~~Zuko reached the surface shortly after Aang, who had already taken off into the marshland looking for Katara. Zuko caught up with him and stopped him.
"Aang, we have to work together to find her. Azula has her right now, and she'll be trying to pit us against each other. Those stairs came out of nowhere, and I'm betting that my sister has something to do with them. She's probably trying to lead us right into a-"
"Trap?"
They turned to see who had spoken, but Zuko was suddenly grabbed from behind by vines. They pulled him against a tree trunk where he was held tightly in place.
"I really wish people would stop sticking me to things!"
Azula smiled as she stood face to face with Aang, who had a furious look on his face.
"Where's Katara?" he shouted.
"Calm down Avatar, I'm sure she's around here somewhere."
She motioned to a large tree behind her where Katara was held in place by vines. They could tell she was struggling, but the vines kept her from moving, or even speaking. Aang moved to help her, but Azula snapped her fingers and the vines around Katara tightened. The airbender's eyes widened as he saw Katara shriek and squirm against the tree.
"Stop! You're hurting her!"
Azula put up her hand and the vines slackened a bit.
"What do you want? Why are you doing this?" he asked.
"How else am I going to have fun? I am dead after all. This is about as good as it gets."
"You died? How?" Aang asked, puzzled.
"Why don't you ask my dear old brother."
Aang turned to Zuko, who hung his head. Taking advantage of his distraction, Azula tossed her knife his way. Zuko looked up just in time to warn him.
"Aang, watch out!"
Aang turned and ducked, the blade narrowly missing him. As he turned around, it came back towards him like a razor sharp boomerang. He quickly rolled out of its path and it flew several feet until it embedded itself in Azula's chest.
"Oh for the love of-" Azula cried as she drew the knife out of her chest. "How many times am I going to be impaled by this thing today?"
Aang was stunned as he stared at where the knife had been. There wasn't even a mark on her clothing. Azula noticed and smirked.
"Getting a good look Avatar?"
Aang blushed, then quickly regained his composure.
"Get out of my way or I'll be forced to hurt you." he said angrily.
"Oh look at that. The big bad Avatar is going to hurt me! I hate to break it to you, but that ship sailed long ago. I'm dead, so you can't do anything to me."
Zuko was listening to every word, and then he had a thought:
"Wait a second, she keeps saying that she can't be hurt because she's already dead. Maybe there's a way to bring her back to life..."
Zuko's thoughts were interrupted by Azula's knife landing inches away from his head.
"Oops. Sorry Zuzu." Azula said sarcastically.
Aang rushed towards her, but Azula jumped over him, landing on the spot he had been standing moments ago.
"I'd love to play this game with you for all eternity Avatar, believe me I would, but I have other matters to attend to."
She suddenly leaped over Aang, landing on a tree branch next to Katara.
"The peasant and I will be waiting for you two at the temple. You know the one." Azula motioned to Aang.
"What are you talking about? I don't know about any temples around here."
"Well, not around here per say, but relatively close by. You can't miss it."
There was a loud clap of thunder and a burst of smoke, making Aang cough as he backed away. When the smoke cleared, Azula and Katara were gone. Aang rushed over to the tree and jumped from limb to limb, searching the tree all over, but there was no sign of them.
As Aang searched, the vines holding Zuko withdrew into the tree, and the prince dropped to the ground. He rose up to his feet and rubbed his wrists, groaning as he did so. He then approached Aang, who was still searching for any sign of Katara.
"Aang, she's not here. Azula's long gone by now."
"No, there has to be a sign somewhere." Aang said, stopping to look under one of the large roots.
"Azula gave us the only sign we're going to get. We have to get to that temple and find them. It's our only chance of saving her."
"But I don't know what she was talking about! I have no idea where any temples are around here!"
"Well she said we can't miss it, so it can't be that hard to find."
"It's not just that..." Aang finally stopped his frantic searching and sat down on the root, looking down at his feet as he did so. "Katara came into the Spirit World to rescue me and now she's the one who's in danger. If anything happens to her, then it'll be my fault."
After a few moments of hesitation, Zuko came over and sat next to the young airbender. He put his hand lightly on his shoulder and tried to think of something to cheer him up. What would his uncle say?
"Aang, I know we've had our differences in the past-"
"Differences? You've tried to either kill me or kidnap me every chance you get for months now!"
"Well um...yeah I kind of never got a chance to apologize to you for any of that. I already talked to the rest of your group and they seemed fine with it."
"They weren't the ones you were trying to kidnap!"
"That may be true, but never the less, I think we have to put aside those differences so we can work together to save Katara."
Aang stared at him for a moment, than sighed.
"I guess so, but this doesn't mean I trust you. As soon as we're out of the Spirit World, I'm not going to have anything to do with you."
"Fair enough. So, are you sure you don't know where this temple is?"
"I'm positive. I've never heard of anything like this in the Spirit World."
Zuko looked to the horizon to try and think, but that's when he noticed something.
"Hey Aang, do you think she means something like that?"
He pointed out the shape in the distance revealing and large, pyramid-like structure. Aang's face lit up at the discovery. He jumped off the root and started running into the forest towards the structure. Surprised, Zuko slid off the root and shouted to Aang as he ran.
"Hey! Slow down!"
Zuko bolted down the road after him as he took off.
Author's Note: The following takes place after the events of my other story The Lone Warrior (last time I'll mention it I promise).
~~Kailyn rang out excess water from the rag she was using and put the cold cloth on Zuko's forehead. There was an identical one on Katara's head as well. Just as she had placed it, there was a knock at the door. The elderly doctor rose to her feet and left the room. When she opened the door, she saw a familiar warrior, holding a familiar earthbender, and both of them looked like they had just gotten out of a fight.
Sokka was covered in cuts and bruises and had a black eye. His hair, normally in his "warrior's wolf tail" was instead put down, and messy. He was nothing compared to Toph however,. The young girl lay limp in his arms, a large bloodstain was on the stomach area of her shirt. Sokka's eyes were red and puffy, like he had been crying.
"Well doesn't this seem familiar. You coming to my door with an injured young lady in your arms."
"I know you've already done so much for us, but I just need this one more favor."
Kailyn nodded and motioned him inside, peeking her head outside before closing the door behind him.
"You know I can't turn anyone away in their time of need Sokka. I've been on this earth long enough to know that."
Sokka smiled weakly as Kailyn pointed to a table, the same one she had treated Katara on. Sokka gently laid her down, then backed away, allowing the doctor room to work. He couldn't bear to watch, so he headed over to the room he had waited in before.
"Sokka, if you want to take care of your sister and her friend they're in that room behind me."
Sokka nodded and walked around the table, trying to avoid glancing at Toph's motionless body. He entered the room and was immediately shocked by how dark it really was. He shut the door behind him and let his eyes adjust. Once he had a little bit of vision, he felt around the room until he bumped into something. Feeling downwards, his hands came in contact with someone's face. He reached the hair and felt the familiar loops complete with beads. There was no mistaking his sister's hair loopies. He smiled and laid down next to the cot, closing his eyes and letting himself fall asleep.
~~Meanwhile, in a forest clearing not far from the village, Suki sat on Appa's saddle, twiddling her thumbs. She sighed and reached over to pet Momo, who was curled up next to Aang. She noticed a bit of dirt still on his shirt and brushed it off.
"Jeez Aang, you've been through a lot since you've been unconscious haven't you? I still can't believe Toph buried you underground! I guess that's someplace no one would think to look for you though. Wow, look at me, I'm so bored I'm talking to animals and comatose Avatars."
She buried her face in her hands and shook her head.
"I guess I shouldn't be complaining though. Sokka and Toph broke me out of prison, and I owe it to them to be supportive to Toph. I hope she'll be okay Momo."
Momo purred as Suki stroked behind his ears. He suddenly perked up, looking around frantically.
"What is it Momo? What's going on?"
The lemur growled and took off into the forest, Suki calling his name the whole way.
"Momo wait! What are you doing! Come back here!"
She soon lost sight of him, but he was still close enough that she heard his screech. Appa roared and turned to face the trees where Momo had disappeared. Suki grabbed Sokka's sword from the saddle and climbed off the bison, preparing herself for battle. A net suddenly flew out of the trees towards Suki, who promptly sliced it in half. Her strike left her open though, and a second net caught her off guard, knocking her to the ground. Appa roared again as several men in fire nation uniform came out of the woods, surrounding the small group. One of them held Momo in a net by his side. Another one spoke up as they neared Appa.
"Felix was right, this is the Avatar's bison, so the Avatar must be around here somewhere."
Appa growled and backed away from the men, but they had soon formed a circle around him.
"Leave him alone!" Suki shouted. "Appa, get out of here! Go! Yip yip!"
Appa was too distressed to notice Suki, as the circle formed a ring of fire to surround him. Appa roared once more and was about to attack when one of them launched a fireball at him. It struck him in the side, burning one of the saddle straps and singeing his fur. He cried out in pain and reared up on his back legs. Suddenly, the strap broke, and the saddle tumbled off. Various supplies lay strewn on the ground, along with Aang's unconscious body. One of the soldiers stepped out of the circle and bent down by the boy, and after checking his pulse, lifted him up and put him over his shoulder. The rest of the group continued to pelt fire at Appa, who was squeezing his eyes shut as he was pummeled.
"Stop! You can't do this!" Suki shrieked. Tears were pouring down her cheeks as she watched a few of the soldiers simply walk away with Momo and Aang, and the rest of them torture Appa.
Another soldier walked over to her and started dragging the net away, towards the village.
"Appa, I'm so sorry I couldn't protect you! Please forgive me!"
By now, Appa's normally white and brown fur was singed black, and patches were missing. There were even some portions of it that were on fire, and burnt freely. Hearing Suki's voice made Appa's eyes burst open. He let out an earth-shattering roar and smashed his tail into the ground, sending out a shockwave that knocked back the entire back of the circle as well as a large group of trees. The other firebenders backed away, but continued their assault. Appa lifted into the air, than came down hard, sending the remaining soldiers flying into the forest. He then took off into the forest canopy, scanning the ground for Suki, Momo, and Aang.
~~ He saw the soldier dragging Suki, and landed in front of him, making him soar backwards into a tree. He reached down and bit at the net holding the Kioshi warrior, snapping the rope and allowing her to escape. Suki ran up and embraced the head of the bison, getting a playful lick in response. She was overjoyed for a second, then saw the damage that had been done. Over half of Appa's fur was simply missing, leaving instead large patches of badly burnt skin. You could barely make out the arrow on his head anymore.
"I'm so sorry again Appa. If I had just been a bit more careful-"
Appa stopped Suki's worrying with another lick. She laughed and patted his head.
"Appa, can you bring us back to that clearing for a second?"
Appa bent down so Suki could climb onto his head, then went the short trip back to the scene of the attack. The soldiers Appa had taken out were still lying on the ground, unconscious. Suki jumped off Appa before they had even touched the ground and ran over to recover Sokka's sword, sheathing it at her hip and then climbing back on Appa.
"Sokka would kill me if I lost his precious space sword." Suki said sarcastically. "Come on boy, let's get Aang back."
Appa roared in approval and helped Suki back on. He lifted just above the treetops, then took off, scanning the forest once more.
Authors Note: I'm sorry for the delay, but it wasn't nearly as long as the other ones. School's getting back into session soon, so I won't be updating very frequently. Maybe one or two chapters every two weeks. Something like that. I'm also thinking about starting a new story that's not Avatar related...I'm not sure, but maybe Digimon or something like that. Well anyways, reviews/comments appreciated as always and thanks for reading!