gasp I forgot this stoopid thing. Disclaimer: Yep, I own Avatar. And you know what else? My shoes are made of gold, h3ll has accumulated a foot of snow, and the Germans don't want togo to war!
A/N: I sooo sorry peoples; it's been a while! My friend, the last kiwi, might have told some of you I wouldn't be updating for a while. This is because I got a new computer and it came with some sort of spyware, and I couldn't log in. Well, I hope this chapter will be worth the wait!
Sokka stomped back into the packed up camp angrily muttering to himself.
"...can't believe... made me go on a stupid search in the forest... obviously isn't there...on a Fire Navy ship... waste of time... hmph!"
"Oh, get over it Sokka! Really, what if Aang was still in the forest? How would you feel if we had left him here?" Katara berated her brother, using anger to hide some of her sadness.
Silence greeted her little monologue. She sighed. They needed to get going if they ever wanted to rescue Aang in time. Sokka got onto Appa via the bison's long, furry tail. Katara began to follow him, until she felt something strange. She felt as if someone was watching them. She quickly whipped her head around, searched the area, but found nothing.
"Is... is someone there?" Katara said timidly.
"Oh, please! Katara, there's no one there! Let's go already!" exclaimed Sokka impatiently. But Katara doubted her brother's words. She knew someone was there; she could feel a presence...
"Katara!"
"What?" the Waterbender said, annoyed, assuming it was her brother that had called her name.
"What? I didn't say anything!"
"Katara!"
"Then how do you explain that voice?" she argued.
"What voice? I didn't hear anything. And neither did Momo or Appa. Right guys?" Sokka confirmed his statement with the bison and the lemur. Appa growled and Momo purred (or whatever sound he makes) in agreement.
"Katara! Katara, it's me, Aang!"
"What? Aang? Where are you?" Katara inquired what seemed to be nothing. But she received a reply:
"You can't see me; I'm in the Spirit World."
"Oh," Katara said much less frightened now, "How'd you get into the Spirit World? You said that last time you got in on accident!"
"Well... I'm really not that sure... I guess I just... concentrated..."
"And why can't Sokka hear you, too?"
"I'm pretty sure that I'm projecting my words into your mind. That's why only you can hear me."
And indeed, on the way to the campsite, Aang had been thinking about how he could communicate with his friends. He had finally come to a conclusion: since Roku's dragon was able to show him pictures (complete with sounds), he should've been able to project sounds and things like that into someone's mind as well.
Aang would've talked to Sokka too, but he was afraid that Sokka might think he'd gone insane; hearing voices in his head.
"Anyway, I came to tell you that I AM still in this forest."
Katara smirked. Sokka had been wrong the whole time!
"Zhao's captured me, and I'm tied to a tree about a mile or two east of here."
"Alright, then. Hold on Aang. We're going to come save you." she replied determinedly.
"Wait... Katara? There's one more thing. Zhao... I... he... well..." Aang trailed off hesitantly.
"What is it?" Katara questioned slowly, not sure she wanted to hear his answer.
"I'm... I'm hurt. Badly. I don't know exactly what it is. I just know that it's my arms, and it hurts alot. Well, it doesn't hurt in the Spirit World, but as soon as I get back to my body... I don't think I'll be able to use most of my bending. So I'll basically be useless when you guys come..."
Now, Aang didn't sound like the brave, optimistic boy she knew. He sounded like the young, scared, and sad boy he probably would've been more like if he wasn't the Avatar.
Katara felt tears welling up in her eyes. Aang was hurt!
"Don't worry Aang... we're coming to save you! Everything's gonna be alright..." the Waterbender said reassuringly as a solitary tearstreaked down her face. She wiped it away quickly, though.
"Then bye... and good luck." Aang said in parting.With that, Katara felt the presence leave the clearing.
Sokka looked on in amusement as his sister had a very animated conversation with thin air. He didn't bother listening to the conversation. So, when Katara turned to him and announced that Aang was indeed in the forest (with a slight trace of tears in her eyes), it was quite a shock.
"What? How do you know?" Sokka exclaimed disbelievingly.
"Because, genius, Aang was just here, in the Spirit World!" Katara snapped back. "Come on, let's go!"
Sokka hopped off of Appa with Momo perched on his shoulder. Katara grabbed his wrist and started pulling him through the trees, following the foootsteps she could only assume to be from the Firebenders who took Aang.
"Wait, Katara! This is Zhao we're talking about here!"
"Your point being...?" Katara replied impatiently.
"My point is that he has, like, a billion soldiers! Don't you think we'll need backup?"
"Yes, but this is an emergency! We don't have time! We need to rescue him as soon as possible!"
"But --"
Katara shot Sokka a nasty glare.
If looks could kill, thought Sokka as Katara continued pulling him along, she'd be dragging a dead weight.
The Avatar's eyes and arrows stopped glowing after about half an hour. But as soon as they did, they squeezed shut. It was most likely from the pain, Zhao concluded. And of course, seeing as one of the Admiral's favorite things to do was add insult to injury...
"Where's your little masked friend now, Avatar?"
The young boy looked up at him with eyes that were so full of hate, it almost startled Zhao. Then, the Avatar directed his gaze to the ground, with his hate almost completely smothered by pain. Admiral Zhao smirked. His plan was definitely working.
Aang closed his eyes again, willing himself to think happy thoughts. That's when he heard the smallest rustle in the surrounding forest. It was so miniscule that, after sneaking a glance at Zhao, Aang found that the Admiral didn't even hear it.
As Aang scanned the edges of the clearing, the rustling occured again, and he was able to locate the source of the sound. He was only slightly surprised to see Katara and Sokka crouched among the trees. His eyes lit up (no not literally) at the sight of his two friends.
Then, he saw Momo bounding away from them, in his general direction (obviously staying out of the clearing). It was obvious to him why.
"Face it, Avatar: You will not escape from me this time," said Zhao, almost happily.
Aang tried to say, "Yes, I will escape from you!" but because of his gag, it sounded more like, "Eth, e wolock gape rum oo!"
"What was that?" Admiral Zhao said mockingly.
The Airbender was sick of Zhao laughing at him by then. He took a deep breath (through his nose), then blew a fast stream of air out of his mouth. The gag, being relatively loosely tied, slipped off quite easily and fell to the ground.
"I said: I will escape from you!"
He heard Momo's paws skittering behind him somewhere, and soon felt his ropes slacken as the winged lemur chewed and scratchedthrough them one by one. He winced as they brushed over his arms.
During the split second between Aang getting untied and the soldiers charging at him, Aang glanced at Katara and Sokka, only to see two deeply horrified faces. Horrified by his injuries.
There was a long, bloody, and apparently deep gash all the way down each of the Airbender's arms. Katara felt angry tears forming in her eyes. How could anyone do such a thing to a 12-year-old boy?
Sokka was shocked as well, especially because Katara hadn't told him that Aang was hurt. But, then again, it didn't look like she had even known in the first place...
But then the two siblings saw that the soldiers were rushing toward Aang to tie him up again. They rushed out of their hiding spot and began knocking soldiers down immediatly. Aang even tried to pitch in, and blew a couple soldiers down (similarly to how he got the gag off).
But would the efforts of two teens and a partially disabled boy be enough to defeat over fifty well-trained soldiers?
A/N: So... I'm hoping that was satisfactory! Oh, and I'd like to thank my four reviewers: casui (who reviewed two times!), shmoo92, Aero-Dragon's-Sky, and sugar high water uma. Thank You! Oh, and I'd especially like to thank my friends (who none of you know, probably) for taking the time to read the first draft of my story and tell me whether it totally sucked: Elaina (who is also the last kiwi on this site), Kerri, Jessica, Katarina, and Cheyanne.
Please, please, please review peoples! It means so much to me. And I'm smart. I've gotten five reviews, but there have been 55 hits on chapter one and 17 hits on chapter two. Seriously people, I don't care if you just write "I love your story! Keep going." I just like reviews!
Thank you!