A/N- Yay! I finished my finals! And I think I did pretty good on them too.

Enjoy!

Katara looked back to see that the masked person was gone. She stopped in her tracks immediately.

I have to help them! She thought.

She started to run back, but stopped again.

I can't help them! I have no bending and I can't fight any other way.

Katara wanted to cry at her uselessness.

No, I have to keep going, or all they did for me will be in vain.

So she continued to run away, but a few tears did escape her eyes.

&&&&&&

Zuko looked at the mask in his hand. He had stolen it and his swords from the warden's office just after Katara escaped.

He had known he had to do something to help her, but he was not one to admit he was wrong.

So he had stolen the mask and swords as a disguise from Katara. He helped her escape prison, and then ends up in the middle of the forest, because he ditched her.

Maybe I should go find her again… he thought to himself.

He put the mask in a hole in a tree and went off to find Katara again.

&&&&&&

Aang and Toph walked slowly down the dirt road, their minds on the event that took place earlier that night.

They stopped after a while just off the road for the night. After eating what little food they had, the lied down to go to sleep, but Aang was still thinking about earlier.

What happened? Why did I do that? What if I can't control it and it just happens spontaneously? He thought.

He looked over at Toph sleeping just a little ways away from him.

What if I can't control this and I hurt her?! That would be horrible!

He crawled over to her sleeping form. He looked at her peaceful face and smiled a little. He reached out and touched her face tenderly.

The most important thing is that she's safe. And if that's without me being with her, so be it.

He leaned over and gave her a quick hug before standing up. He didn't gather any of his supplies; instead, he left them there for Toph.

He took one last look back at her before leaving her.

"Be safe Toph," he whispered.

&&&&&&

Katara sat on a rock and panted heavily as she took her quick break before starting to run again. She didn't know how much distance she had put between herself and the jail, but it didn't seem like enough to her. She had to keep running.

Then she heard a sound from behind her. It was a twig snapping. The first thing that came into her head was that it was the guards.

She jumped up and continued to keep running. She couldn't hear anything anymore, but she still kept running.

She could feel herself getting light headed. The ground beneath her feet felt like it was moving.

She started losing her balance. Suddenly, the ground came up very close to her as she fell down on her hands and knees. When her head hit the grass, she could hear the steps of someone coming up behind her.

"Katara?" a voice asked her.

As white spots appeared in front of her face, the person called out again.

"Katara, what's wrong?!"

The voice knelt beside her as the darkness took over her eyesight.

&&&&&&&

Toph woke up the next morning scared. Aang was gone. She didn't know what happened to him. He never left her before she woke up. Actually, for the past couple of weeks, she had barely spent any time without him.

She patted her foot on the ground, trying to find his vibrations. But he was gone.

"What am I going to do? What if he got kidnapped?" she said out loud to herself.

Toph packed up the stuff and headed towards the town that she and Aang were going to go to next.

&&&&&&

Aang used his Air bending to run as fast as he could so he could get to the next city. He had run through a forest so he could avoid the roads, where people might recognize him.

When he got to the next city, he noticed that it was kind of run down. It was still better than the last one he and Toph had been too, but it still wasn't that good.

Toph… he thought. No! Thinking of her will just make you sadder.

When he got into the city, he noticed a guy sitting outside of a small hospital. The guy looked very depressed.

"Hi," Aang said the guy.

"What do you want?" the guy hissed at him.

"You look so depressed, I was wondering if you were alright," Aang told him.

The guy gave him a blank stare. "Why would you care? You're just a kid. Kids don't care about anything other than themselves," he said darkly.

Aang took a bold move and sat down next to the guy. "Not all of us are like that. Some of us actually care what goes on around us."

The guy looked down at his knees.

"So, do you want to talk about it?" Aang asked him.

The guy's shoulders sagged a little bit and he started to speak. "My friend who's a girl is in the hospital."

"She means a lot to you, doesn't she?" Aang asked.

He nodded. "We just met actually. But even so, she does mean a lot to me. She's just so different than all other girls," he said.

"What happened?"

"There was this incident, and she got really hurt. I took her to the nearest hospital I could find, which just happened to be this one," the guys said.

"But that's not the worst part. I feel like the reason she got hurt was my fault. These people were chasing us because of me. My family's not exactly popular. I'm starting to think that maybe I should leave her to make her safe."

As car drove by slowly, the guy looked up dully and Aang could see the far away look in his eyes.

"But you shouldn't do that. I'm sure she'd want to be with you. She'd want to help you. She'd want…" Aang stopped as realization hit him.

He buried his face in his hands and he groaned.

"What's wrong?" the other guy asked.

"I should be listening to my own advice," he said as he took his face out of his hands.

The guy looked at him strangely.

"I have a similar problem. I left my best friend who's a girl just to protect her," Aang said.

Just then, a nurse came out.

"Sir, it's okay to see your friend now," she said.

She walked back inside as the two guys stood up.

"Look dude. How about after we visit my friend, we go look for yours?" the other guy said.

Aang smiled slightly and nodded.

They started to walk in when Aang remembered something.

"Hey, I never got your name," he said to the guy.

"I'm Sokka," he said, holding out his hand.

"I'm Aang," Aang said, shaking Sokka's hand.

A/N- You'll find out what actually happened to Sokka next chapter. I tried to make it sound like it could have been Zuko Aang was talking to. Please review!

Thanks for reading!