Hello again! Well, MY WRITERS BLOCK IS OVER! How did you write your last chapter if you had writers block you ask? Well, I actually wrote it sentence by friggin sentence. It took forever! Well, now that it's over, I can write freely without having to spend my nights thinking of something to write and then forget it all in the morning. Seriously, that was the most aggravating thing ever! Okay, just read the chapter, and review when your done. Thank you!

I do not own A:TLA

A New Face

The wind was blowing softly as Katara and Sokka rowed their small recently purchased boat onto the gently tossing sea. Katara was holding the map up to her face examining it, while Sokka rowed the boat. The land behind them was slowly disappearing, as they rowed further out into the blue water. It was a cloudy day, and it appeared as if it might rain soon. Not exactly the best day to set sail, but if they wanted to save Aang in time, they had no choice.

"Okay, the next piece of land is about twenty-four miles away, so just go right." Katara told her brother who was too busy blowing a stray hair out of his face to listen.

"Sokka, are you even paying attention?" she snapped at him.

"Of course I am! I go left, right?" he smiled at her.

"Grr... no, you go right, Sokka, right!" she glared at him, restraining herself not to hit him.

"Alright, alright, I was just kidding! Jeez take a joke already..." Katara had no idea how her brother could joke in a time like this. How she could related to him she didn't know. She turned her gaze to the cloudy sky and tried not to think about Aang, or Zuko for that matter, he seemed to be on her thoughts most of all lately.

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Zuko:

His uncle hadn't spoken to him since Katara and her sibling left. Iroh had tried to convince him to let them stay, but Zuko just told him that if they stayed and reached the fire nation, Katara and Sokka would surely be killed or put in jail for the rest of their lives. Iroh knew this, and agreed with him. They would find their way back home, safely hopefully, and live their lives in peace, away from the fire nation. But ever since she left, Zuko felt strangely empty, like something was missing from him. Every little thing seemed to remind him of her. He was walking down the hallway of Katara's old room, when he passed her door. He stopped, staring right at it. It seemed to take ages before he decided to enter.

The door creaked open, revealing her bare but yet feminine room. A few small trinkets cluttered her small dresser, and her dress that Iroh had bought her laid across her single bed. It wasn't much, but inside Zuko felt like it was crowded with memories of her. However short their time together was, he had grown accustomed to see her wondering the halls, and eating meals with her. The avatar still had no idea what happened to Katara and her brother, and he would never know. Zuko didn't want to bring on Aang's avatar state again, so he decided that it would be better if he remained clueless. Lately however, the avatar had been banging on his door demanding to see Katara. He just told his crew to ignore it. But for Zuko, ignoring that Katara was no longer with him, wouldn't be easy.

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Aang:

Aang needed to see Katara, he wanted to apologize to her for the way he acted. He had been so selfish, so ignorant of her feelings. He felt like a complete and total idiot for doing what he did to Katara. She hadn't really rejected him after all, he had rejected her true feelings for him. He should've been content just being her friend. He wanted to tell her that it was wrong of him to have acted that way, and still wanted to remain friends with her. Of course, he still couldn't deny he still had feelings for her. But as he banged on the door of his cell, fully aware that no one would let him out, he just wanted to see her. For some reason, he got a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach telling him something was wrong. If anything had happened to her or Sokka because of him, he would never forgive himself. If only he could just apologize to her.

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Katara & Sokka:

The sun was setting, turning the dark, cloudy sky into beautiful shades of red, pink, and purple. Katara stared longingly at the multi-colored sky. She remembered when she and Aang had formed the shape of the clouds into a warning to protect a village of a active volcano. She had had so much fun bending with him, and soaring through the clouds. But now the clouds only brought her depressing memories of Aang. Sokka had fallen asleep a few hours ago, and it was up to Katara to row their tiny boat.

She could see land some distance away, and she sailed towards it. From there, they would embark on their journey. From behind her she could see a small dot following them. She decided it was probably a merchant ship sailing for the town ahead of them. Nothing more. She bended some water from the sea and formed it into a ball above Sokka's head. With a quick gesture the water ball splashed onto his face and he woke with a start.

"What the heck was that for?" he cried angrily, wiping his face with his sleeve.

"Land." she told him, pointing behind him.

"Yeah, well, you could've let me sleep a little longer..." he grumbled, rubbing his eyes, he took the paddles from Katara, and started rowing.

"Can't you just wake up without complaining for once in your life?" the waterbender pleaded with him.

"No, it's against everything I live for. Alright, at this town, the first thing we do is get some dinner." he started rubbing his growling stomach.

"Well, we're going to get food anyway, I'm not too sure how long it will take for us to get to the next town from there."

"Hey, does that little ship look like it's following us?" the warrior asked her, glaring at the small dot behind them.

"It's probably just a merchant ship heading to the same town we are Sokka. Now row as if your life depended on it." she ordered him as she laid back in the boat crossing her arms behind her head as she started to drift off to sleep.

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The boat washed up on the sandy shore a short thirty minutes later. Sokka jumped out of the tiny ship and stretched, noticing that Katara was still asleep, he decided to get a little revenge. He scooped up some of the sea water with his hands, and quickly dropped it on Katara's face before the water drained through his hands. The girl jerked awake, and looked around wildly. Sokka had dropped to the ground clutching his stomach, laughing like an insane person.

"Hahahahahaha, r-revenge is so s-sweet! Hahahahahaha!" he gasped for breathe, not noticing the giant wave that was towering over him, about to collapse. He stared at it in awe, not moving a muscle.

"Oh, come on! Can't you take a jo-" but before he could finish, Katara forced the wave to fall on her brother.

"Oh yes, I can take a joke! But apparently you can't!" she cried half-laughing, wiping her hands as she climbed out of the boat. Sokka cough and spit out water, looking furious.

"I was only taking my revenge for earlier!" he yelled, twisting his shirt to drain out the water. He walked out of the sea, (the wave had carried him a little far out) and caught up with his sister.

"Hmpf, well, at least you know what will happen if you try that again." she saw the lights of the nearby town, and started walking in that direction. It wasn't far, and it seemed as if a forest surrounded the whole village. Luckily, they did not have to walk far to arrive at the town, but once they did, it seemed as if it was abandoned. Not a single soul was outside, and the only lights coming from the town, came from the lanterns hanging in front of the small buildings and houses. The village was covered in confetti and decorative, it seemed as if there had been a party. The siblings wondered through the streets of the town, looking for any sign of life. They found none.

"Sokka, I don't like this. We should just leave for another town right now." Katara inched closer to her brother grabbing his sleeve, as they kept walking through the village.

"Hey, are you scared? You are! You are scared! Mwuhahahaha, oh this is too good to be true! Don't worry though, we'll leave as soon as we get some food, in fact, I smell something cooking right now!" he continued to laugh, annoying his sister to no end. She let go of his sleeve and walked several steps behind him, not wanting to give him anything more to increase his already overly large ego. Katara thought she heard something snap behind her, and she quickly spun around to find the source of the noise. She was walking backwards when she bumped into Sokka, who was standing absolutely still.

"Sokka, I have a bad fee- ...Oh no." she turned around and stared straight ahead of her, clasping her hand to her mouth in horror to what she saw. Sokka just stood there, staring along with her.

It was a wasteland, a black, smoking, burnt, desolate wasteland. The center of the town was burned to the ground, smoke still rising from the ashes. Katara could see chairs, tables, dolls, and other random things that should've belonged in a house, a business, but was now charred and burnt. In the middle of the smoldering mess, stood a red and black flag, with the fire nation symbol.

"Oh gods Sokka, what do you think happened?" She looked away, this was too much, just...too much.

"The fire nation attacked, that much is obvious, we need to leave- HEY! Hey Katara! There's someone over there! Look!" Sokka cried, pointing to the edge of the city square was a person, crouching against a blackened wall with one hand against it, the other clutching it's stomach. Suddenly, the person collapsed, falling to the hard burnt ground. Sokka ran forward, racing into the spot where the person, whoever it was, fell. Katara ran after him, careful not to trip over any of the broken and burnt furniture, and other items in the smoking mess. Sokka was kneeling on the ground, hand under the fallen person's head, lifting it slightly above the floor. Katara was at his side in an instant.

"Who is it?" she asked looking over his shoulder, and staring at the young frail girl Sokka was holding. She had long black tangled hair, lightly tanned skin that paled in the moonlight, her eyes were closed, her dark green dress burnt, along with half her arm. She looked about Sokka's age. If it weren't for her chest gently rising and sinking, Katara would have believed her dead.

"She's injured, she needs help!" he looked around wildly, hoping to find something that could help the poor girl.

"Water." Katara said to him.

"What?" he looked at her as if she'd gone crazy. How could she be thirsty at a time like this?

"I can heal her, but I'll need water. You have my canteen." Sokka immediately handed her the canteen. She opened the lid, and bended the water out of the canteen and onto her hand and made it fit her like a glove. She gently placed her hand on the girl's arm, and focused all her energy into healing her. A few seconds later, the burn had completely vanished.

"Come on Sokka, we need to get out of here, just take her with us." Sokka nodded in agreement, and picked the unconscious girl up. Walking around the burnt area they made their way into the forest. They walked along a dirt path made to lead travelers to the next town. They were seeking out a place to camp for the night, when they came across a small cave not far from the trail. Once inside the cave, Katara pulled out two cotton blankets from the knapsack she and Sokka had brought with them.

"She can have my blanket, I'll be fine." he said as he laid the girl down, taking off his shirt, wadding it up and putting it under her head. Katara put the blanket on top of her and laid down herself.

"Are you sure you'll be all right? It's gonna get colder in the night." she said staring at him as he sat laid down next to her.

"I said I'll be fine. Really." he said, and he closed his eyes, though it would be hours before sleep came to him.

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It was sun rise when he woke up. Katara was still asleep, as was the girl the had rescued the previous night. She looked so peaceful asleep. Now in sunlight, Sokka could see dirt and ash smudged on her face. She must have been through a lot, her clothes were burnt and tattered, and her once burnt arm was still just slightly red. What had happened to her? Sokka laid back down and crossed his arms behind his head.

The young girl on the opposite side of Katara slowly flickered her vibrant green eyes open. She was in a cave...and the pain in her arm was gone. What was going on? She looked around and noticed two other people in the cave with her. She sat up immediately, this caused the boy across from her to look straight at her.

"Oh, your awake, thats good." he stood up from his spot on the floor, walked over to her and knelt down beside her.

"Where am I? Where's Ana?" she said glaring at him.

"Your in a cave with me and my sister. We found you at that village, and you were hurt, so we took you with us. My sister, she's a waterbender, she healed you.And I don't know who or where Ana is. Here, drink this." He handed her the canteen, and she gulped the remaining contents down.

"You didn't see anyone else? A little girl? About five?" she looked at him with hopeful eyes, praying with all her heart that he might have seen her. She handed him the canteen and wiped her mouth with her long green silk sleeve.

"No, I'm sorry. What happened to you?" he took the canteen back from her, and stared at her questioningly.

"I can't remember much, I just need to find my sister, we were separated, if something happened to her...it'll be all my fault..." tears cascaded down her face, glistening in the dim sunlight.

"We can go back to the village and search for her, if you want." Katara told her as she put at hand on her shoulder, she had just woken up. Her braid was undone, and messy.

"Would you? Please? She's all I have." she held Sokka's hands in hers, and her emerald green eyes shined as she looked Katara in the eyes.

"Of course we'll help you, but can you tell us your name?" Katara asked her gently. The girl sniffled, then nodded.

"Jade, my name's Jade." Sokka was in a heavenly daze...

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Hi guys. I hope you liked my new character! I really love the name 'Jade' and I just had to put it in there. And for all you Sokka & Yue fans, please don't hate me! although, this doesn't necessarily mean that Sokka and Jade will fall in love or anything...GAH! I'm just gonna shut up now... So yeah. I felt Sokka wasn't a big enough character, so I felt that he needed a little something to occupy his time. I'm trying my hardest to give this story a little more detail and depth, but I'm guessing thats not going so great, but please just bear with me as I struggle to become a better writer. Please review, you know you want to! Oh yes, I'm thinking of changing my pen name...any ideas? You'd think I'd have a little more imagination since I write stories like these...

The Ever Cheerful Shojo Butterfly! (for now)