A/N: hey guys! sorry for not updating in a bit, thanksgiving had me busy with family, but i'm back! i'm glad you guys enjoyed the last chapter, i'm happy Katara is with the gaang again now, she's still hurt but it's better then her being in a closet. anyways enjoy todays chapter!

disclaimer: i do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender, nor any of its characters.

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Bai and Cheng had fear in their eyes, they were scared of world legends being furious with them, but they were the most scared of Aang. they had heard stories of what Aang did when his girlfriend was captured or possibly harmed, they knew taking her would be risky but her buyer was paying an extreme amount for her.

"we're so sorry Avatar Aang! please have mercy! we'll inform you on her buyer and everything, just please don't hurt us!" Cheng said while going on his knees to bow to the Avatar, Bai following his actions a moment later.

"a buyer? whose this buyer?" Aang said, confused on what they meant.

"yes a buyer, someone was planning to buy Master Katara for a 100,000 gold pieces, we don't know who the buyer is exactly, but they're somewhere in the Earth Kingdom." Cheng explained further, leaving Aang and Sokka with shocked faces, Toph however was being held back from beating up the sandbenders by Sokka.

"100,000 gold pieces?" Sokka asked in disbelief, Cheng nodded 'yes' to him.

Aang just looked at the sleeping girl in his arms, wanting to protect her more than ever. he tightened his grip on Katara and brought her closer to him. he felt terrible seeing her this beat up, if she was beat up any further then she already was, she would've died if she wasn't found in time. he wanted to beat up the sandbenders for hurting her, but knew they were the only source of information on her "buyer".

Aang decided to speak up "buyer? why would someone want to buy Katara?" he asked, although he had a feeling he already knew the answer.

"he didn't give much details, but apparently he was given a deal with a Chief from one of the Water Tribes that he could buy Katara if he didn't do something, he didn't say what that something was, but he hired us to get her since the Chief said he wouldn't bring her personally or something.. again we weren't given much information." Cheng explained to them.

"a Water Tribe Chief?" Sokka asked, still confused about the deal Cheng had spoken about.

"Hakoda.." Aang said quietly, but was still heard by everyone. Sokka turned to Aang with a mad look on his face, "how dare you accuse my Dad! he would never sell Katara off!" Sokka yelled at the younger airbender, Aang just held a serious look on his face while looking at the ground. "Sokka think about it, Chief Arnook wouldn't make that deal, and whatever something that buyer could do would most likely be directed at the Southern Water Tribe." Aang explained to Sokka, making Sokka's angry face turn to a sad frown. Sokka knew Aang was right.

Aang looked from the ground to Katara's face, seeing her smile in her sleep as she snuggled closer to him in his arms. he slightly smiled at this sight but then turned to look at Sokka "Sokka, we have to figure this all out, who knows if this "buyer" will send people after Katara again, when she was taken this time she barely had any energy to fight from staying up so many nights, and now she's even weaker from being beaten.." Aang paused to give a disgusted and angry glare at Cheng and Bai for beating Katara, then continued on

"we have to make sure Katara's safe, our mission to Ba Sing Se can wait, it's not an important mission anyways, once we know Katara is safe than we can continue on with our mission, but Katara's safety comes first." Aang finished, Sokka just nodded in agreement. Toph on the other hand was still mad at the sandbenders "so what? we're not even going to touch these guys? there's no way Aang that you don't want to go full on avatar state on them." Toph said in annoyance, she wanted to get back at the sandbenders for taking her friend and for beating her friend.

Aang looked over to Toph, seeing how angry she was by the look on her face, Sokka was still holding her back from beating up the sandbenders. "Toph you know i do, but they're our only source of information, if we do then we wouldn't be any better than them anyways." Aang explained to the young earth bender

"fine, but i will be getting back at them in the future." Toph said, still somewhat mad.

Sokka noticed how she was shaking, so he gently grabbed her arm and pulled her into a hug, then gave her a kiss on the head. this made her clam down immediately as she smiled into his shoulder and hugged him back, Sokka was the only one Toph gave hugs to.

Sokka smiled at her little action and picked her up bridal style, he could tell she was tried, she had been awake almost all night feeling for something as she had spent a lot of the night sandbending on the ground to try to feel for vibrations even though she couldn't through the sand. Toph had fallen asleep moments after being picked up by Sokka.

"we're leaving and we're finding this buyer, do you still have a letter or something from the person who hired you?" Aang asked the sandbenders, Bai nodded 'yes' and got up from his knees to walk to a small dresser in the room, he opened the top drawer and pulled out a scroll, then walked over to Aang and bowed before giving it to him.

"this is the scroll we were given to be hired for the kidnapping, it might give you clues to who it is" Bai explained, Aang nodded in thanks, although he was still mad at them. "thanks, this will hopefully be helpful." Aang said, then walked out of the hut, Sokka following right after him.

to be continued...