Okay, first of all, (if anyone is reading this at all. I have a slight tendency to jump to conclusions and think nobody even reads the authors notes, but anyway) I just wanted to let you know that anything that the weirdo mental guy (forgot what I named him)…Danshu or something like that- yeah, well, anything that he says was perfectly correct. I know I should've put 'said' in stead of 'sed', but I'd say that the guy was locked up for so long- he won't talk to a wall or something, so he probably just forgot how to correctly talk.
Sorry, guys if anything else like that happens, I'll tell you the corrections I've made at the end of each chapter. But for now, Danish…or whatever his name is, Danshu, is out of the story, though Katara might have a thought or two about him.
Honestly, not to be mean, I'm a little disappointed. I know I don't review much, but I've checked my hit counter, and over one hundred have read all my chapters, but most of you haven't even shot a single review my way.
Outsane: Ha, thanks. I kind of thought that Aang was a little OOC in the last chapter, but I guess that's why I rated this story 'T'.
Crazed-fan082989- Uh…well, I've heard about those beta job things. I'm not sure if it's for people to spell check or something (I'm new and totally stupid to this site, sorry!). If I've guessed right, or half of it, then I'd say if you were talking about the grammar issues in the two paragraphs above, then no, that's okay. I know there are some things messed up in the first chapter, I'm too busy to fix that and I keep forgetting. I'll think about it, if you find some things wrong in this chapter, just feel free to tell me (and that goes for all of you).
Zukoscute2- Thanks, sorry. I guess that really wasn't fair. I was just talking about it above the review list. I'm a compete hypocrite. And especially to you, because you're one of the people that actually are nice enough to review. Again, sorry! I'll review your story, I promise!
LatinaMewTitan- You and me both, sista.
Sweetstories11- Thanks. I wasn't actually a Zutara fan, and I'm still deciding if I am. I just decided to try it. That and the owner of this awesome Avatar forum (Chilled Heart, if any of you are interested) said I should try writing a story. So I just decided to try one for my favorite show- Avatar.
Chocolate Swirlz- Huh? Oh, I did write 'she said' twice? Oops. Sorry, guys. I was a little too busy when writing that last chapter. I love to multi-task, but I really suck at it. My brother left Kyle left his laptop at my house when he was leaving and going back to college. I was practicing my hip-hop while making turns and finishing up my homework and the chapter. I'll stop doing that. It's a nasty habit, really, but my brother came back and took his laptop back.
Blushingrose18- Uh…I don't think I'd remember to email you every time I have a new chapter up. Why don't you just put me or the story on alert?
C.A.M.E.O.1 and Only- Heh, I'd be wicked annoyed to talk to that guy. I think his 'roaming eye' would've set me off. I'd be too disgusted to even look at the slob (no wonder Zuko locked him up-- he didn't wanna see him either! Lol).
Nilikeye- Thanks, I'm glad you like the story.
Jinx The Sorceress: Thanks, glad you liked the story.
Alright, again, thank you all for the reviews. And also I'm sorry if I seemed a bit snappy. I'm a little ticked off right now. So, uh, sorry.
Anyway,
Disclaimer: I own Avatar, all the money in the world, half of Japan, the Tyra talk show, and a Whopper Jr. from Burger King- yeah, riiiight.
Chapter Four: Hope
"Um, not to be a nag but, where exactly is this new cell your taking me to?" Katara asked him facing forward deciding that her neck had already hurt enough. She couldn't afford to keep looking up at his face. Besides, to her, it's not like it would change at all. After all, every time she looked up it always was blank. His whole body. Stiff. With only a frown that still really didn't show any emotion.
"Um, not to be a nag but, where exactly this new cell your taking me to?" Katara asked him facing forward deciding that her neck had already hurt enough. She couldn't afford to keep looking up at his face. Besides, to her, it's not like it would change at all. After all, every time she looked up it always was blank. His whole body. Stiff. With only a frown that still really didn't show any emotion.
Zuko didn't answer, anyway. I think he was a little tired of saying stuff like "I'll be asking the questions", and for her to be quiet, and such. Katara understood what that was like since Sokka would do that to her everyday.
She figured that basically she might not be living in the next couple of days if Zuko were to kill her, so she decided to shut her mouth and not rush Zuko's thoughts on killing her. Right now, she was really only thinking of an escape plan.
---
She had nothing.
Katara tried to make the best of this incredibly long walk. She didn't understand any hallway they went down. Every corridor looked the same to her. They were so confusing. There were no signs or anything for telling which way to go, no big map to tell you where you are and where you location is, either. She had no clue how Zuko was just walking around. It seemed to Katara he knew exactly where he was going.
Then Katara thought that maybe he was walking around in so many directions that he didn't know where he was. Maybe that's what everyone does. They just walk around until they find what they're looking for.
Then Katara decided that was stupid. She sighed, but tried not to make it sound too bored. She thought maybe Zuko could be bored escorting her around his ship, too. Then she thought maybe nothing was going through his mind. But not in the dumb way. He was just so still, but moving.
It was kind of scaring her. And if only a banished prince could scare her by just walking, she just was terrified at the thought of would his father was like.
Aang kicked Katara's bag in frustration. They boys had been sitting there for a long time now. It was dusk and they had nothing. Nobody ate, or barely moved. They all stayed in place and they didn't get off of Appa once all day.
"I've got it!" Sokka said leaping up with a snap of his fingers.
"What?" Aang asked enthusiastically.
"We find Zhao." Sokka simply said.
Aang frowned. But his frown quickly turned into a growl. "Why would we go find Zhao!" Aang barked. Sokka sighed a don't-you-get-it? kind of sigh. Sokka stood up. Aang sat down. He crossed his legs and put his hand under his chin. He was giving up hope quickly. Like he was loosing his confidence.
"Don't you get it? We could interrogate him! Ask him where he sent Zuko! What direction he went!" Sokka said.
"Sokka, we're two idiotic guys. We couldn't interrogate a harmless panda fly." Aang said totally discouraged. Sokka sighed again.
"We'll be hard core. Ruthless. Show them what it's like to have somebody beating on them!" Sokka said while punching his fist up in the air.
"Oh please, we're just stupid little kids. What damage could we possibly do?" Aang asked lying down and putting his hands behind his heads. Sokka looked at Aang grimly.
"HELLO! YOU'RE THE AVATAR! DOES THAT MEAN NOTHING TO YOU?" Sokka yelled. "You are the bridge between the physical world and the spirit world. You're the last air bender in the world. You're legendary!" Sokka calmed down. "You give people hope. You give Katara confidence. You give her hope that we'll come get her and she'll be free. You give Zuko hope that one day he'll be the heir to the throne again. You give everyone hope." Sokka told him.
Aang sat up. "Sokka, what in the world could possibly make you think I care about what happens to Prince Zuko?" Aang asked Sokka.
"Well maybe you don't care about Zuko, but you care about Katara. And for all you know, they could be making out right now." Sokka lied. Sokka was hoping that Aang would believe his stupid comment so they'd go do something.
"WHAT?" Aang screamed leaping off of his feet. He pushed Sokka down and leaped up on Appa's head. "Yip, yip!" He screamed.
'Oh yes." Sokka thought crossing his arms behind his back and crossing his legs. 'This is more like it! This is life. Oh yeah, this is what I'm talkin' about!'
Katara's legs were tired of walking around. She felt like she had just walked four miles without stopping. Finally, Zuko opened a door and shoved her into it. She got pushed into a chair. She watched as Zuko took a step into the room also. She was a bit scared as she watched him close the door tightly. She gulped.
"Welcome to your new room." Zuko muttered softly with a vile accent to his sharp tone. Katara began to think that this was an interrogation. In fact, she had a totally subtle vibe that that's what Prince Zuko was doing.
"How would I know where Aang is? I was shoved into an extremely stuffy black bag then shoved into a cell unconscious." She blurted out in an icy voice trying to sound brave and not at all scared or interrogated, which she though was his number one plan in the first place.
"Oh no. That's not what I want to know." He said walking behind the chair she was in.
"What? Then what do you want for me!" She shrieked.
"You seem-" He paused. "Tense." He began to massage her shoulders. Katara whipped his hands away from her.
"No. Stay away from me!" She hollered.
"You seem troubled. Tell me Katara, what's troubling you?" He asked slyly. Katara now officially knew this was all a set up. She wanted to leave. He knew that too. And she found that when creepy and most possibly evil guys started to be calm and quiet, it was even more scary.
"The only thing that's troubling me right now is you!" She yelled she pulled the cap out of her water skin bag expecting a splash of cool water to fill her hand. But then she remembered- it had all leaked out when the fire soldier slapped his spear into her hand.
She gritted her teeth and closed her eyes shut tightly trying not to cry.
The was no hope.
"Okay, so as I can see from this map, there should be a big Fire Nation county around here somewhere in these woods. A big dark place that looks like a huge scar in the forest." Aang said with his face stuffed into the map.
"You mean like the one right in front of us?" Sokka asked him pulling Aang's head out of the map and grabbing the map out of his hands at the same time. The whole thing was like a big island. A moat kind of river flowed all around the big black spot covered in smog, the mix between smoke and fog.
"Those are Zhao's head quarters. He owns all of it so remember, we have to be very careful. There are a lot of soldiers in there and not enough hope for us." Sokka said.
"I know." Aang said. Half of his mind was thinking about the time he and Katara were sick and he was saved from Zhao by the Blue Spirit. The other half was thinking about what Sokka had said. The 'H' word - hope.
To Aang, that word seemed to keep coming up that day.
"Maybe the Blue Spirit will save her." Aang whispered.
"What was that?" Sokka asked him.
Aang popped back into reality. "Huh? Oh sorry. It was nothing." Aang said.
"I'm okay."
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Ooo, as stupid as I am, I just realized what A/N: meant- duh, Abbey- Author's Note. Sorry, I'm a little slow behind here. I registered the day I found out about this site. Anyway, here's my official 'author talks'.
A/N: One, man that feels cool! Two, sorry, yeah I know, I'm a dork. Three, okay, I didn't want to put too much out there for this chapter. It seems like every time I try to write just one chapter, I end up writing more. I don't want to give up too much. That would probably make the story short.
So, I if I continued this story would be pretty long. I'd have about like- 10,000 words on each chapter. So, that's why I'm pacing.
Okay, please, please, PLEASE review! You know…if you want to. I don't wanna sound too desperate, but I'd greatly appreciate it if you do. Plus, you'll get a cookie!
Also, I know Aang was OOC, Sokka was kind of too, I'm thinking Katara was in place just about, I could be wrong, but I also think Zuko was OOC. Yes, I'm no fool. I have everything planned out. You'll soon find out why he's acting like that…
But first, I'll need some reviews!