In the upstairs lounge of the Jasmine Dragon, Katara was seated on one of the couches browsing through the Companion while her brother was laughing his head off as Aang narrated his experiences escaping from Zhao with the help of a few Air Nomad relics. "… And then as I dashed out of the cave with my staff in my mouth, I could've sworn I'd seen an actual Air Nomad chamber pot land on Zhao's head."

"Well, that must have been an improvement to his appearance," Sokka managed to say before he was overcome with another tirade of laughter. "Oh spirits, and that part when you almost blasted his head off with the giant horn? Man, that was funny!"

"Guess old airbender stuff still has its uses after all," Toph grinned, for she had been listening to Aang's tale as well, though not while laughing uncontrollably like Sokka.

Katara smiled warmly at her friends, who were like her second family. Then she turned the page and stopped. The top of the page announced the story's title, Distorted, but the summary gave no hint of what it contained, other than it was the author in question's first fanfic. Feeling rather curious, she began reading the story.

She woke up with a start. Was she dreaming, or did the ground seem to be shaking underneath her?

Then she heard the sound of the waves lapping against her metal cell. That's right, she was in a ship. Imprisoned.

As she closed her eyes, more memories flooded her mind. Women were crying, children were screaming. The soldiers were everywhere. She couldn't run, couldn't hide. She couldn't escape the fate that awaited her.

Her last memory was of her tribe gazing sadly at her. Then a metal hull closed, and all was darkness.

Katara frowned. The story was obviously about a girl whose home was invaded by the Fire Nation during the war, and who had been captured and taken aboard their ships. Judging from the story, she guessed it was a Water Tribe girl, and a Southerner like her, since the Northern Water Tribe had only been invaded once, and the Fire Nation had come away from that siege as the losing side. With a start, she realized that it might be one of the waterbenders of the Southern Water Tribe who were taken away from their tribe when the war first started. That would explain why the girl in the story was on a ship, for it was the Fire Nation navy who always invaded their village. She then continued reading, wanting to know what would happen to the girl.

The sound of a door opening interrupted her thoughts. A soldier walked in, carrying a tray of food. He set it down before her, then turned to leave.

"Wait," she called. "Where are you taking me?"

He turned around, the glint in his eyes sending a shiver down her spine. "Trust me; you don't want to know."

The door closed after him, and she was again left to her thoughts.

Katara shivered. The girl's fate definitely seemed to be doomed, and it wasn't likely that she would be able to escape it. Her thoughts turned to her mother, who had died for her while protecting her identity as the last waterbender of the South Pole. If her mother had not made that sacrifice, would she be like the character in the story? No, she thought, I'd be already dead by Yon Rha's hand. But it seems like this girl is going the same way as well. Dreading what she would find at the end of the story, she read on.

It seemed that she probably wouldn't make it out of whatever hell of a place they were bringing her to – at least, not alive. And yet she had hope. She knew that one day, though when or how she couldn't say, she would escape that place. Then they would be truly sorry for what they had done to her.

Kataar widened her eyes at this. The girl planned to punish the Fire Nation for what they had done? Well, it was a natural reaction after having been brutally captured and separated from home, yet something was stirring in the corners of her mind. The girl reminded her of someone, but whom?

She was beginning to think thoughts so dark her former self would have shuddered at the mere mention of them. But then, she wasn't her former self anymore, and anyway, those vermin had deserved it.

Her blood curdled, she looked up at the full moon from which she drew her power shining through the porthole that passed as a window, and an evil smile crossed her face. She lay back against the wall, and prepared to plan for things to come.

As recognition dawned on Katara's face, she quickly turned back to the top of the page, where the story's title, summary and main characters were listed. The name 'Hama' stared back at her. She took a deep intake of breath. The story had chilled her whole body from the inside out, and she could just picture in her mind a young woman with a ghoulish smile sitting against the metal side of a Fire Nation war ship, her haunting expression mirroring the thoughts running through her mind.

Just then, Katara was startled by a sudden presence. Stifling a scream, she looked up to see Zuko setting down a tray of tea on the low table. Toph took a cup and started sipping the warm tea. "So Katara, have you found anything worth reading yet?"

The waterbender paused before quickly turning over the page. "Oh, nothing much so far. Hey, how about this?"

Today's the second anniversary of my fanfiction account (at least, it's the date listed on my profile) and since I didn't even remember my first anniversary I decided to make up for it by featuring my very first fanfic in the Companion. By 'first fanfic' I mean the very first AtLA fanfic I wrote, although I didn't publish this one until two abandoned chapter series later. The story itself barely tops 300 words, so today's chapter's a bit short, but don't worry, the next one promises to more than make up for it. See you then!