulously to himself, hardly aware of how mentally drained he was by the ordeal. He felt Sokka grip his shoulder and turning he caught sight of the older boy's smile before he ducked and set his club through the opening.

"We have to hurry before they notice the smoke," He whispered to Aang, pointing to the thin, almost transparent trail creeping up into the sky.

Aang frowned at the smoke but was unexpectedly yanked down to the ground by Sokka as a guard walked by.

Please don't see the smoke, please don't see the smoke, Aang thought as he flattened himself against the wall next to Sokka. Aang's heart thumped uncomfortably as the footsteps suddenly paused. Aang caught a glimpse of Sokka's pale face and realized that the older boy was as spooked as he was.

For the longest time there was silence, and then a mummer of words before the footsteps walked away slowly. Aang quickly released the breath he had been holding subconsciously as Sokka started to suck his stomach in and squeeze through the hole created by the melted bar.

Aang heard him grunting and saying things like 'freaking fire nation' along with

'Stupid…darn…hole'. Aang made a face as he watched Sokka struggle to get his head, then his shoulders and arms through, narrowly missing the still hot pool of metal running down the slight slope.

Sokka suddenly became stuck at his waist and after a couple minutes of fierce struggling he shot through and fell half way into the murky water. Sokka gagged as he came up, rising to his knees before hitting his head on the roof. Still grumbling under his breath, Sokka crawled far enough into the drain so that Aang could come through.

Aang quickly sucked in his stomach and slipped through in a matter of thirty seconds, and for the first time in his life he was thankful he was skinny.

The smell of the dirty water and what it contained was enough to make Aang start gagging, but he just breathed through his mouth and looked at Sokka's bobbing pony tail instead of the murky water he was crawling through. After crawling until the open end of the drain disappeared, Aang felt his left shoulder start cramping from crawling using only one hand.

Abruptly the tunnel grew wider so that Sokka and Aang could stand up; slots in the wall led up while the tunnel continued on into blackness. Aang immediately climbed up the slots, and after about seven notches he came chest level to a low opening covered with metal bars. Glancing around, Aang saw the wide dirt expanse and the large gate a little to the right of him. They had made it under the first wall.

"We're past the first wall," Aang whispered, "If we go a little farther we might be able to get past the second wall too." Aang's voice echoed down the pitch black tunnel as the air bender jumped back down into the ankle deep water.

"That's just too easy," Sokka said skeptically. "There must be a catch."

Aang paused and put his good hand on his chin reflectively. "Well, we could get lost. Or we could go too far. Or—"

"Let's just walk down the hall way," Sokka interjected, passing Aang and continuing down the tunnel. Aang left the pale circular light from the opening and followed Sokka down the tunnel.

Ten minutes later….

Aang and Sokka waded through the black, ankle deep water as they came to the end of the tunnel; the smell had become much worse and Sokka felt ready to throw up from it as he and Aang were able to straighten up a bit.

Creeping to the bars, which were covered in slime and garbage, they looked through it to see the water coming from a deep hole in the ground that fed the stream of dirty water.

Sokka stiffened and grabbed Aang's shoulder wordlessly and then pointed through the rust covered bars. Aang followed his gaze and saw one Komodo rhino wading through the shallow pool while three others drunk from it, shoving each other out of the way to get more water.

Sokka watched as the realization dawned on Aang and he looked down at the water in horror. He was traveling through water that had been contamination by Komodo rhino's wading their feet through a muck covered pen!

Well, it explains why it smells so bad, Sokka thought wryly as he quietly walked up to the gate way as to not disturb the quarreling creatures.

Aang came up behind him as Sokka furtively looked around to see if any Fire Nation men were near by; he saw no one and looked at the place of the drain where it connected into the wall. With one well placed swing of his club, Sokka cracked the metal bar and caused the rhinos to stiffen and look around suspiciously.

Sokka crouched and Aang instinctively followed suit, needing to breathe through his mouth and plug his nose as he came closer to the murky water. The oldest of the Komodo Rhinos, a huge gnarly beast, came stomping over towards the gate way, his shifty eyes darting all around as he sniffed the air experimentally.

Sokka felt Aang grab his hand and pull him back into the tunnel so that they could hide in the dark, unseen by the rhino as he sniffed the garbage piled around the metal bars. The minutes ticked by before the rhino was distracted (along with the other males) by a female rhino as she stalked past, her lip curled as she made her way towards the feeding troughs.

Once the rhinos had left, Aang bolted towards the opening, his heart pounding with the adrenaline coursing through his body. Sokka followed at his heels and then hit the rusted pole a couple more times as Aang bit his lip at the echoing vibrations coming off the wall; Sokka saw Aang's brown eyes looked up at the back of the tower across from the rhinos pen and a look of determination came across his face as he Sokka loosened the bar from its socket.

Squeezing his club through, the boy warrior gulped and then after much struggling, got his head through, and then his left shoulder and then his right before gravity pulled him down and Sokka took a face plant in the dirty water.

Sokka opened his mouth by accident and it filled with the contaminated water that tasted like crap. Sokka wiggled both his trapped arms to get one of them free before he had a chance to drown. Suddenly Sokka felt a strong gust of wind knock him through the bars and send him tumbling head over heels into the water. Staggering to his feet, Sokka spit out the water forcefully and gagged, clutching his throat.

He was barely aware of Aang as he squeezed through the opening, making sure not to put his burnt arm in-between the rod and his body. With a grunt Aang shot himself through he hole like he did to Sokka once he got his hand free.

The rhinos at the end of the pen still hadn't taken any notice of the two and Sokka wanted it to stay that way. With a glance at each other Sokka and Aang bolted across the empty expanse of dirt, looking around in every direction for a soldier or a charging rhino.

The rhino's heads shot up at the sound of running feet and then every single one of those sixteen lizard beasts came thundering down the pen, nostrils blowing and snarling as they ran down the fleeing boys.

Sokka glanced over his shoulder as he felt the vibrations under his feet and heard the sound of snarling rhinos; his navy blue eyes widened to the size of dinner plates.

"Aang!" He gasped, looking ahead to where the young Avatar was running ahead of him with the aid of his air bending. Aang glanced over his shoulder when Sokka said his name and saw the rhinos closing in.

Gasping, Aang ran with renewed vigor. Sokka's lungs felt like they were on fire as adrenaline lent him wings, but the rhinos came closer and closer, their eyes appearing blood shot and their horns gleaming wickedly in the moonlight. Sokka thought that the fence line kept retreating.

Sokka grit his teeth as he felt the hot breath of one of the leaders of the pack close in on him. I'm going to die!

Choking down his shout Sokka took a flying leap and soared over the fence line, barely making it as he nicked it with his toe and landed in a crumpled heap on the other side.

The foremost rhino slid to a stop and collided with the fence, making it shake. Sokka scrambled onto his feet as the other rhinos ran into each other, bellowing and creating such a ruckus that their stable boys were sure to come. Sokka looked around wildly for Aang and saw the young avatar bent over, his face flushed as he caught his breath a few feet away from him.

"C'mon," He hissed, grabbing Aang's wrist and yanking him forward. His mouth was dry and he had a painful stitch in his side, but Sokka ignored this and ran to the tower, to the safety of the black shadows and statues before the men came by.

Without hesitating Sokka pulled Aang after him behind a large statue of a Fire Nation general and they both sat down heavily, struggling for breath just as the stable boys came around the corner.

Sokka peered around the base of the statue and saw a couple of the men enter the pen; dread washed over him as he remember the evidence of their break in.

"Aang," he hissed, keeping his eyes glued on the man closest to the gutter, "We have to get Katara before they find the hole."

His answer was a rustle of clothing as Aang started crawling along the base of the tower. With a parting glance at the rhino pen, Sokka followed Aang until the monk stopped and looked up.

"Sokka," He whispered quietly, pointing to the ground level window hidden behind thick bushes.

With a smirk, Sokka took out his boomerang and become chipping away at the old lock.

Katara:

Jet backed up and Katara took another deep breath and then whirled around to face him, willing herself to get angry so that she wouldn't be so frightened.

"What's your problem?" She demanded, hating how her voice shook ever so slightly.

"My problem?" Jet ducked his head and laughed a low, ugly laugh that gave Katara the creeps. His head shot up and met her large ocean blue eyes.

"My problem is you." Katara lifted her chin defiantly and told herself not to show him how scared she was becoming; people like him fed off fear.

His dark eyes never left hers as he continued speaking:

"I haven't forgotten Katara," He spat her name out like it was poison, "that it was you who froze me to that tree and led to my capture!" He voice rose with every word until now he was screaming in rage.

Memories unbidden rushed into Katara's mind and she wished desperately for her water skin, which had been taken away a long time ago.

"You wouldn't have been frozen to that tree in the first place if you hadn't tried to murder those innocent people!" Katara shrieked shrilly, adrenaline making her feel somewhat giddy.

Jet's eyes blazed and he lunged for her. Katara barely managed to dart away from him and run away behind the iron posts to put space between them.

"Stay away from me!" She shouted as Jet regained his balance and took out his Twin Tiger Swords in one fluid movement.

Her breathing became irregular as she eyed Jet's swords, the tips of which were still sheathed but threatening nevertheless.

His breathing became louder too and the two single torches lighting the room played off his face, casting shadows that twisted his face into something that looked demonic.

"You didn't understand then and you don't understand now!" He said, as if to himself. Then his eyes turned on Katara's milk white face and he came closer, each step slow and purposeful.

"You cost me my freedom!" He hissed, coming closer and closer, his arms holding his swords in front of him, his eyes appearing more wolf-like then ever as he said "And now, I'm going to make you regret the day you betrayed me!"

Aang and Sokka:

After dropping into a dark room filled with Fire Nation armor, Sokka opened the door and they stepped into a torch lighted hallway.

Glancing up and down the hall and listening for any footsteps, Aang took off down the sloping hall instead of up. Sokka followed him, clutching his boomerang and wildly looking around for any warning signs of fire benders. Aang paused when the hallway splint in three directions and then chewed his lip.

Suddenly a sound reached Sokka's ears that made his blood run cold: footsteps.

Aang stiffened as he heard them too and looked fearfully at Sokka as the footsteps came closer, coming out of one of the three passage ways.

Sokka grabbed Aang and dragged him into the left hand hallway, running a short distance down and then pausing to make sure that the footsteps weren't coming up that hallway.

The footsteps were fainter then before and Sokka saw a tall man walk past the opening of the corridor he was standing in, swinging a pair of keys in his hands while humming softly, his beady black eyes gleaming in his pale face. Those keys….Sokka's eyes stayed glued to them before the man disappeared around the corner. Those keys looked like prison cell keys.

"Aang, this way," Sokka hissed, grabbing the young air bender's good hand and dragging him back up to the crossroads.

Coming back out of the hallway Sokka immediately ran down the right hand entryway, remembering for a brief second that when he had stood there as he heard the footsteps for the first time they had seemed louder.

The torch light played off the metal sides of the hallway as they ran down it, sometimes going down stairs and coming upon crossroads but Sokka always ran straight because it continually led downward. If Aang's theory about the prison being held at the bottom of the tower was correct, that was the way to go.

Aang's hard breathing echoed in the hall and Sokka glanced over his shoulder at the air bender, who had resorted to using his air bending to help him keep up with Sokka.

Looking ahead again, Sokka noticed passively that the hall way had an unpleasant smell about it as they ran deeper down into its maze…..

Suddenly as they rounded a sharp bend they came upon two guards in front of a metal door where the smell was obviously coming from.

The guards' eyes bulged when they saw the two dirty boys skid to a halt in front of them, one of them with his arm in a sling and blue tattoos on his head and hands.

Sokka reacted instantly on his instincts and in a flash his blue boomerang came out of its sheath and was thrown at the first guards head, knocking him out. The second soldier wasted no time in hurtling a fire ball at Aang and then lifted a curved horn to his lips.

Aang immediately blocked the fire ball with a shield of air, but since his other hand was useless to help the Avatar slid back a couple inches from the impact and wasn't able to retaliate right away.

The horns booming tune rung out in the halls for five seconds before it was cut short by Sokka knocking it out of the fire benders hand with his club. The wooden horn was promptly smashed by Sokka's club, crushing it to smithereens as the fire bender drew his arm back to send a blast of fire at the Water Tribe boy.

But before he could Aang knocked him against the metal wall with a blast of wind, and the guard's eyes slid shut when his helmet cracked as he hit the metal wall. Before the guard had even fallen back to the ground, Aang had leapt forward and grabbed the keys off of the hook, a sudden adrenaline giving him the strength to move.

Aang wretched the door open as soon as he jammed the key into it and Sokka followed him down the hall of prison cells, looking in each one for Katara. When they were nearing the end of the hall and they still hadn't seen Katara, only other prisoners, Sokka started to get frantic.

"Do you see her?" He asked Aang worriedly, stilling glancing inside every cell he passed, "We have to hurry before more guards come!"

"I don—" Aang cut off as they came to the end of a hall and another opened to their left. "Come on!"

As they turned down the hall with more secure cells, Aang suddenly slid a stop and Sokka crashed into his shoulder. "What—" He started to say angrily but was cut off by a familiar voice shrieking:

"Get away from me!"

"KATARA!" Sokka shouted at the same time as Aang gasped. They frantically looked in the windows of the cells; trying to place the one Katara's voice had come from. Sokka peered in the fourth one on the right and the blood drained from his face as he saw Jet chasing his sister around an iron post, his swords in his hands.

"AANG!" Sokka shouted to the air bender as he yanked the door open, forgetting to be quiet.

Katara looked up at the sound of her brother's voice and the opening of the door and Jet took advantage of her distraction. Dropping one of his swords he backhanded Katara in the mouth so hard that she spun sideways and fell to the ground with a strangled gasp.

Without pausing a second, Jet gave the sprawled girl two very hard kicks to the ribs with his point boot.

At Katara's scream of pain, Sokka saw little black dots swarm in front of his eyes as he heard himself roar murderously, the only thought going through his mind as he gripped his club: I'm gonna kill him!

Before Sokka had to chance to attack Jet, the teen whirled around at the sound of Sokka's shout and grabbed his other sword from the floor. As Sokka took a step towards Jet he suddenly felt the air around him constrict.

His head whipped around and he saw Aang standing beside him, his tattoos shining an unearthly electric blue.

Without realizing why he did it Sokka threw himself to the ground in time to avoid the Avatar's crazy gust of wind that shot out like a snake and hit Jet like a boulder, throwing him backwards ten feet and high onto the wall.

Aang walked forward slowly, his eyes gleaming blue as he held the rebel up on the wall. Sokka glanced up in time to see Aang throw back his good arm, and then thrust it towards the ground; following a split second behind the wind holding Jet slammed him to the metal floor, knocking the rebel hard down on his tail bone.

Jet gave a short cry of pain as Aang threw his arm up and the wind supporting Jet hurtled the teenager into the ceiling, his back meeting the cold hard surface with a sickening thump.

Sokka eyes widened as he watched the raw power and wrath of the wind Aang was making as it hurtled Jet into the ground, and then into the ceiling three more times before slamming Jet to the ground again and then throwing him back against the wall, two feet off the ground.

Sokka had recovered most of his wits by now and crawled across the floor to where Katara was sprawled; she was holding her side with one hand and watching the scene unfold before her with a stricken face.

Sokka wrapped his arms around her as a heavy silence filled the room, broken by Jet's hard and shaky breathing. Sokka couldn't tear his eyes away from the rebel. His nose was bleeding heavily, and it looked broken—a large bloody gash above his left eye was bleeding down over his entire left side of his face, staining Jet's pale face a bloody crimson red. A black and purple bruise covered most of his jaw line, and his lip was bleeding as he gasped for breath, his eyes resembling those of a cornered wolf, never leaving the Avatar's expressionless face as he continued walking forward slowly.

Sokka heard Katara gasp and clutch his shirt as Jet suddenly began wildly clutching his throat, gasping for breath as if some invisible force was choking him.

Sokka got a bad taste in his mouth as he watched Aang start choking Jet with a thick ring of air, strong enough to hold the rebel off the ground even though it appeared he was being hung by his throat, his legs waving frantically.

Jet's face starting turning purple and his movements were becoming feebler with each passing second. The seconds continued to tick by and the Avatar's face was contorted, as if he was struggling with himself.

Sokka watched in shock at Jet's terrified face, and heard Katara's horrified gasp as Jet's face turned a dark purple blue and his hands started to slow down in their struggle.

Is he going to kill him? Sokka thought as he heard Katara whisper Aang's name.

Sokka watched the Avatar give him and Katara an unreadable look and a chill raced unbidden up and down his spine.

Suddenly Jet passed out and the Avatar immediately dropped his hand and the teen fell to the floor with a loud, echoing thud.

Sokka scrambled to his feet and pulled Katara up with him, and he felt Katara's grip on his hand tighten as the Avatar walked towards them.

Sokka swallowed hard as the Avatar grabbed his hand, his touch seeming almost transparent. When they got out in the hall, Sokka reclaimed his hand and raced down the hallway with Katara, Aang running beside him.

They ran by the prisoners who cried out in fear as they caught sight of Aang as he air bended to speed down the hall at a great pace.

Sokka glanced at his sister and clenched his teeth when he saw her bloody lip and bruised face. Katara caught his gaze and gave a quick, grateful smile as they ran through the prison door after Aang.

Sokka couldn't believe she was beside him after all this time and his grip tightened on her hand as they caught up with Aang, who was waiting for them at the crossroads, listening intently as horns blew, and the sound of foot steps that came up the hallways.

Sokka exchanged glances with Katara and gripped his club as he heard the footsteps racing up the three paths ahead of them, and the one behind them, the sound of Fire Nation soldiers racing up echoing from each one.

They were trapped.