Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender
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Zuko grabbed Sokka and Aang's arms when they froze and jerked them down to the ground with him.
The men tightened around them, keeping their weapons out, and the leader stalked forward, still holding Toph.
"You look like an earthbender," he said to her. She neglected to respond, her blank face in a stern frown. With a jerk of the leader's head, another man came forward and tied Toph's arms behind her back and her ankles together. The sword was removed and the man heaved the twelve-year-old over his shoulder.
"Guys?" Toph called out uncertainly.
"We're here, Toph," Katara answered, wincing as her own hands were tied together. "It's going to be okay."
"Start walking with the two of them. We'll follow soon," the leader's orders were carried out, and Zuko caught Katara's gaze one last time before she was shoved forward.
They came to Sokka and Aang next.
"They could be another waterbender and earthbender," one of the men said. "Don't move," he ordered, tying their hands behind their back.
Zuko took a deep breath and closed his eyes for what was coming.
"It's as I thought," the leader mused as he came closer. Zuko held his breath, fearing the man's next words. "He looks Fire Nation."
Immediately Zuko felt another man behind him and lightly struggled as his hands were clamped in metal.
The leader gave a firm nod. "Just in case," he said to his men. "Let's go."
oooooo
Zuko's head was whirling. Between the escape plans he was creating and trying to observe both the where they were going and the men who were taking them there, his mind was a whirlpool of information. He could see Sokka doing the same.
Ten minutes of walking later, they arrived at a makeshift campsite, much like the ones they had been making, only larger. Their captors halted them near the edge and Zuko's eyes flashed around the area; the camp could probably hold forty people.
He could see groups of people coming and going from different directions. Fake trails? A distraction? Or maybe . . . Zuko looked at the abundance of food and the unfamiliarity with which many of the soldiers seemed to communicate with each other. Not the main camp, he concluded.
Then, if this wasn't the main camp . . . how many of them were there? And what were these people doing out here?
oooooo
Katara sat alone in the tent, trying to listen to the snatches of conversation coming through the fabric walls.
It was hard to tell if the boys had arrived here yet . . . or if they had been taken to somewhere else entirely. She and Toph had been immediately separated when they arrived, and Katara hadn't been able to track which direction they had taken her.
It was also hard to keep track of time, and despite her worry, she quickly grew bored. Hours later, after dark and after she had been listening to the group outside eat for the last hour, she finally fell to sleep, hoping they could find some way out of this mess.
oooooo
The next morning, Katara woke early. The sun was just coming up over the horizon, and she thought of Zuko. He was likely awake as well.
After a while of laying uncomfortably on her side, her arms stretched behind her, she gave up trying to go back to sleep and sat up, cross-legged, trying to think of what to do next.
It made sense that since she and Toph had been separated, Zuko, Aang, and Sokka had been as well. They would have to find each other somehow.
Their captors were being too cautious though. Every other time they had gotten into a mess, they'd had each other nearby to work out a plan, or at least someone outside to plan a rescue. This time was different. Katara clenched and released her hands a few times to keep the blood flowing and to keep herself from fidgeting. Her stomach began growling. She sighed and began using one of Zuko's techniques to pass the time: meditation.
A few hours later, a dark form appeared at the opening of her tent. Head bowed in concentration, she didn't begin looking up until she heard a voice a few feet from her.
"Food," he said. "Eat up."
She jerked at the familiar cadence of the low, rough voice and squinted up at the form.
"B-Bato?" she questioned incredulously.
The plate in his hand dropped to the floor with a loud crash, bread and raw vegetables scattering across the floor and drawing in several other guards from outside.
"What's wrong?" a guard asked Bato, glancing between him and Katara.
Bato ignored him and blinked rapidly "Katara?"
"What are you doing here?" she asked, eyes wide and searching.
His mouth gaped open and he rubbed his hand over his face. "I could ask you the same thing. What is going on?"
"What do you mean?"
"I was told we had suspicious prisoners from yesterday," he said with a frown, coming around her with a knife to cut her rope.
"Bato, what-" one of the guards began to argue.
"She is trustworthy," Bato stated, cutting him off.
"But . . ." someone protested.
"She travels with the Avatar," he continued. "She is his waterbending teacher."
In the silence that followed, one of the guards spoke up.
"Wait . . . so the kid was telling the truth?"
"What?" Katara asked, confused.
"The kid - Aang. He hasn't stopped talking since we got here. We can't get him to shut up."
Katara groaned.
Bato laughed and turned to Katara with a smile. "Welcome to the official war effort. We are an army of all peoples, united against the Fire Nation."
Katara smiled back, her spirit lightening. "Then we are in the right place. Take me to Aang."
oooooo
"I tried to tell them I was the Avatar," Aang complained. "But they wouldn't let me go so I couldn't show them my bending and they wouldn't believe me without seeing it for themselves."
Sokka snickered at his predicament, and Katara elbowed her brother in the stomach, shaking her head.
Toph was led to the now-free group with a scowl. "I feel like pummeling someone," she ground out.
"Save the pummeling for the Fire Nation," said Sokka.
"That's right," Katara added. "Speaking of Fire Nation, where's Zuko?"
Aang shuffled forward. "I think they figured out who he is last night. I could hear a few of them talking about it," he said in a low voice.
Toph whistled. "These guys are really well informed. Glad they're on our side."
"So?" asked Katara, not liking where this was going. "He's with us; they need to let him go now."
Sokka crossed his arms. "I'm not sure it's going to be that easy . . ."
Katara followed his gaze to the front of another tent. There was a heated argument going on.
"I should go over and free him myself," she fumed, starting to step forward. She was held back by Sokka's hand on her shoulder.
"Don't," he said. "Don't interfere. This is an army and they don't know us."
"We're with Aang," Katara protested. "That should be enough!"
"Apparently it's not always," Sokka replied, watching as the argument broke up and one of the men came over to them with an apologetic look on his face.
"Why are there still guards outside his tent?" Katara demanded before the man had a chance to speak and pointing over to where Zuko was being held.
He held his hands up in defense. "I am sorry; there's nothing more I can do. We have to get an okay from higher up before we can let him go."
Aang frowned. "How long is that going to take?"
"Hopefully we will receive word back this evening."
The group grumbled and the man fidgeted with his green sleeves.
"Can we at least talk to him?" Katara asked.
The guard hesitated. "Yes, but one at a time," he shrugged at the group's frustrated looks. "Sorry, but I don't make the rules," he said before slinking away from their ire.
"You sure have a lot of them though," Katara bemoaned to the air, leading the way to Zuko's tent.
oooooo
"Hey," Katara tiptoed into the small tent and kneeled down in front of Zuko.
He grunted at her greeting, keeping his gaze on the ground.
"I'm sorry," she tried.
He did not respond.
"Zuko," she said, trying to get him to look at her. He raised his head, locking his tired and angry eyes on hers. "I am sorry. I've been talking myself hoarse out there, trying to convince them to let you go, even for a little while, but it isn't working. They're being very . . . stubborn," she smiled teasingly, trying to lighten the mood. "Kind of like someone else I know."
The corner of his lip twitching was her only indication that he found her somewhat amusing . . . and that her little pep talk had worked, at least a little bit.
"I can hear your screeching from in here," he finally said.
She smiled.
"And they could at least move my hands in front," Zuko muttered.
"True. I doubt they would if I asked though . . ." she thought for a second. "Although, maybe I don't have to ask," Katara's eyes gleamed mischievously.
"What?" he looked at her curiously.
"I'll get Toph in here. She can bend the metal apart and then bend it back together."
"I like your thinking."
Katara smiled, "Just don't get yourself caught."
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