Chapter 20

As they were falling Katara grabbed something and threw it at the wall hoping she would hit it almost dead on. Her aim was perfect and it gave a big crack. She looked over at Zuko who shrugged when the reaction she wanted didn't come right away. She closed her eyes as she expected to hit the ocean. When she opened them she found herself on Appa, letting go of her brother she pulled off her mask and took in a breath of fresh air.

Aang smiled and tugged his arm out of Zuko's grip and took Appa's reigns. He looked back at Katara and asked, "Where to Katara?"

Katara looked down at the Fire nation ship below her. It showed that Ozai was angry by the way he was getting out catapults and lighting them then shooting them towards Appa. She looked around her surroundings and saw a forest on a fairly good size island.

"There Aang. We'll land there." Katara yelled over the roar of Appa. "We can have Appa fly to Prince Zuko's ship. I'll send a letter with Momo. Iroh will come rescue us."

"Iroh?" Sokka asked. "What about Prince Zuko? Not that I'm saying I'm relying on him to rescue us."

"Glad to hear." Katara laughed a little. "He wouldn't be much help to us anyway."

Sokka glared at Katara. Aang voiced his question. "What do you mean Katara? Zuko rescued me and I didn't expect it. He could come again."

Katara laughed and turned around to see how far they were from Ozai's ship. They were still launching fireballs at them even thought the four were out of range. Appa landed peacefully on the shore and Katara jumped off looking for something to write a note to Iroh.

Sokka glared at the chicken; why would Katara care so much about the safety of an oversized bird? "Hey chicken boy." Sokka snapped. Zuko looked up and smiled under his mask. He could have some fun with Sokka while the water tribe boy didn't know about his identity. "My sister is off limits so whatever you have in mind for her or us keep it too yourself.

Zuko laughed slightly before clucking. Aang eyed the fire-bending prince suspiciously. He had a feeling that he knew who was behind the costume and if he didn't know he could always ask Katara.

Katara came back and smiled when she saw her brother taking out his club and boomerang. "Sokka you wouldn't want to eat that bird. It's the other white meat."

"I don't care what kind of meat is…" he paused to think. "… Unless it's human meat… but still."

Katara burst out laughing and handed a leaf to Momo. "Momo don't eat this." Were her first words. "Give this to Iroh. He's a good fire bender you can trust him." She turned to Appa and told him the same thing. Both the lemur and the bison took off and flew off towards the direction of Iroh's ship.

Sokka watched them fly off before turning back towards the chicken. "I'm hungry… fried chicken sounds good for a snack." He started to stalk Zuko.

"Sokka don't eat him!" Katara yelled as Zuko ran away from Sokka. "Sokka that's Zuko!"

Sokka's face lost all color at those words. Aang began to laugh a bit. The warrior then turned to the chicken. He pulled back the beak to reveal the scared face of the prince. Sokka fell over laughing at Zuko unable to control himself.

"You're a chicken!" He laughed then began to choke on air.

Zuko glared at Sokka and took off his chicken suit. Katara smiled as the prince threw it into the ocean. "If I ever have to wear another chicken suit to save the Avatar again I'll kill someone."

Sokka wiped away a tear and stood up. "Sorry about that Zuko after all I didn't expect you to be the man behind the chicken… or the other white meat for that matter." He tilted his head slightly before shrugging.

"My father should be heading towards the island or towards my ship. So whatever the case is lets head deeper into the forest." Zuko suggested in a cold emotionless tone. Zuko didn't even look back to see if the group was following him. After all it was none of his concern really what was going to happen to them.

Maybe I can surprise this Shadow chick. Zuko thought to himself. After all she needs to die.

Katara ran up to Zuko. She could tell that something was on his mind. Normally he was more talkative and social but since they rescued Aang things seemed to be more relaxed. It was getting to be confusing at some points in time.

"Zuko what's wrong." Katara asked breaking up the prince's thoughts.

He looked at the water bender and tried to recall everything that he was told by his Uncle. After all Shadow was one to come back just like the Avatar. He was worried that there was a bigger plot and Katara was in bigger danger than she realized.

"Nothing."

Katara smiled and slowed her pace letting Zuko think of what to do. After all, the boy needed his space some time. She needed to talk Sokka and Aang anyway.

With Iroh

Iroh paced his deck wondering where his nephew was. Maybe something had happened to them and they were caught. Maybe they hit a storm or something. All the worse possible things were running through the retired General's mind at the time. It wasn't like Zuko to be gone some time without notifying him.

"General, Lord Ozai's ship is approaching." The helmsman informed.

Iroh nodded and looked towards the direction the helmsman had pointed. He leaned on the side of the ship wondering what he was going to do when he saw above him Momo and Appa. He tried to see the saddle on Appa's back but no luck. There wasn't a single person on there. There was a lemur however, had in his paws a leaf. And if Iroh didn't know any better that leaf was from either his nephew or niece.

Iroh chuckled to himself as he thought of Katara as his niece. It's not like Nyla was any use to him. After all she was mean and had the whole evil villain thing down. He shook off the feeling of both Katara and Nyla. He smiled as a lemur landed on his shoulder handing him a leaf.

He nodded, reading the letter, and petted the lemur. He knew that his brother would be following the two animals. Lieutenant Ji walked out onto the deck. He was wondering where Prince Zuko was but when he saw the Fire Lord's ship off in the distance he had a feeling that Zuko was either dead or on that ship.

"Lieutenant Ji," Iroh started. "Make sure the lemur and the bison are well hidden from our guest." The lieutenant nodded and led the two animals to wear the rhinos were being held and taken care of at the time.

"Hello brother." Ozai said calmly walking onto the ship.

Iroh nodded his head and led the Fire Lord into the tearoom. He was to keep the Fire Lord busy long enough so that he would forget about Iroh's nephew and the Avatar.

"Why don't we have some Ginseng Tea and chat?"

With Zuko and Katara

It was getting late and the sky was getting darker and darker by each second. Zuko didn't see a sign of his father's ship any more. He also didn't hear any footsteps so they were pretty much out of harms way.

"Zuko why don't we set up camp here?" Aang asked stopping the prince in his tracks. They were in an open area and everything seemed peacefully enough. There was also a camp that used to be here.

"We'll stay here for the night." Zuko said then heard a twig snapped. He took a quick defensive position. When the person stepped out he was shocked to find it to be Shadow.

K15: Sorry this took so long. I've been getting ready for school by registering and stuff. I've got a new band director (Which I'm nervous about) and I was informed about something that made it hard for me to write the ending to this. One of my friends might have died in a car crash... Right now my hands are shaking and I'm scared for my life... I'm kind of weird like that. So yeah... (Starts crying) (Shakes head and tries to cheer up) Okay I'm better. Somewhat... Anyway. Here's chapter twenty plz review and send your wishes for my jurnior year in highschool. I'm now offically nervous about going back. So again review I live on them. The more the merrier. I'm so close to 200 so pleas don't make me beg. That's not pretty. So yeah. I'll update probably twice more before school (If I can get on the computer.) starts. Later. K15