*Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar. Although I would like to, I do not.
Please review. I like reviews. Especially as this is my first ever fanfic. So please review.
In the few weeks that followed, Prince Zuko had taken to coming into my room. He would mostly just sit in silence on the corner of my cot while I was sitting, leaning against the metal pole in the centre of my room, for I was no longer chained. Occasionally he would speak. He would tell me about fragments of memories from his childhood. About his mother, before she left. About his sister, before she became the way she is now. About his cousin Lu Ten, before he died. About his uncle Iroh, before he went off to Ba Sing Se. But never about his father. Of his father, the Prince never spoke. I sat in silence while he spoke, never interrupting. I guess that made me a good listener. So Zuko kept coming back. I began to understand more about his childhood, the way he was raised, the reason he is the way he is. But I still sat in silence.
O~O~O
I woke with a jerk. The ship had stopped moving. I sat up with interest. We must be there. I'm surprised he actually found it. I sat listening for a few minutes into the relative silence. Then I waited.
And waited.
And waited.
O~O~O
I heard the metal door of the ship being opened, I heard the muffled sounds of activity on the land we had drawn up to, and I heard the sounds of activity on the deck. From what I had gathered from the conversation I heard, Prince Zuko had captured the avatar. Interesting. I heard the hotheadgive the order to put the Avatar in a holding cell, and to put his staff in the Prince's own quarters.
O~O~O
Aang tried door after door after door, but none contained his staff. He occasionally encountered guards, but he dealt with them by either knocking them out, or just by quickly bypassing them. Finally, he opened a door to behold, in the centre of his field of view, his staff.
"My staff!" He cried out. He ran over to get it, but stopped at the sound of the door clanging shut behind him. He slowly turned around to see…
O~O~O
"So. You're the Avatar." I was leaning against the door frame with my arms folded nonchalantly.
"Who are you? Are you a guard?" The kid questioned warily, settling into a generic, all-purpose Air bending fighting stance.
"Relax. Prince Temper kept me prisoner here too. Broke out when I heard the Avatar was here too. I figured maybe we could help each other." I pulled a length of chain I had picked up on my escape out of my sleeve to verify my account.
"Oh. Well, I guess you're my best bet for getting out of here, so…" He got out of his ready position and stuck out his hand, grinning. "I'm Aang."
I shook it. "I'm Cadence. My friends call me Cade. Well… they would if I had any. But the Highness will probably realize that I stole your staff from his quarters soon, so… best get a move on. Lead the way, buddy." A smile never once graced my face.
He raced down the hallway and out onto the deck, with me close on his heels. Brilliant sunshine met our arrival, along with bitterly cold Southern wind. I hadn't tasted either in days, if not weeks. I hadn't been allowed on deck too often.
The sound of alarm had been raised long ago. Many guards were assembled on deck, facing us. As was Prince Zuko. He commenced the charming meeting with: "I guess I underestimated you, Avatar. It won't happen again. And you…" He turned to me.
"Yeah… I'm with him now." I pointed to Aang. "As…hospitable… as you've been, being a prisoner isn't as much fun as you may think. So… shall we get to it then?" Aang and I got into our ready positions, him an airbending one, and me a general martial arts one. Zuko started the heated exchange with a fire blast sent at Aang while I got at it with his crew.
Now don't get me wrong. I was a pretty amazing martial artist. But when you're alone up against 10 fully grown, fully trained men with your only weapons those you can filch off the unconscious people you've knocked out, it's not exactly a walk in the park.
Just then, a large beast of some sort growled in the distance. Aang joyfully shouted, "Appa!" while I kept trying to avoid being barbequed. I glanced up to see a supposedly long-extinct sky bison flying towards us. I paid for my lapse in concentration as I was knocked flat on my back. One of the men took advantage of my situation and leased a huge fireball right at my head. I rolled out of the way, only to be body slammed by a 180 some-odd pound man. I felt the air rush out of me as I jabbed two fingers into a nerve point on his neck. He went limp. I shoved him off of me while simultaneously taking his sword and dagger. That was much easier to fight with than my bare hands. I leapt up off the deck, and felt where my ribs had bruised. I simply ignored the pain.
From what I caught out of the corner of my eye, Aang seemed to be doing pretty ok. His bison, apparently named Appa, was getting closer by the minute. I continued to block and attack, but there was always someone else to attack me, someone else to ward off my attacks. With over two weeks of no training or even exercising, I was pretty unfit. I was already gasping for breath, and I was getting slower and sloppier. Appa was now close enough to see that there were two passengers on him, both clad in the blue of the Southern Water Tribe.
Aang flipped open his staff, which apparently doubled as a glider, and prepared to sail off to meet Appa, having knocked the Prince down temporarily. He hesitated, though, and sent a worried glance at me.
I was confused as to what I should do; whether I should go with him on the back of his glider, severely reducing our chances of escape, or if I should stay, the martyr for the cause, and let him see me get re-captured. In a millisecond, I weighed the odds, and decided to go with the second. Rather let him get away (Prince Zuko could always track and find him again) and see me stay for him, thereby gaining his trust.
"Go!" I yelled.
Still he hesitated. Prince Zuko was starting to get up.
"GO!" With one last worried glance at me, Aang took off toward the bison. I dropped "my" sword and dagger and held up my hands in defeat.
They weren't buying it. One guy kicked me behind my knees, effectively bringing me down to a kneeling position while another held my arms together, high above my back in a rather painful position. I saw his Highness shooting fireballs at the Avatar, as the Avatar and the other two looked back at me with worry evident on their faces.
O~O~O
"We have to go back for her."
"No, Aang, we don't even know her. It could all be a trap."
"Sokka's right, Aang. We have to get out of here."
"But Katara…"
Aang looked back to see the mysterious girl lower her head in defeat. One man kicked her in the ribs for good measure, and she crumpled down as far as she could while being held up, apparently painfully, by her arms.
"Ouch, that one looked like it hit something important." Katara grimaced in sympathy as she spoke.
"No, we are not going back. It's too dangerous."
So they flew on.
