BEWARE! THIS WILL BE RATED "M" FOR A REASON!

Aang woke up smacking his lips and scratching his head. He woke up a bit confused, though. He didn't understand why he wasn't on Appa and why they weren't trying to get the Northern Water Tribe. He looked around to do a head count and realized he had counted one too many. Had he counted himself on accident? Aang's breath caught in his throat when he saw the seasoned fire bender pouring something into a small cup. His first reaction was to flee, but the memories of yesterday came flooding. He stood and walked over to the small fire Iroh had constructed and lit. He plopped down in front of it and gave a light smile to 'Sifu Iroh'. Now Aang understood why he had counted wrong before, he had forgotten all about his previous agreements with Zuko's uncle from the day before and was quite startled with the sight of a fire bender sleeping so soundly in his camp. Aang put his elbow on his knee and rested his chin on his fist. It was okay. Iroh was okay.

"It's pretty early, don't you think?" Aang croaked out. His throat was dry.

Iroh chuckled, shaking his head and taking a small sip of whatever it was he had been drinking. "Not for a fire bender," He admitted. "We rise with the sun." Aang rocked back a bit and nodded.

"Say," Aang began. "Could I have some of that?" Iroh smiled and nodded. He pulled another cup from a small bag he must have either of had on him, or found on the river's shore.

"It's ginseng tea. It's very good for you, and it is also my favorite." Aang lightly took the cup from Iroh's hand and took a small sip.

"Mm!" Aang swallowed hard and looked down at the tea. "This is the best tea I've had in a long time!" Aang then downed the tea and held out the cup for a refill.

"Thank you. I've had many years of practice." Iroh said, poking fun at his age and refilling the avatars cup.

Aang slowly finished another cup of tea before he looked over to Iroh and began to examine him. He was old, obviously, with nothing but grey hair and a receding hair line. Well fed, which being from the Fire Nation, it was pretty obvious that he would be. But there was something about him. He was so calm. He seemed so content, sitting on the dirt in burnt and ripped clothes. Aang honestly expected him to be complaining, moving about and eating all of their food. Not to mention he expected Iroh to have a temper. Iroh had just joined the group and they hadn't began training yet, but Aang had a feeling that Iroh was different from the usual 'hot-headed jerks' that hailed from the Fire Nation.

"So," Aang began. "When are we going to start fire bending?" He asked filled with excitement. Now, he was a bit worried, having one of his enemies, former enemies as his teacher, but he still felt well and ready to begin. Aang's ear-to-ear smile fell right off his face when he heard Iroh laugh, though.

"I don't plan on teaching you any time soon, young avatar." Iroh admitted before taking a small sip of his tea.

Aang's face scrunched up with confusion as he leaned back and tilted his head. "Wh..what?" Aang looked down to the ground, puzzled. "That's part of the deal!" He barked out.

"I don't think you're ready. I would like to wait." Iroh calmly sipped his tea. Before Aang could reply, a voice called out.

"He's right, Aang." It was Katara. Aang looked over his shoulder at her and pouted. "You're supposed to learn fire bending last." She said as she placed a hand on his shoulder and sat next to him.

"But I'm ready!" Aang protested.

Iroh shook his head. "We should respect the avatar cycle. Air, water, earth, and then fire. You need to master the first three elements before you begin fire bending. You need to learn a great deal from them all in order to learn fire bending."

Aang looked up to Iroh, still pouting and asked. "But isn't there something I could at least start on? Anything!" Iroh put his cup down and looked over the side in thought.

"Hmm..I suppose I could get you started with one thing, but I have a feeling you're not going to like it!" He warned, standing up and motioning for Aang to stand beside him. Aang lifted himself up with his air bending and landed gently next to his new teacher. Aang watched Iroh move into a stance that he linked to earth bending. It was a strong stance, with his legs apart in a squatting position with his arms by his side and his fists parallel to his knees. Aang was confused, but mimicked anyways.

"I would rather you learn the other three elements first," Iroh admitted. "So you can understand this stance better, but I suppose because of your enthusiasm we could begin with the very start of the basic's." Aang nodded, still in his stance. "Do you know why you're in this stance?" Aang shook his head. "I'll try to explain everything." Iroh took in a deep, slow breath before extending his right arm, letting a ball of fire blast from his fist. "Fire comes from the breath, Prince Zu- Aang. You will need to learn to control your breathing before you can even think of being able to control your fire." Aang nodded. "You will learn to do so through various breathing exercised and long sessions of meditation. Do you recognize this stance?"

"Yeah, it looks like something an earth bender would use."

"It is." Iroh smiled. "It's a very universal stance. It is something an earth bender would use to stand strong, to keep his ground and be able to push hundreds of pounds of rock." Iroh mimicked a simple earth bending move, but with his fire bending. Using both his hands he seemed to press out a small wall of fire away from him. "This stance is perfect for air bending, your legs are bent allowing you to spring yourself up and into the air. Water benders would use this to stand next to their source of water, a perfect stance to easily be able to sway side to side, to be able to push and pull the water while keeping your balance." Iroh paused and motioned over to Katara, who had just left the stance to guide a small bubble of water with a fish in it into a pot above the fire Iroh had made earlier. "Being in this stance you're not too hunched over or too straight backed. You're not crushing your lungs and you're not stretching them, allowing you to put even more air into your lungs to fuel your fire." Iroh left the stance to strand up straight. "I want you to stay this stance. Breath through your nose and out your mouth." Iroh turned and walked away. Aang wasn't sure why Iroh was leaving, but he stayed in his stance and focused on his breathing.

Katara was standing in the river when she realized that the fish were trying to out-smart her. Sokka had been fishing there the day before and she had just managed to bend one fish out of the water not too long ago. They knew she was there and they weren't swimming up the river any farther. Usually, left overs and one fish wouldn't had been a problem, but they now had another mouth to feed. She was just going to have to walk down a little ways and begin fishing there if they were all going to have a good meal tonight.

She left the water and saw Aang in a stance and Iroh walking away from him. This must be part of his teachings and she didn't want to disturb him. Sokka was still sleeping, which was surprising, seeing as that their new member was one of the men that had been chasing them for quite some time. Katara expected her older, paranoid brother to be up before sun rise so he could keep an eye on their new 'guest'.

"Iroh," She called, walking up to him. "I don't want to wake my brother or disturb Aang, so could you tell them that I'm just down the river? The fish have caught on, and if we want a decent dinner, I'll have to begin fishing there."

"Not a problem." Iroh smiled. "Be careful. Holler if you need us." Katara smiled back and nodded.

"Thank you." She said turning away to begin walking down the river.

Nearly an hour passed and Iroh had a nice pile of leaves from near by bushes for tea. The water tribe boy was still sound asleep, Aang was still in his stance, and the water tribe girl was still down the river. Iroh smiled at his nice little pile of collected leaves and looked around for anything else he could use to make some decent tea. He had just spotted a nice plant when he heard Aang sigh and saw him slump out of his stance. Iroh turned to him in confusion.

"This is boring." The avatar complained. "When do I get to start using fire!"

"Not for a while. You haven't learned to breath."

"Breath! I've been breathing for twelve years! I think I know how to breath."

"No, you must learn to-"

"Aang!" Iroh and Aang's attention went straight down the river at the sound of Katara's scream. It wasn't a split second before they both started to head in her direction.

"Where'd she go!" Aang asked in an urgent, worried voice.

"The fish weren't swimming up the river because their fishing, so she went to go find them." Aang whipped out his glider and lifted himself up into the sky when he heard Katara yell for him again. Iroh hustled, but he wasn't as worried as the avatar seemed to be.

Aang's eyes widened at the site of an unfamiliar boat in the river. He looked over and saw Katara struggling to break free of a group of men's grasps. Aang nearly fell from the sky when out of nowhere a bird beak pecked him in the head.

"Ow!" He growled, smacking whatever it was away. A green bird feather fell from above him. The pirates! It must be the pirates! Aang swooped down and sent a wave of air towards the men, knocking a couple of them down.

A fire blast came from inside the boat and a few more men jumped from the deck, but that was the last of Aang's worries. "Let her go!" He demanded.

"Zuko!" Aang turned around and saw Iroh running up behind him. He turned to his right saw that is was Zuko who must have sent the fire blast. It wasn't long before two pirates had the prince held back by his wrists.

"Don't try it old man!" One pirate barked out. Iroh continued to move forward instead of heeding his warning. "Stop!" The pirate demanded. "Or the boy gets it!" He said, raising a blade to Zuko's throat. Iroh stopped in his tracks immediately.

"Zuko!" Iroh called out. Aang took this opportunity and turned back towards Katara, he swung his arms back but before he could send another wave of air one of the pirates holding Katara held a blade to her throat.

"Don't even think about it, kid!" The pirate smiled a gross, nearly toothless smile. Aang looked over to Iroh in desperation. Iroh looked back at him with a serious amount of worry and fear in his eyes. Iroh knew the pirates would slit their throats right then and there if him or Aang tried to pull anything. Aang scrunched his face up and pulled his arms back farther.

"No!" Iroh cried out, grabbing Aang's arms. "They'll kill them both!" Aang's mouth dropped in astonishment. Was Iroh seriously about to let them just take his nephew away?

"What am I supposed to do? I can't just let them take her!" Aang looked to Katara and saw her still struggling. He then looked over to Zuko and couldn't believe his eyes. He knew that he must have suffered from some cuts and burns from the explosion, even Iroh had some, but Aang saw wounds that he knew had not been done the night the prince's ship blew. Zuko had a black eyes, cuts and bruises not only on his face but all over his arms and neck. Aang was sure the rest of the teens body had been beaten as well. He also noticed that Zuko wasn't trying to get away, and if there's one thing Aang knew about Zuko it was that he never seemed to give up, so why wasn't he fighting?

Aang looked back up to Katara and saw small, thin line of blood drip from her throat. He lowered his staff and looked at their boat. It wasn't either of Zuko's or the pirates usual. They had all been destroyed. This boat must be 'fresh off the market'. It was small, but large enough for all the pirates and surely a place for prisoners. Aang could easily land Appa on the deck if he wanted to. So it was then that he decided that they would follow the boat and at night sneak onto it and save both Katara and Zuko.

"Hey, cap'n." One of the pirates, Oh, whispered over.

"Yeah?" The pirate caption answered quietly.

"That there is not only the wench that stole our scroll, she also seems to be the avatars girlfriend."

"So?"

"So, he's sure to come after her. We can use her as bait to lure the avatar onto our ship. Then we'll have the Fire Lords son, the avatar, his whole gang, and his rare pets to sell on the black market. Think of the money we'll make with all of them! And while we wait for the kid to come crying for his girlfriend, we get some free entertainment, hmm?"

"I suppose you're right." The captain admitted, rubbing his chin in thought. He was trying to calculate how much money he was about to make. "Take her to the brig with the fire boy. Don't try anything funny, avatar, or they'll be the ones paying for it." The captain waved off the avatar and motioned for his crew to bring their prisoners onto the small ship.

Aang's breath caught in his throat as he watched them take a still struggling Katara away.

"Aang! What are you doing!" She cried out before a pirate smacked his hand over her mouth to silence her.

Aang slammed his eyes shut and took took in a deep breath. "No!" He shouted as he jumped up into the air. He pulled is arms back far over his head and used all his mite to slam it down onto the ground, sending a huge gust of wind towards the pirates. Before he could use another move on them, a pirate came out from behind him and punched him, knocking him to the ground. Aang struggled to stay awake, the last thing he saw was Katara being shoved onto the ship and another pirate knocking Iroh to the ground.

It was nearly dusk before Aang felt himself being lifted up.

"Get up." He heard Iroh's voice. Aang's eyes fluttered open. Iroh had a large welt on his head, but he seemed to be fine. Aang grumbled and stumbled forwards. "You've got one to match." Iroh said, catching Aang and pushing him back to stand him up straight. "I'm sure her brother is worried." Aang nodded and looked down in defeat.

Sokka was sharpening his boomerang when they finally reached camp. "You guys? What's wrong?" Sokka asked, standing up to face them. "Where's Katara?" He asked, leaning towards Iroh.

"It's not his fault." Aang said softly.

"What!" Sokka asked sharply. Aang shook his head and covered his eyes with his hand. Sokka looked up at Iroh in confusion. Iroh was holding his head down, not allowing Sokka to look at him. "What happened Aang! Where's my sister!" Sokka looked around desperately searching for clues. The only thing there was Iroh holding his head down in what seemed to be shame and sorrow and a weeping Aang, but no Katara. That's when it hit him. "Oh no." Sokka breathed out. "They took her! You let them take her?" Sokka strangled the air in anger and threw a rock out into the forest, scaring a flock of birds from the trees. "How could you let them take her, Aang? Why would you do that?" Sokka grabbed Aang by the shirt, snatching him up and reeling his fist back.

"No!" Iroh grabbed Sokka by the shoulder and pulled him away from Aang. "They had Zuko, too! If we had done anything, they would have killed them both!"

"No!" Sokka pulled himself from Iroh's grasp and grabbed his boomerang, threatening Iroh with the pointy end. "You let them take her!"

"It's not his fault!" Aang protested, tears streaming down his face.

"You're right, it's your fault!" Sokka stomped and turned towards Aang. He leaned over him and yelled in his face. "It's your fault for letting him stay with us! It's your fault for making us stay here another night! This would have never of happened if it weren't for you!"

"Maybe if you hadn't been sleeping you could have done something!" Aang barked out. Sokka pulled his arm back, boomerang readied. His lip quivered and he threw his boomerang down in front of him. Sokka then turned and stormed off, steaming with anger.

Aang hunched over and began to cry into his hands. Iroh sat down next to Aang and tried to comfort him. "He wasn't there, he doesn't know. But it's not his fault. It's not my fault and it's not your fault, Aang. We'll find them."

"We don't even know which way they went." Aang choked out.

"We'll find them."