Because it has to be said, I do not own Avatar: the Last Airbender, or any of the names or characters of the show. I merely control them for my own twisted pleasure from this point in my story on.

Chapter 04:

How to Make a Hole

Zuko slammed the trap door shut and didn't care if it scared the whole room. If the men knew he was onboard, the first place they'd look was in here. He turned to the airbending brat and shook his head, hoping the boy would understand him.

We have to find another way out.

"Guys," the younger boy said, taking their attention off of Zuko, "we need to find another way out of here."

The older watertribe boy walked over to the nearest wall, and put his hand against it. "Toph," he said, direction his voice at the smaller girl behind him, "can you see how thick this wall is?"

The girl strolled over to the wall and hit it hard with her fist. Zuko wondered at first why she'd done that, and got a little closer. She hit the wall again and placed her ear against it.

"It's only about five inches thick," she replied.

Zuko furrowed his brow in confusion; how could she tell how thick the wall was?

"She's blind," the airbender said from behind him and Zuko just stared.

She was blind? But that made even less sense. Without thinking about it, he turned to the Avatar for an explanation.

"You know how wolf-bats can see in the dark because they can use sound to 'see' if there is something ahead of them?" Remembering that conversation with Uncle when he was a kid, Zuko nodded. "Well, Toph is like that too. She can't see with her eyes, but she can use sound to 'see' things around her."

Looking at her again, Zuko could kind of understand that. He tried to remember what uncle had called it… echolocation?

The older boy was pointing at the wall when Zuko looked back toward them. "I think you and Aang should cut a door in the wall here." he told his sister: he was apparently the planner of the group.

"Yeah but that will wear us out," the waterbender said smartly. "There has to be another way."

"Katara," the blind girl said, her voice full of impatience. "I'd tear the thing apart myself if I could, but I can't. There is no other way."

Aang gave Zuko a sad smile, and walked over to Katara who was grudgingly taking out her supply of water. Zuko thought about it. He'd come in here planning on getting out with their help, but if they were exhausted before they even got out of the room, it would bad. He'd have to help them first.

Zuko drew both daos and walked forward. When he was close enough to the wall, he used the super sharp blades to outline a large square big enough to pass a human through. He turned back toward the waterbender and nodded towards the cuts in the wall.

She smiled.

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Katara and Aang began to cut out the square the masked guy had started. When they were done, they'd have a hole big enough to crawl through. It wasn't as easy as cutting the chains but together they were making some progress.

Minutes passed before Toph, still leaning against the wall, made a motion for their attention. "There are a group of soldiers heading this way. From below us; hurry it up."

Katara watched as the masked man walked slowly over to the trap door and waited there, looking down at it. If only she could see his face she might know what he was thinking, but he seemed to be waiting for something.

And he didn't need to wait long. In a matter of seconds the door popped open and a head popped into view. The man that had stuck his head inside the room had time to look slightly surprised before the hilt of the masked guy's sword connected to the top of his head and he feel back down through the hole.

There was a shout, and a struggle before another man's head appeared. This one however, was much quicker.

A fire blast came from behind them, making Sokka yell. Katara watched as the mask man was engulfed in flames. Worry filled her suddenly and then was gone when he rolled out of them into a crouch still facing the door. The fire puffed out quickly, and with nothing in his way, the firebenders made quick work of getting inside.

Passing the water between herself and Aang, they had managed to cut through three of the four sides they needed to make the hole. The fight going on behind them however, was taking up much more attention that Katara had.

As Sokka rushed forward to help the masked man, Aang pulled Katara toward the unfinished hole. "We need to finish or we're all in bigger trouble."

Taking control of her worry for her brother and the other man, Katara nodded and got back to the job at hand. They were almost done when a body slammed between them and knocked the square cut-out of the wall.

Not wasting any time, Aang airbended the man's unconscious form out of the way and crawled through the opening and out the other side. He turned and yelled, "Come on!" back through the hole. Toph hurriedly jumped in after him.

Katara grabbed her brother by the back of his shirt and pulled him away from a fight that the masked man finished before following closely behind.

The moment they were all through, Aang blew a large blast of air through the hole, slamming all of the men in the other room to floor violently, knocking them unconscious. The group then began to run down the darkened hallway they'd managed to get into.

"Toph, can you find a way out?" Sokka asked the blind girl.

She sighed. "I don't have anything hard enough to make the whole boat vibrate. I can only get us a few yards at a time."

There was a loud bang, and they all jumped. Looking over, Katara saw that the masked guy had slammed one of his swords into the side of the hallway. Katara just stare at him as if he would give an explanation. He just did it again and pointed at Toph.

Toph smiled wickedly. "I get it," she said slowly.

After thinking about it for a second, so did Katara. With just her feet and fists, Toph could only "see" so far through the vibrations. But with metal against metal as her medium, she could see much further

Toph placed her hand on the wall, and masked guy hit it with a sword again. "There are guards everywhere but one room. Down two floors and about ten yards that way." She point behind them, and the masked guy again ran off in the opposite direction. Having no choice but to follow him, the group trail after.

The masked guy went first, followed by Toph, and then Sokka. Katara guessed it was because other than Aang and her, no one else had a weapon.

They had just managed to get in the hallway when a guard appeared around a corner from ahead of them. He stood there, staring at them for a split second before shifting into a fight stance and running towards them.

The masked man made quick work of him, but two more replaced the fallen man mere seconds later. Busy fighting off the soldiers, the mask man failed to notice that Toph was in the way, and managed to trip over her in his struggle.

Aang sent another blast of air through the hallway to take care of the other two guards as Toph and the masked man untangled themselves off the floor. Katara rushed over to help them up off the floor, only to have the masked man pull away when she tried to help him up.

"Got it, no touching," she said defensively, watching him continued down the hallway. What was his problem? She had only been trying to help. She reached down for Toph and helped the smaller girl off the ground.

"I want my feet on solid ground," the girl said angrily, and rubbed her arm lightly. "And that hurt!" She'd yelled it at the retreating man loud enough for it to reverberate through the hallway. No one dared to tell her to be quiet, so they all just followed quickly after the mask man.

After a while, Katara realized that the masked man seemed to know where he was going. He took what seemed like random hallways and stairways with ease, never once lending them to a dead end. They were slowly making their way down to where Toph had described.

They'd been running for about longer than a few minutes when they come across their second batch of guards. Sokka and the mask man managed to take them out quickly, and when Sokka held up his hand for a high five, the masked man just stood there before turning around and walking away again.

Katara turned to Aang, "So, is this guy a friend of yours?" she asked half jokingly.

"No," Aang said sadly, "he'd not a friend, he's just-" the subject of their discussion hit his sword on the wall above Aang's head and the younger boy yelped in surprise.

Katara hadn't notice him walk up and she glared at him as the two boys stared at each other. Then the mask turned to her and she smiled guiltily. She couldn't figure out if she should trust him or not.

They group started out again and as they made their way down one last hallway the masked man paused and motion for them to go in the room he'd stopped in front of.

Katara went in first, followed closely by her friends. She turned back to look at the masked man before looking around the room. It was a small room full of barrels. "What's in here?" she asked, and Toph walked forward, sniffing around a bit.

"Blasting jelly," the blind girl said with an ironic smile, and Katara looked at her in disbelief.

"What?" Sokka said, and gave the barrels around them a suspicious look. "Seriously?"

Katara looked at Aang, who gave their masked friend a look and smiled brightly.

"You're gonna blow a hole in the hull aren't you?" Toph inquired, and the masked man nodded. "He nodded didn't he?" She asked, and Sokka moaned.

"Yes, Toph. He did."

The look on Aang's face was pure mischief. "Where about in the boat are we now?"

"Right above water level." Katara answered before Toph could; she could feel the pull of it inside her head.

"If we blow a hole about the size of this room," Sokka began, looking around, "the boat won't sink, but it won't be able to go anywhere either. And that way, since we are at water level we can swim out."

"I can't swim," Toph said.

Katara smiled. "I won't let you drowned," she said and put a hand on the smaller girl's shoulder. "Anyway, it sounds like the only plan to me, and one that will work," Katara teased, and gave her brother a smile.

"Yeah, thanks," he grumbled and took one of the child-sized barrels, titling it over on its side and rolling it along the floor.

"Where are we gonna put these?" Toph asked, leaning against one of them.

The masked man pointed further on down the hallway, and Katara translated. "To your left a ways."

"We'd better hurry then," the earthbender said, and knocked a barrel over, "'cause I can hear more guards coming this way."

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He and the Avatar grabbed their own barrels and then Zuko guided the group to the perfect place to attack a Fire Navy ship from the inside: right under the captain's nose.

They moved quickly enough down the hallway, following his lead. He noticed vaguely that they talked a lot. It might've been the fact that it was only him and his uncle now, but he missed the conversations of his crew. He didn't like to talk much but he certainly liked to listen.

When he got to the room he was looking for, he placed his barrel up against the hull. He'd spent the last two years of his life, and a few of them before that, on a smaller version of this ship. He knew his way around, and he knew what five barrels of blasting jelly could do.

He helped the others set their barrel along the same wall.

"Now all we need is a way to light them," Sokka said dimly.

"I can help you with that," an unfamiliar voice called from across the underbelly of the ship. As the owner of the voice walked closer, Zuko gave him a once over.

Who was that?

"Admiral Sho," the blind girl whispered.

Admiral? Zuko questioned. That would mean he was in charge. But if he was here, then where was Azula. Zuko realized than that Uncle might have been right, but it was too late for that now.

"Well, now there someone I wasn't excepting to see," the admiral said, looking straight at Zuko. "The Blue Spirit wasn't it? I'd completely forgotten about you."

Zuko's hands fisted and he controlled the urge to attack. Why he was holding back now or even why he was angry, he didn't know.

"Hey, you leave him alone," the waterbender girl said angrily. "It's your fault for forgetting he was our friend." She smiled confidently.

Zuko looked at her, awestruck. She was… defending him? He wondered if she would still call him friend if she knew who he was under this mask. Not that he wanted to be her friend anyway.

Zuko drew his daos and ready his stance. The older man took a step forward and settled into a stance that Zuko knew very well.

"You've caused me quite an inconvenience," he said as he took a slowly step forward. "You destroyed my specially made cell for these brats, and now you're trying to blow a hole in my ship." The old admiral smiled, and Zuko tensed. "You too are wanted in the Fire Nation, so I guess I could spare the cell to keep you in."

Zuko took a deep breath; if the old man wanted a fight, he would get a fight.

This is where my author's notes go... Enjoy.

I have only one thing to say:

I love Zuko.

Okay, two things to say:

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