Lian watched with a frown as her brother played with the Avatar's staff as if it were a cheap toy, and to make it even worse, he was wearing a snide smile on his face.

"This staff will make an excellent gift for my father." Zuko looked away from the staff, and looked towards the airbender. "I supposed you wouldn't know anything about fathers, being raised by monks." Zuko sneered.

Lian gave a growl, and moved forwards towards her brother.

"Be nice, Zuko." She snapped. Zuko glared at her, and then spat at the guards.

"Take the Avatar to the prison hold!" He barked before glaring at his sister, and handing the staff to his Uncle.

The guards that had been trailing Lian grabbed Aang roughly, and pushed him down the stairs towards the prison hold.

Lian sighed, and walked past her brother, and followed the guards that had disappeared down the stairs.

Just as Lian disappeared from view to anyone on the deck, one of the guards that had been escorting the Avatar to his prison cell flew into the stairs so close to her that the spike on his helmet cut her ankle.

The sight of the guard flying into the stairs was so stunning, Lian didn't even make a sound until she noticed that Aang was now staring up at her with his eyes wide as if he were a child just caught sneaking sweets before dinner.

Lian rose up her hands and shrugged.

"I'm not stopping you." She said softly to him to keep anyone who happened to be passing by from hearing. The boy smiled, and bowed to Lian.

"Thank you. I owe you." He spoke quietly before his eyes darted down to the guard who had just started to move.

Lian quickly, and frantically waved her hands at Aang, telling him to move so that she could get away, and he quickly darted away, and Lian jumped over the guard, and ran just in time for him to wake up, run up the stairs, and shout up at the men on the deck.

"The Avatar has escaped!" The guard shouted as Lian turns abruptly on her heel, and glares at the end of the hall where the guard's voice came from. In order to keep herself from getting in any kind of dilemma, Lian sprinted up to the deck where she expected Zuko to be, and acted as if she were looking for the Avatar just as the guards were, while she was actually keeping an eye out for her brother.

"Where is Zuko?!" She yells to no one in particular, but when she looks around, the answers she receives are shrugs of the shoulders and shakes of the head.

Suddenly, a gust of wind blew hair into Lian's face, and she was momentarily blinded before she pulled the hair out of her face, and looked up just in time to see Aang flying up into the sky on his orange glider. She smiled, and took several quick steps forwards to watch is ascent- until she spotted her brother sprinting for his life, and watched with horror as he gave a cry of desperation, and snatched Aang's ankle, causing the airbender to grunt.

Lian sprinted across the large foredeck as the two boys on the glider turned to look up at something in the sky, and Zuko's eyes became as large as saucers.

Due to her natural curiosity, Lian turned as she ran, and looked up into the sky.

In shock, she skidded to a stop, and her mouth fell wide open. Even though the two siblings were over twenty feet away from each other, both of them said the same thing.

"What is that?"Lian gasped as her hair billowed around her, and eyes followed the large, flying creature with the arrow on its head.

Unexpectedly, the familiar booms that came from firebending reached Lian's ears, and she turned her attention back to her brother and Aang.

Aang was being pushed up against the edge of the ship, and Zuko was firing fireball after fireball at him.

"Zuko, NO!" Lian screamed as she sprinted towards him- but it was too late, Zuko fired off one last fireball, and Aang went toppling over the edge.

"Aang! No!" Lian knew it was the girl from the water tribe screaming above her, but she couldn't look away from the spot where Aang had just toppled over.

She looked back towards her brother, who looked far too proud of himself- and plowed right into him.

"What is wrong with you?!" Lian screamed at her brother as she shook him violently. Zuko looked surprised at his sister's actions, but he looked even more surprised a few seconds after that.

Lian had her back to the water when she heard it, and slowly turned around, only to be met with a wall of water.

"Oh Agni." She gasped as she released her brother's shirt, and backed away slowly.

Aang was at the top of the spiraling tornado of water that towered over the ship, and sent shivers of fear down the two royal sibling's backs.

Aang landed on the deck of the ship, his arrows and eyes aglow, and the water still swirling around him, when suddenly it expanded forwards with such speed that Zuko, Lian, and all of the soldiers that had been on deck where knocked overboard.

Lian screamed as the water pulled her off the deck, and scratched and scrambled for any kind of hand hold as she slid closer and closer towards the edge of the ship.

Finally, her hand wrapped around one of the bars of the rails around the ship, and she came to a less than gentle and abrupt stop. She gasped for air, and spat out water as she kept a tight grip on the rail, and finally opened her eyes. Lian took a sharp intake of breath when she saw that she was very, very far above the cold, and ice coated waters of the South Pole, and that she was getting dangerously close to the Cliffside.

Lian quickly swung herself around, and grasped the rail with both hands. Just as she was about to pull herself up, she heard a loud gasp, and turned to look towards where it had come from.

It was the Water tribe boy that had tried to attack Zuko. He was now pulling Aang's staff away from Zuko's hands by hitting him in the head with it, and within three hits on the forehead with the staff, Zuko let go, and fell even further down the side of the ship. Lian watched with horror until she spotted her brother grab onto a nearby latter, and then quickly pulled herself up onto the deck. Lian gave a relieved sigh when she's finally on safe ground, and then looked up.

Lian's eyes grew wider than dinner places at the sight of the beast before her. The beast bared its teeth, and Lian swallowed hard as chaos ensued around her.

"N-nice flying a-animal." She stuttered as she began to try and stand as slowly as possible. She could hear the voices of the water tribe girl and the boy, but she didn't bother to listen because she was more preoccupied with the beast that was staring her down.

Suddenly, the beast gave a rumble, and pushed itself off of the ship. Lian gave a relieved sigh, and then looked down and noticed something wrapped around her ankle.

It looked terribly like part of a harness. Or reigns.

"Lian! Move!" Zuko shouted as he was pulled back onto the ship by their Uncle and some soldiers. Lian looked at Zuko, but didn't react to his words in time, and was suddenly and violently pulled up into the sky by her ankle. Her head grazed the steel deck of the ship as she rose, and in a final desperate attempt to keep herself from flying into the air, she tried to find a handhold on the ship's smooth surface- but to no avail.

Lian gave a bloodcurdling scream as she was lifted higher and higher into the air with a clear view of the ship growing smaller and small as she rose higher and higher.

She could see her brother and Uncle shouting and running after her from the deck of the ship, but it was no use. She was too far for them to do anything.

Lian finally looked up, and saw that her ankle was horribly tangled, and still bleeding from her run in with the guard Aang had taken down only minutes ago.

She carefully started swinging herself, and finally was able to grab onto the leather reign that was wrapped around her ankle, and grunted as she tried to pull herself up so that the blood wouldn't rush to her head.

"Just… a little… further…" She grunted as she tried to pull herself up into a standing position. Just as she was about to reach her goal, her hands slipped from still being soaking wet, and in a split second realization, Lian's heart began pounding, her eyes dilated, and she screamed once again.

Fortunately, Lian's ankle was still securely in place in the reigns, but now, it was much, much tighter, and was now becoming painful.

"What was that?" Lian hears the Water Tribe boy ask. But before Lian can shout up to them, she looked back down at the ship, and her eyes widened.

A giant fireball was flying directly at the Avatar's flying animal, and Lian was currently stuck to it.

"NO, NO, NO!" Lian screams as she watches the fireball grow closer and closer.

Suddenly, the fireball is exploded into millions of pieces with such a tremendous bang that it shook the Cliffside next to the ship, and Lian covered her mouth in fear as she watches her brother's ship become covered with ice and snow, but is relieved when she sees that most of the ship is safe.

"Hey! What are you doing here?!"

Lian's eyebrows pop up, and she looks up towards the flying animal's passengers, and sees the Water tribe boy with the blue eyes and the ponytail glaring down at her with is boomerang drawn.

Suddenly, two more heads pop out from behind the edge of the flying animal's saddle, and Aang is the first to smile.

"Its okay guys! She helped me!" Aang chirps happily as he reached down and began to tug on the reigns that were holding Lian thousands and thousands of feet above the South Pole.

"Why are you helping her though!?" The boy shouted as the water tribe girl reached over and began to help Aang pull Lian up as well. "She's from the fire nation!"

"Hey!" Lian snapped as she pointed up to the boy, who was stunned by her outburst. "Just because I'm from the Fire Nation doesn't mean I'm a bad person!" She snarled. "And the blood is rushing to my head fast and I'd really like to sit up soon!" She snapped and then tried to reach up for Aang's hand once she was close enough, but the girl's grip on the reigns slipped, and Lian fell a few inches, and even worse- the reigns started to come loose.

"I'm going to fa-" Too late.

Lian felt herself falling, her stomach churning from spinning uncontrollably through the air, her hair whipping her eyes, causing them to water from a mixture of the wind and the cold air.

This isn't happening. This isn't happening. This isn't happen-

Lian grunted loudly as was abruptly caught mid air, and then reached up, and rubbed her leaking eyes.

"Stay still. I got you." Aang chirped as he angled the orange glider back up towards his flying animal and his friends, and Lian held on extra tight and gritted her teeth.

"I don't think I like this!" She shouted over the howling winds.

Without warning, Aang dropped her onto the saddle with the Water Tribe girl and her brother, and Lian couldn't help but just lay there for a moment and just breathe.

"I never want to do that again." She groaned as she reached up, and rubbed her eyes, then covered her face.

"So, what's your name?" Aang chirped from next to Lian, who peeked out from between her fingers, and gazed at Aang. Lian finally took her hands off her face, and then moved to sit up.

"I'm Lian." She spoke as she sat up, and smoothed her wet hair. "And.. consider us even."

-0-

Zuko ran to the edge of the ship, and watched with wide eyes as the avatar's bison flew away into the distance- with his younger sister dangling off of it.

"Follow the Avatar! Gets this ship moving, NOW!" Zuko screamed at his soldiers who were busy trying to free themselves from the ice that the Water Tribe girl had left over their feet. Zuko was still shivering from being soaked by the Avatar's attack, but that did not stop him from barking orders at his men, hoping that somehow- someway he could chase after the Avatar, and even more importantly, get his sister back.

"Good news for the Fire Lord. The nation's greatest threat is just a little kid!" Iroh spoke as he approached his distressed nephew, who was now staring at the damage that had done to his ship.

"That kid, Uncle, just did this." Zuko spoke so quietly that it actually stunned his Uncle. "And kidnapped my sister! I won't underestimate him again."

Zuko turned towards his men, and barked an order at them.

"Dig this ship out and follow them!" He barked. Suddenly, his opened wider, and he realized that they were busy trying to thaw each other out of the ice. His face fell. "As soon as your done with that."

Zuko then turned back towards the sunset his sister had just disappeared into, and rubbed his face with his hands- a habit that he had picked up from his sister over the three years they had spent together at sea.

"I'm sorry, Lian." He whispered to himself as his Uncle watched on from a few feet away. "I should have kept an eye on you." He sighed as he looked up towards the sunset that was quickly falling and with a final angry huff; he turned on his heel, and retreated into his quarters for the evening.

-0-

Back on what Lian now knew as Appa, things were less than comfortable.

The Water Tribe boy, which Aang had introduced as Sokka, had demanded she be restrained and due to his loud voice and abrasive attitude- he had gotten his way. And unfortunately the other two didn't argue- much.

So now, Lian was sitting at the back of the saddle twiddling her thumbs behind her back and staring at the sky that was fading quickly. She had tried her best to make herself comfortable on the back of the saddle, but to say the least- it wasn't working out to well. First she had tried crossing her legs, but her feet were bound too tight to allow the movement. When that plan failed, she tried sitting with her legs folded to the side- but after a while of not having a hand to lean against to support her, the position became uncomfortable; and since then, she had been moving just about every minute or so.

"Will you stop moving around so much?!" Sokka snapped as he shot Lian as sideways glare. But it was when he saw how Lian was laying; he turned his face to give her an incredulous look.

She was laying with her tied feet over the edge of the saddle that led to Appa's tail, her bound hands behind her back, and her head propped up on a bad she had pushed over with the side of her face. She probably would have been comfortable if her hands weren't pushing her back up in an awkward position.

She only blinked when she noticed him look at her, and then sent him a smile that he frowned at.

"What are you doing?" Sokka asked out of the side of his mouth, and his eyes narrow. His question floated into Katara's ears, and Aang's, causing them both to turn around, and both raised eyebrows at Lian.

She took a quick glance at the three people staring at her, and smiled.

"I'm uncomfortable. I'm trying to fix that." She shrugged as she tried to wriggle herself out of her awkward position, but nearly rolled herself off of the saddle, and squeaked with surprise when she felt herself become weightless, and gave a sigh of relief when she realized she wasn't going to fall.

Sokka continued to watch the girl with narrow eyes and a raised eyebrow as Katara turned away from Lian's antics, and began to speak to Aang.

"How did you do that? With the Water? It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen." She questioned as she leaned against the saddle, and Aang turned back to Appa's reigns. Even though Lian's view of Aang was upside down, she could see his shoulders slump slightly, and his cheery demeanor change.

"I don't know." Aang shrugged. Lian frowned. "I just sort of… did it." Sokka finally took his eyes off of Lian, and his expression softened slightly as he listened to Katara and Aang speak.

"Why didn't you tell us you were the Avatar?" Katara asked. Aang looked away from Katara so that she couldn't see his face, but now, Lian had a profile view of the deep frown, and the troubled look in his eyes.

"Because... I never wanted to be." Aang answered quietly. Lian raised her eyebrows at this, and twisted her head slightly to get a better look at Aang as a cloud passed over them. Sokka caught this movement out of the corner of his eye, and looked at Lian, who was focused on Aang.

Her eyes opened wider when the sunlight disappeared behind a cloud, and then narrowed again when the sun reemerged, causing her golden hair to practically glow in the light of the sunset.

He raised an eyebrow in thought.

How in the world does someone end up with hair like that?

"But Aang, the world's been waiting for the Avatar to return and finally put an end to this war." Katara said gently. Aang looked straight down, and sighed.

"And how am I going to do that?" Aang asked as he adjusted his hold on Appa's reigns.

Sokka continued to look at Lian while she watched the exchange between Katara and Aang with a curious expression on her face.

Suddenly, Lian's mouth opened, and before Sokka could say anything, Lian began to give her own two cents.

"Well, according to legend, you need to master first water, earth, then fire, right?" Lian asked as she skillfully swung her feet around, and ended up in a sitting position. Katara and Aang both looked at Lian, and raised their eyebrows at her.

"That's what the Monks told me." Aang answered with the same, glum expression.

"Well, I can only think of one place that the fire nation hasn't gotten too that have a few waterbending masters." Lian chirped with a smile. Aang gave a small smile, and Katara perked up, and then looked back at Aang.

"If we go to the North Pole, you can master waterbending!" Katara spoke with excitement as she looked back over at Aang, who met her gaze, and smiled wider.

"We can learn it together!" He said with cheer. Lian gave a small smirk as she watched the scene unfold, and leaned back against the saddle as Sokka raised a questioning eyebrow at her.

"And Sokka," Katara spoke as she turned to look at her brother, whose head snapped towards her at his name. "I'm sure you'll get to knock a few fire nation heads along the way." She smiled.

Lian's smirk was wiped away at this comment, and she slumped slightly from her sitting position.

Ouch.

"I'd like that." Sokka said dreamily. Lian looked up at him from the corner of her eyes, and frowned. "I'd really like that."

"Then we're in this together." Katara said as she exchanged a look with her brother, and then Aang. Then, before anyone else could get too excited, Lian loudly cleared her throat, causing the trio to look towards her.

"What about me?" Lian asked as she sat back up, and gave them a questioning look. Sokka raised up a hand and quickly spoke first.

"I say we dump her the first chance we get." He said with a tone of importance as he held his hand high in the air. Katara and Aang looked at him with expressions of disdain, and then watched as he turned towards them. "Whose with me?!" He practically cheered.

Lian watched him with furrowed eyebrows and narrow eyes.

"Glad to see you think so highly of me." She mumbled just loud enough for Sokka to hear, and turn his head at.

He narrowed his eyes at her, and pointed a finger before he began to speak.

"You're fire nation, why should I?" He snapped back at Lian, causing her to frown deeply.

Lian finally burned the ropes off of her hands, and to Sokka's surprise, she reached around, and pointed a finger at him.

"Just because I'm fire nation doesn't mean I wanted to be!" She shouted at him, causing him his eyes to widen in shock at both her statement, and then fact that her bindings were now just a tiny pile of soot behind her. Aang watched with wide eyes, while Katara covered her mouth in surprise.

Appa's passengers were silent for what seemed like a lifetime, and Lian chose to avert her eyes elsewhere, and gazed over the edge of the saddle.

Aang suddenly flew up into the air, and to Lian's surprise, he landed right next to her in a graceful gust of air, and looked at Lian with a smile.

"Lian… would you like to join us on our journey to the North Pole?" Aang asked carefully, not wishing to hurt Lian's feeling at all.

Lian's eyes grew as wide as plates as she gaped at Aang, and then reached up to push a strand of hair behind her ear as she stuttered.

What about Zuko? What about Uncle? They'll be worried about me. She thought to herself as she gazed down at her hands. I'll be a traitor. I'll become a wanted criminal.

She looked back towards the edge of the saddle, and sighed.

But you'll be helping the Avatar, Lian. You can help him save this war torn world that we live in.

You create your own destiny remember? You tell Zuko that all the time, She thought to herself as she looked back towards the three kids that continued to stare at her, waiting for an answer. Why can't you do the same?

Hey guys! I know this is only the second chapter and all, but I'd really appreciate if you left a review!

Reviews encourage updating~! ;)