Wow, it's been a while – sorry about that! Here goes chapter 11. Hope you like!

Sokka whirled, ducked, and hurled his boomerang in one fluid movement. A fireball passed over his head, nearly consuming him, but he dodged at the last minute. He glanced about him, assessing his attackers – he was surrounded by soldiers. Aang and Katara, behind him, were long since out of the fight, unable to keep on their feet. Sokka sprang to the right, narrowly avoiding a bolt of fire from his left. He watched then, triumph in his eyes as his boomerang flew through the air towards him and connected solidly with the Fire soldiers head.

One down – three to go…

They spread out to form a triangular formation around him, simultaneously shooting great blasts of flame at him. He dropped to the ground and then rolled towards the closest soldier, kicking his legs out from under him and knocking him out.

Two more…

Now the remaining soldiers spread apart again, one on either side of him.

Which…which should I take out next…?

The blasted fire at him again. He jumped to the side, swinging back around to examine both blasts.

There! The one on my left's blast was much weaker. He's next.

Sokka leapt forwards, turning his lunge into a forward somersault at the last minute to avoid yet another burst of flame. He came to his feet in one smooth motion, and kicked the man ruthlessly in the stomach, and hit him again in the head when his victim doubled up. Then he was on the move again, avoiding bolt after bolt of flame in quick succession.

One left.

He narrowed his eyes, aiming a calculating glare at his opponent and he began an intricate dance of evasion and attack, twisting to the side and then swinging out with his sword. He ducked, and sprang closer yet to the Soldier, his muscles tense with exhilaration. This was it, the final round…

But then the soldier did the unexpected and lunged toward, not Sokka, but his two incapacitated comrades, flame growing around his outstretched palms.

Crap! Why that dirty, cheating –

He followed the man's lunge, bringing himself into range, but then rolled smoothly to the side, throwing his boomerang again with all his strength. It missed completely, and the man laughed triumphantly and charged forward. Sokka backed up a step, and charged suddenly. The man backed up in turn, bringing himself out of Sokka's range –

- And into the range of Sokka's returning boomerang. It hit him square on the back of his head, bringing him to his knees and his dented helmet fell away. Prince Zuko knelt there before Sokka, helpless and at Sokka's mercy. Sokka smiled and walked towards him.

"…Sokka…!" The voice was distant, but distinct. Aang? It sounded like Aang…

Sokka paused momentarily, but kept walking, intent on his fallen opponent.

"Sokka!" the voice was much louder this time. It was Aang, no doubt, but the Aang lying behind Zuko hadn't moved…what was going on?

"Sokka, you twit! Get up!" That was Katara. And she was angry. Sokka groaned and rolled over.

"Whatcha want, Katara…?" still groggy from sleep, Sokka sat up.

Why is it that whenever I'm about to beat Zuko at last, someone stops me, or wakes me up? Why? It's always Aang's voice first, and then Katara's. Weird…I wish Aunt Wu or someone was here so I could ask if this has a deeper meaning, or if that's just who wakes me up…

"Sokka…geez, you're such an idiot! It's time for lunch! You missed breakfast. Zuko and Iroh were very insulted when you didn't show up!"

Oops.

"Eheh…Katara, you know punctuality isn't my strong point. Why'd you have to go and wake me up? I was having a great dream, and I was about to kill Zuko –"

"Hah – proves that it was a dream, then," drawled a voice from the door, thick with scorn. "You could never beat me."

Zuko stood there, leaning against the doorframe, armed crossed, looking completely at ease. Katara blushed a bit, which Sokka – unlike Zuko – fortunately failed to notice.

"Hey! What is that Fire-Bastard doing in my room, Katara? Did he come in with you!" Sokka was furious. Not only did the stupid Prince invade his privacy, but he insulted Sokka's prowess as a warrior! How rude!

"Uncle sent me to see if you had decided to skip lunch too, and rope Katara into it too. He was afraid you were going on a hunger strike – it was the only reason he could come up with for someone like you to skip two meals in a row."

Fire-Bastard? Interesting Name, thought Zuko, Not particularly creative, though.

"Hunger strike? No way! And what did you mean, 'a person like me'?"

"Obviously, I meant an idiotic, immature adolescent with a bottomless pit for a stomach."

Sokka flushed, knowing that most of Zuko's barb was too accurate for any retort.

"Ok, ok, so I eat a lot!"

Now Katara joined the fun – Sokka bashing was her favorite sport!

"A lot? Understatement of the century!" She and Zuko laughed, enjoying Sokka's inability to think of a comeback.

"Whatever! Would you two stop? I'm not going on hunger strike, I slept in. Now can we go get lunch before your Uncle decides we've all been killed or something?"

Zuko sobered immediately. Sokka was right, of course; they should get back to Uncle before he started to suspect anything. Not that there was anything to suspect, but Uncle was prone to jumping to conclusions…which Zuko would prefer to prevent.

"Alright, come on you two. Let's go eat."

Sure enough, Iroh was waiting for them. He looked mildly surprised when Sokka entered directly behind Zuko, as if he hadn't been expecting him to be there...or was it something else? Zuko just sighed and ignored his uncle's quizzical looks, and sat down to eat.

"Prince Zuko, do you have a moment? I would like to talk to you about the information you've gathered about the Avatar."

Uncle Iroh had cornered Zuko after dinner, leaving him no way to escape the ensuing conversation. Oh, sure, the subject sounded innocent, but Zuko just knew his uncle was trying to con him into admitting something about Katara.

Stupid old man…obsessed with creating some great scandalous romance between that Water-Bender and me…it'll never work, because it will never happen. Ever.

Still, as he had no way out of the impromptu meeting with Iroh, he might as well get it over with.

"Uncle, I don't know what you're thinking – or what you've been putting in your tea recently – but there is nothing between me and Katara! Do you understand?"

Iroh looked surprised. He had planned on getting Zuko to tell him what the water-bender girl had told him. For once in his career as Zuko's caretaker, there had been no ulterior motive in talking to Zuko…but it was nice to have Zuko basically admit it anyway.

"Hmm…methinks the lady doth protest overmuch! I wasn't going to ask anyway," Iroh commented, grinning merrily at his nephew's shock. (A/n: Yes, Shakespeare, and yes, I probably misquoted it…sorry, if I did.) "In any case, I really do want to know what you found out, so if we can stop talking about your Katara for once, we can get to business."

Zuko was shocked. The one time he'd decided to try to throw his uncle off guard, his uncle had turned around and, completely without trying, gotten Zuko to make it seem like there was something between him and Katara!

How does he do these things! Whatever, time to change the subject…

"Oh…alright then…Basically all I got last night was the story of all their travels and whatever, nothing specific about the Avatar. I did get some on his fighting style – he's mastered all the elements except for fire, so while he has all the strengths of the other benders, he also has all the weaknesses, rolled into one. For example, he pauses for just a moment after an earth attack to assess whether it worked or not…"

The discussion turned away to safer conversation about the Avatar, rather than his dangerously bewitching companion and her brother.

Dangerously bewitching! Where did thatcome from? Great Agni…he is never going to let me live this down…assuming I live to go home anyway…

Hmm, a bit more serious towards the end, but at least it was pretty long. I hope you guys like it…I'm writing this at school, and I have bad allergies, which might explain the whole fight-dream at the beginning…I feel like killing someone. But never mind that, please read and review! Thanks!