A/N – Sorry if Zuko is a little too evil in this chapter, he won't be this bad in future chapters, but you have to remember how he was in the beginning- and for future notice, I am not "hating" on any specific character because I don't like them. I'm just trying to be realistic.
Disclaimer – I do not own the story arc or characters of ATLA-especially the parts that I took straight from the show… heh.
Chap. 2 – The Prince
Katara woke up the next morning to a dreary day of heavy snowfall. She poked her head out of the door to assess the weather, but what she saw made her gasp and her heart started racing. Greyish soot-filled snow. The Fire Nation was coming.
"Sokka!" Katara let out a scared cry.
Sokka had been lightly dozing, but when he heard Katara's tone, he was up and at her side in a heartbeat.
"What is it?" Sokka asked examining her petrified face. Katara just pointed and Sokka observed the situation.
"Oh no…" he breathed and immediately ran outside, but skipped back a couple of seconds later to grab his thick snow coat, shivering.
"I'll warn the others. Katara, wake up Gran Gran and stay hidden!" he ordered and sprinted out the door.
It didn't take long to wake the village. The whole ground started to shake as an ominous black ship started to come into view, cutting through the ice in the water. Sokka took his post on the defensive wall he had built after his father left. This is what his dad entrusted him to do. Protect the village and his sister. He would not stand down to anything.
Right before hitting the steadfast Water Tribe boy, the ship came to a halt, and with a loud hiss, the front end started to open downwards, forcing him to stumble back and fall over.
The whole town had ventured just outside their homes to watch as six Fire Nation soldiers, led by a young looking man with a frightening scar on the left side of his face exited the ship in a steady march.
"AHHHHHHHHH!" Sokka screamed, running at the leader, club-sword in hand. It was just a matter of a few kicks, and Sokka was pitched into the snow head-first without slowing them in the slightest.
"No, Sokka…" Katara whimpered, as she watched her brother fall. She started to run forward, but was stopped by Gran Gran's grip on her arm, and quick shake of the head.
Meanwhile, the leader of the fire nation party walked straight into the middle of town.
"Pathetic" he muttered under his breath looking at the sad excuse for a village. Then glanced back over his shoulder to check on the "warrior" and almost let a smirk come to his face. "Men! Search the houses and bring everyone out here." He ordered.
"That shouldn't take long" he heard a soldier to his left murmur and he actually did let a smirk come to his face this time.
Once the town had been assembled he introduced himself.
"My name is Zuko, crown prince of the Fire Nation." He started. "I am here in search of the avatar." He paused and no one said a word. Suddenly, he reached out and grabbed Kanna saying, "he'd be about this old, master of all the elements?" He let the woman go. "Any information would be greatly appreciated" he ended emphasizing the last two words with flames bursting to life in each of his fists.
"AHHHHHHH!" Sokka started charging Zuko again with his club raised high. Zuko ducked and tripped him before he had a chance to swing. Sokka rolled up and threw his boomerang just narrowly missing him this time. Zuko was shocked this lousy fighter had almost landed a blow on him.
"Show no fear!" came a small child's voice, throwing Sokka a spear.
"AHHHHHHH!" Sokka rushed Zuko for a third time. Zuko had enough of these games. He broke up the weapon using only his forearms and then snapped a final piece in his hands to signify his victory to the deluded boy.
Smack! Zuko felt a sharp pain in the back of his head. The boomerang had… come back, obviously, and Zuko's blood boiled at the indignity of being struck by such an idiot.
He summoned flames in daggers at his fists, and was about to give the weakling a very bad burn when he suddenly found himself very cold and wet.
"A waterbender!" one of his soldiers gasped and Zuko's eyes flickered in fear for about a millisecond. He hadn't faced a waterbender yet in his travels. He sloppily unfroze himself in a blaze of heat and combed the villagers with his eyes for the bender.
"There" one of his men grunted and pointed at Katara, who had just acted on instinct to save her brother. Zuko studied her. She was half-scared, half-angry, but didn't look like much of a threat.
"Seize her." Zuko ordered. "Waterbending is forbidden here. There are standing orders to have all waterbenders of the Southern Tribe captured. All the intelligence said there weren't any left. My uncle will be intrigued."
As his men moved to surround Katara, Zuko gave Sokka a hard kick in the ribs. 'That should keep him down for a while' he thought.
There was a blast of snow, and four of his soldiers were thrown on their backs by Katara, but Zuko saw one of them get behind her and the soldier quickly pushed her down to tie her hands together with rope behind her back.
"Take her to the prison hold" he ordered two of his men, and they had to all but carry her to the ship due to her struggling.
"Sokka!" much more desperation and terror filled Katara's voice than this morning as she was carted off into the depths of Zuko's ship.
"Ka…ta-ra" Sokka groaned still down from Zuko's kick.
Zuko glanced around the group of people in front of him. They were terrified, and sad-looking. Some of them were sniffling while others (since about half the lot was little kids) were crying outright. He gave a last ditch effort for his mission at hand.
"If any of you have any information or know the whereabouts of the avatar… I may consider bringing her back, and we can forget this entire mess ever happened." Zuko proposed.
Everyone looked around, but no one spoke up.
"No one?" Zuko goaded. There was a grunt beneath him as the fool of a warrior started to rise. But instead of another head on attack like he expected, the boy took a moment to gather his bearings and looked up at him with pure hatred in his eyes.
Zuko stared at him until Sokka slowly started to speak. "I heard… a rumor…" he started.
"Oh, really?" One of the soldiers interjected, but a small flicker of hope sparked in Zuko regardless. "What? Did your grandmother tell you some bed time stories?" The soldier joked, and Zuko chuckled in spite of himself.
"No" said Sokka seriously, and Zuko held up a hand to let him continue without further ridicule from his men. "My father goes out to fight in the war regularly, that's why none of the other men are here right now…" he stressed this trying to seem intimidating. Zuko wasn't in the least bit frightened, but was starting to get his hopes up when he heard Sokka was being serious. 'Could I finally get a lead?' Zuko thought anxiously.
Sokka continued after some sleight hesitation. "The last time he returned he told us stories of a monk who they found near the southern air temple. He told me that he was very old and seemed to know a lot about airbenders." He stopped for a second and then rushed through his next sentence. "He said he-might-have-seen-him-airbend, now can you please bring my sister back? I've given you the information you seek."
Zuko recoiled slightly at the information. An old monk would make sense. But they had searched the southern air temple and even some places near it already. 'He could have seen us and hid' came a voice in the back of his head. 'There was that one room we weren't able to get into as well…' by now the prince's hopes were defiantly up. But then he looked back at the boy and realized something. 'The girl was his sister' he thought. '-and he did seem kind of rushed there at the end.' Zuko scrutinized the water tribe warrior.
"When did you say your father last returned here?" Zuko asked.
"Uh…" Sokka averted his eyes. "A little less than six... months." He lied.
"Right…" replied Zuko suspiciously.
Kanna put a hand to her face. Even she could tell the boy was lying just by his tone. To Sokka's credit however, his story wasn't a complete lie in fact. She remembered about 6 years ago when her son had returned from a short skirmish in the southern islands of the earth kingdom with stories about an old hermit of a man who spoke of airbenders. Name was Pathil? Pathin? She couldn't recall. But Hakoda never said anything about him actually airbending. She looked up to see the prince about to make a decision, and she hoped with all her heart that he would allow Katara to return, even if for just a short while. What he did next though was unexpected, and broke her heart.
"Very well peasant, we will test this theory of yours." He started. "The southern air temple is not too far from here. You will accompany us there and if you turn out to be telling the truth, and the monk is there, or has been spotted recently, I will let both you and your sister go free. If not… well, I could always use a training dummy…" he trailed off smirking.
"No! You can't-" Kanna started to plead.
"Quiet, hag." Zuko said sharply.
"Hey, that's my grandmother your-!" Sokka started to make a move, but Zuko quickly gave him another square kick and turned his back on the puny settlement.
"Take him." He ordered to the last of his men. "It's time to go."
As the four men each dragged one of Sokka's limbs toward the ship, one of the soldiers leaned down to Sokka's pale face and whispered. "It won't be fun being the prince's training dummy, I've got the burns to prove it." Sokka wondered if the man was serious as he slowly watched his home get smaller and smaller.
Kanna sank to her knees. This was horrible. Both her grandchildren taken by the fire nation. Was there any limit to their cruelty? 'At least they have each other.' Came a hopeful thought. 'For now… at least they have each other.'