Chapter 2: Prison Bound

The crackling and popping of the campfire seemed to settle Zuko's nerves a bit as he sat there. The group was sitting around it in a circle, finishing their meal as night completely settled in the Western Air Temple. The high altitude brought a cool wind, making the fire burn brighter in its gusts. The day had been long and tiresome. Aang and Zuko learned more about each other. Aang still had a long way to go with his Firebending. He blew up one of the pillars on accident, a shard having hit Zuko square in the forehead and leaving a mark. Aang was still apologizing for it.

Needless to say, Zuko realized he still had to work on his anger management. He blew up an entire platform. Toph just bended a new one to take its place, but that didn't stop Sokka and Katara from glaring at Zuko for his aggression. Aang was only amazed as he had watched the platform crumble and fall hundreds of feet to the bottom of the trench below.

The rest of the day had gone by smoothly despite the Firebending sessions. Sokka was successful at getting some fish out of the nearby creek. Katara had asked him if he saw anything strange in the forest. Her brother had told her no, but the others couldn't help to notice the strange look on her face afterwards.

Now that it was late, and the badger-frogs were croaking in the distance, and the cicadas were singing, the group took this time to relax before going on to bed. Zuko was passing out his tea to the others now. It wasn't near as good as Uncle's, but it was good enough. Zuko soon sat down between Toph and Sokka. The banished prince could tell that the Water Tribe warrior had something on his mind. He was quiet, and his eyes were looking down into the warm tea.

"It's so nice to finally relax a bit," Toph sighed, wiggling her toes and smiling.

"The wind is getting chilly!" the Duke squeaked.

Haru chuckled beside him and Teo. "Well, I don't know which Firebender to ask to heat the campfire up. Aang almost blew Zuko up and Zuko almost took down the entire temple!"

"Aang, stop trying to kill your teacher!" Toph joked, shaking her head.

"It was an accident! I'm sorry Zuko! He still has a mark on his forehead," Aang quickly answered.

"Oi, stop apologizing already," Zuko grumbled. "I know it was an accident."

As the Fire Prince poked at the mark on his forehead, the group all laughed a little. It was then that Zuko felt someone tap his shoulder. He looked over to Sokka, who leaned in to whisper to him.

"Can we talk?"

Zuko nodded, slightly confused. "Sure."

Both young men got to their feet and left the inner hall of the temple to the outside where the fountain was. Appa was sleeping on his ledge, but one large eye peeked open as they passed the flying bison.

"What's up?" Zuko asked as they came over to the ledge.

"If someone was captured by the Fire Nation, where would they be taken?"

"What do you mean? Who was captured?" Zuko asked, surprised by Sokka's question.

"When the invasion plan failed, some of our troops were taken. I just want to know where they might be."

Zuko lowered his eyes, looking away from him. "I can't tell you."

Sokka grunted at him. "What? Why not?"

"Trust me. Knowing will just make you feel worse," Zuko answered. He turned to leave, but Sokka quickly clasped his shoulder, stopping the prince in his tracks.

"It's my dad," Sokka sighed. "He…was captured too. I need to know what I put him through."

Zuko looked over his shoulder at Sokka as the Water Tribe warrior dropped his hand from his shoulder. "It's not good, Sokka."

"Please."

Zuko sighed, turning to face him once more. "My guess is…they were taken to the Boiling Rock."

"What's that?"

"The highest security prison in the Fire Nation. It's on an island in the middle of a boiling lake. It's inescapable."

Sokka turned away from Zuko, but the Fire Prince saw the flash in Sokka's eyes as he did so. The Water Tribe warrior crossed his arms and took a moment.

"So, where is this place?"

Zuko was now completely suspicious of Sokka. He glared at Sokka's back. "Why do you need to know? What are you planning?"

Sokka shook his head, eyes darting away from Zuko. "Nothing." He then completely covered his face with a fake laugh and smile. "Boy, you are so paranoid."

Zuko glared at him harder. "It's in the middle of a volcano between here and the Fire Nation. You guys actually flew right past it on your way here."

"Thanks, Zuko," Sokka stated, flailing his arms and stretching. Zuko didn't take the bait at all. "Just knowing makes me feel better."

Sokka patted Zuko's shoulder and headed off back to join the others. Zuko slightly shook his head, not believing Sokka at all. He always had good instinct when it came to someone lying. "Yeah…I'm sure it does."

The two young men joined the others. Katara looked to her brother and Zuko suspiciously as they came back to join them, sitting down. Sokka did a good job covering up the uneasiness that had settled within him. Zuko watched Sokka closely, and knew that he was already starting a plan in his head.

And how right he was hours later when Sokka came climbing up onto Appa's saddle. Everyone was still snoring, but Zuko had known something was up and took the initiative to wait for Sokka here. As Sokka's head peeked over the rim just as he went to throw himself over into the saddle as sneaky as possible, Zuko snorted out at him.

"Not up to anything, huh?"

His yelp could have easily woke the others up, and he let go of the saddle, falling all the way down onto the stone floor with a thud. Zuko looked over the saddle down at him. He heard Sokka growl something and he moved to start gathering things up in a made up sack that had scattered when he fell.

"Fine. You caught me. I'm gonna rescue my dad. Are you happy now?"

Zuko snorted again. "I'm never happy."

Sokka sighed after he collected his things. "Look, I have to do this. The invasion plan was my idea; it was my decision to stay when things were going wrong. It is my mistake, and it is my job to fix it. I have to regain my honor. You can't stop me, Zuko."

Zuko dropped down gracefully from Appa, facing Sokka as he attempted to go climb onto Appa once more. He watched as Sokka pushed pass him to start climbing onto the sky bison once again.

"You need to regain your honor?" Zuko inquired. "Believe me, I get it. I'm going with you."

"No! I have to do this alone."

"How are you going to get there? On Appa?" Zuko grumbled. "Last time I checked, prisons don't have bison daycares." Sokka heaved a long, tired sigh. Sokka looked down at him. Zuko turned to start heading for the forest. "We'll take my war balloon."

Sokka dropped down onto the floor. Zuko was quick to produce a parchment and let Sokka write a letter to make up a story on where they had gone. The last thing they needed was Aang and the others growing worried and coming after them in such a place.

Once they found his war balloon, the two young men worked quickly to get it up and going. Zuko used his fire to get it to start rising into the air. They dumped their things into it and climbed in. As they started to stray away from the ground, heading for the cliff so they could really take off, Sokka gasped.

"What is that?"

Zuko was quick to get to Sokka's end of the war balloon. Just as the balloon was coming off of the cliff and slowly starting to rise, a large, lithe creature came to perch on the cliff and watch them off. Zuko was amazed to see it was a tiger. The ultra rare animals were once a great part of Fire Nation history, but not since Azulon's rule. Zuko remembered the stories his mother used to tell him about them. Tigers were great Spirits that had control over the sun and moon, both fire and water, light and darkness. Zuko was in awe to actually see a real one before him, and he wondered back briefly if this was what Katara had meant when she asked Sokka if he had seen something strange when he went hunting.

"It's gonna eat us! Boomerang!" Sokka yelled out, grabbing his boomerang and throwing it down towards the sitting animal.

Zuko punched him in the shoulder. "What are you doing? It's not hurting us!"

The boomerang was going straight for the tiger. The tiger merely bent its head back just an inch to miss the flying thing. The boomerang was quick to fly back towards Sokka, but Sokka wasn't paying attention.

"You can't take chances on strange looking beasts!"

Zuko felt something hard strike him in the head. "Ouch!"

"Boomerang! You made it back! Did that cat thing try and eat you?"

Zuko growled, rubbing the whelp that was growing on the side of his head, and peered back down at the tiger. It was gone.

Zuko sighed. "That was a tiger. They are rare Spirits."

"Oh. I guess I better not anger it then," Sokka grunted, laughing a little.

Zuko ignored him and the pain in his skull and went to work the oven to keep the war balloon afloat. The darkness that splashed across them only seemed to draw out the stars and moon once they were high enough. The moon was half light, half dark. Zuko knew that what they were doing was reckless and suicide, but he couldn't just let Sokka go off by himself.

Let's just hope we can get inside, find his father, and get the hell out of there, Zuko thought. However, as he thought those words, he knew it was a long shot. This wasn't going to be a cakewalk. They could get into Boiling Rock easily enough. Getting out was whole different game.

Sokka was quick to fall asleep once the war balloon was on a guided path and everything settled. Zuko didn't let himself sleep too much since it was his duty to keep the balloon afloat. While half asleep, he would let the crackling of the fire let him know if it needed more. As dawn came upon them hours later, Zuko kept himself up to survey their surroundings and keep the fire up. Sokka awoke not long after his snoring subsided. He yawned and stretched and was quickly looking all around them. He managed to get him and the Fire Prince something small to eat.

"So, are we almost there yet?" Sokka asked.

"We should be getting close," Zuko answered, arms folded as he leaned on the wall of the balloon. The wind was cool, but now that the sun was coming up with the morning, it was starting to warm up.

Soon things grew quiet between the two. Zuko could sense the uneasy tension. It was more of just awkward than anything negative. He and Sokka just didn't know what to say to each other. It had been so long with Zuko trying to take them out, that now it was still new to them being friends.

"Uhh…pretty clouds?" Sokka laughed.

"Yeah…fluffy…"

"You know, a friend of mine actually designed these war balloons."

"No kidding?" Zuko asked, turning to face him.

Sokka smiled, seeming relieved to find a good subject. "Yep! A balloon…but for war…"

Zuko curled his lip, turning back to give the balloon some more fire. "If there is one thing that my dad is good at…it's war."

"Yeah…it seems to run in the family," Sokka sighed, rubbing his neck.

Zuko perked up, turning to glare him. "Hey, hold up! Not everyone in my family is like that!"

"I know, I know! You've changed! I get it."

Zuko lowered his head, shoulders slightly dipping as he remembered Uncle. "I was…talking about my Uncle. He was more of a father to me…and I really let him down."

Sokka lowered his eyes for a moment, feeling Zuko's pain. He then shook his head. "I think your uncle would be proud of you. Leaving your home to come help us…that's hard."

Zuko snorted, closing his eyes. "It wasn't that hard."

"Really? You didn't leave behind anyone you cared about?" Sokka asked, curious.

"Well…I did have a girlfriend, but I think it was better that we stayed our separate ways," Zuko answered. "Mai…"

"That gloomy girl who sighs a lot?" Sokka chuckled.

Zuko grinned. "Yeah." His face soon fell. "Everyone in the Fire Nation thinks I am a traitor. I couldn't drag her into it…but it wasn't as though things were working out between us anyways."

Sokka leaned back, folding his arms. "My first girlfriend turned into the moon."

Zuko blinked, but then it dawned on him as he remembered. "That's rough, buddy."

Within a few hours, they saw the Boiling Rock coming up in the distance. Steam poured out of the crater, pluming into the sky. The volcano came a great distance out of the large lake.

"There is plenty of steam to keep up covered," Zuko said. "As long as we are quiet, we should be able to navigate through it without being caught."

Zuko worked the flames to get it to rise over the volcano. They went straight into the thick mass of steam that was pouring out of the crater. The air became thick, and it was hard to breathe. They could make out the huge stronghold in the center of the boiling lake. Soon, the war balloon started to rapidly descent, heading straight for the lake below.

Zuko spit more fire into the oven, glancing over to Sokka. "We are going down! The balloon isn't working anymore!"

"The air outside is as hot as the air inside so we can't fly!" Sokka called harshly.

The balloon was losing control. Zuko was thrown into the wall, and he started to hang on. Sokka was holding on not too far away.

"So, what do we do?" Zuko growled.

"I don't know! Crash land?"

"That doesn't sound promising, considering there is a boiling lake below us!" Zuko hissed.

The balloon hit the water and started gliding along it. Water splashed up and hit Sokka's arm. He yelped, trying to cover his mouth to keep the yelp quiet. Like a boat, the balloon sailed through the lake with just enough speed to crash them onto the bank. Sokka and Zuko were thrown overboard, hitting hard rock. The balloon collapsed before them.

"How are we going to get off of the island if the balloon won't work?" Zuko asked, getting to his feet.

"We'll figure something out!" Sokka replied. "I suspected it might be a one way ticket."

"You knew this would happen, and you wanted to come anyway?" Zuko growled.

Sokka went over to the ravaged war balloon. "My dad might be here! I had to come and see!"

"Uncle always said I never thought things through, but this…this is just crazy!"

"I never wanted you to come along in the first place," Sokka defended. "And for the record, I always think things through, but my plans haven't exactly worked, so this time I am playing it by ear!"

Sokka started pushing on the balloon. Zuko came over and helped him shove it into the boiling lake. It didn't work, and they couldn't risk anyone finding it. Zuko knew that their chances of getting out of here alive were close to nothing now. He just hoped something came up to help them along them way. The two teenagers turned to face the towering stronghold.

Zuko sighed. "There's no turning back now."

Aang fell over, grumbling and kicking his legs. "Those Badgerfrogs won't shut up! I am tired of doing my exercises!"

"Stop whining! You have to listen to your Firebender teacher! Don't make you do some Earthbending exercises!" Toph growled, trying to eat her breakfast.

"Where are Sokka and Zuko anyways?" Haru asked, scratching his head.

"They went hunting. At least that is what their letter said," Katara sighed. "It seems kind of strange to me."

"What's so strange about two guys going hunting for food?" the Duke snorted.

Katara glared at him. "It's just…something doesn't feel right."

"It's her woman's intuition!" Teo whispered harshly, making the Duke, Haru, and Aang chuckle.

Katara ignored them, playing with the water that was in a small bowl. Maybe she was being too paranoid. If Sokka trusted Zuko enough to go on a hunting trip, then she should be able to start trusting the Fire Prince as well. She heaved a sigh, knowing it was easier said and done. All she could think of was back in Ba Sing Se, where he completely destroyed her trust in him. She remembered how lost and confused he was, but how easy it was for him to go with Azula.

"Lighten up, Sugar Queen, sheesh," Toph said, shaking her head.

"I'm just worried about them, that's all," she defended briskly.

"Worried? Sokka will scare everything off with his mouth, and Zuko can blow stuff up!" the Duke laughed.

They heard a chorus of Badgerfrogs start up, and Aang groaned. Momo skipped around him, chirping. "I don't wanna!"

The Avatar flopped down, refusing to do anymore work. Toph smirk, slapping the heel of her foot down. Earth slammed up into Aang's butt, making him yelp and jump to his feet.

"Get going, Twinkle Toes!" Toph giggled.

Aang was rubbing his butt, pouting. "Yes, Toph…"

Katara couldn't help the smile that formed on her lips. She would need to keep herself busy so she wouldn't worry too much about Zuko and Sokka. She glanced down to the note once again, noticing that the handwriting seemed hurried. Why would they wait to go in the middle of the night and just leave them a note? It didn't seem right.

Nothing is going to get done if you keep worrying about them. Maybe they just didn't want anyone else to go…

Katara got up, going over to Appa to give him some treats. The air bison was staring up onto one of the cliffs up ahead. A low rumble went through his throat. Katara followed the bison's gaze, only to grunt in surprise. The tiger was perched on a rock, looking down at them with piqued interest. Usually Appa would be up and roaring now, but he stayed calm and on his belly. He seemed just as interested in the tiger as the tiger did in them. Katara found herself calming down. Appa could sense danger before anyone else. If he wasn't worried about the tiger, shouldn't they be okay?

I just can't figure you out…why are you here?

A/N: So sorry for the long wait! I was going to make the Boiling Rock section one whole chapter, but decided to break it up into two chapters. At first I was just going to skip over the Boiling Rock episodes and go straight to the Southern Raiders part, but then I realized I could get Zuko and Mai's final break up in motion to set sail for Zutara! :) Sorry this chapter isn't very long either! The next chapter, which will be aptly named "The Boiling Point" will be much longer! And don't worry, the mystery behind the tiger will be revealed eventually lol. It is going to help bring Zuko and Katara together! Until then, thanks for reading and reviewing! XD