Chapter 12

"Let me at him!" Katara charged across camp, toward the barracks where Yoshio slept.

"Remember, wait and see!" Aang called after her, jogging to keep up.

"Fuck wait and see. The traitor just made his play." Katara slammed open the door to the communal bedroom, startling its residents. "Yoshio, where's my brother?"

The young man pretended not to know what she was talking about, making his eyes wide and innocent. "Your brother? Sokka?"

"Don't play dumb! We know you're a spy." Katara spat.

It was chilling how quickly Yoshio's demeanor warped, as if he were shedding a garment. When he spoke, his accent was entirely different. "I'll talk to you alone, waterbender."

"Fine."

The other young men cleared the barracks, whispering fearfully.

"Sweetie," Aang grabbed her hand. "Don't do anything you'll regret."

She closed her eyes and took a deep, calming breath. "I won't hurt him."

When the others were gone, she turned to Yoshio. "How did you take my brother?"

"I didn't. Obviously. I'm right here." He drawled with a lazy cadence that she thought she remembered from the Fire Nation palace.

The spy's pedantic insistence on his innocence annoyed Katara. "But you know where he is," she pressed.

"I know how to get him back for you." Yoshio made his offer. "If you cooperate with me."

"What do I need to do?" Katara asked, knowing she was coming off too eager. She had infiltrated the enemy capital to save her brother once, and there was almost nothing she could imagine refusing to do to save him again.

Yoshio smiled, his teeth eerily white and straight. "All you have to do is dump your boyfriend."

Katara's face screwed up in surprise at the absurd suggestion. "Excuse me?"

"Break up with the Avatar," he repeated, then when her expression changed, but she remained silent, he elaborated. "Cheat on him, kick him out of the Resistance, do whatever you have to do to end the relationship. Then, I'll just say the word, and you'll have your brother back."

Katara's eyes widened as she realized the young man was serious, and her horror at the suggestion dried her throat. She could not speak.

Yoshio was going on, unconcerned by her reaction. "It's an easy deal. No one gets hurt. Take your time, think about it," He leaned back, supremely confident. "I'm not going anywhere."

"That's right, you're not," she muttered, as she went out the back door to hide from Aang and the others. She sank down to the ground, and pulled her knees up to her chest. She felt again all the panic she'd felt when Zhao had threatened her brother, saw again the betrayal in Aang's eyes as she stabbed him, all to save Sokka. All of the lies of omission she had told, even as she fell in love. How could she wound her beloved like that again? But how could she leave her brother in the hands of the Fire Nation?

Aang found her there, and sat down beside her. "Well? What's the ransom?"

She looked up at him, eyes full of misery. "You."

"What?" He was confused.

"I'll get Sokka back if I break up with you. But I won't do it." Katara's declaration lifted her stubborn chin. She accepted that this choice might make her selfish, or a terrible sister. But she couldn't deny her love for this man. She couldn't hurt him. Not again.

Something opened behind Aang's eyes, as he understood the meaning of her choice. He felt genuinely touched. He swallowed, and murmured, "Thank you."

She grabbed his hand. "I'm putting my trust in you. You can do anything." He was the Avatar, after all. She believed he could outwit and outfight an army of firebenders if he had to. With his help, she could find another way to save her brother.

He nodded, squeezing her fingers. "We can do anything together."

By now, the news had spread through the camp. Ty Lee, Zuko, and Mai joined Katara and Aang, eager to know what the waterbender had found out.

"We already knew the spy's orders were from the Fire Nation. Are they trying to use Sokka to build more weapons? Or trade him for a different hostage, like Uncle, or me?" Zuko wondered.

Aang told them. "Yoshio just offered to return Sokka to Katara if she dumped me. That means this kidnapping has nothing to do with the war, or the Resistance. It's personal. Azula is the only one who would care this much about breaking me and Katara up."

"You mean that…..engagement wasn't just a political thing?" Zuko was genuinely surprised at the idea that his sister might have had a real relationship. Even if he could have believed Azula had fallen in love, the sunny airbender was nothing like the kind of partner he might have pictured for his fiery sibling.

"For your father it was, but not for her." Aang explained uncomfortably. "She….convinced herself she had feelings for me."

"Then why don't you two just fake a breakup?" Zuko asked, as if they were idiots for not seeing this obvious solution.

"You haven't seen your sister in the past decade, so you have no idea what a stupid question that is," Mai rolled her eyes at her boyfriend's suggestion.

"Because if Azula is willing to go this far to undermine our relationship, then she won't give up unless we prove to her how useless that is." Aang explained. "If we give her even a hint of hope, that will only encourage her."

Katara nodded agreement. "It's the principle of the thing."

"But we're not going to send her a message saying all that, are we?" Ty Lee asked, confused.

"Of course not," Zuko ruled. "We don't want her to know we found her spy. And we won't let Yoshio tell her Katara turned down his offer."

"He has to be kept here as prisoner," Katara stated.

"But we have to treat him humanely," Aang stipulated firmly.

"Naturally," Zuko grinned. "Uncle can be his jailer. A couple of weeks of daily tea and pai sho, and I bet Yoshio will have a sincere conversion."

Aang laughed. "You make me wish I could stick around and join in the jailhouse story hour. But we have to get up in the sky." He grabbed Katara's hand. "C'mon, maybe Appa can help us find their trail."

The order came at the end of his evening shift. Along with a select few of his men, Raiden was to accompany the Fire Lord on a secret journey to the middle of the Earth Kingdom. They were leaving the following morning on the royal airship.

It made him anxious. He had no idea what the Fire Lord's plans were. He wouldn't have time to consult with Piandao about special orders from the Brotherhood. He wondered if the trip had any connection to the spy note he had found and copied. He had a bad feeling about the whole thing.

He communicated the order to his fellow guards, but they could tell he didn't like it.

After he dismissed them to sleep and pack, Naoki came up to him. "What's your deal, Raiden? I thought you'd be excited about this trip!"

"Why would I be excited?"

"I mean, palace guard is prestigious, but we go months without leaving Caldera," his friend pointed out. "Now we finally get a chance to see a different part of the world!"

"I guess that's true," he shrugged. "Although the Si Wong Desert wasn't exactly on my bucket list."

"We're stopping in the Western Oasis. Isn't that where Akane is stationed now?"

"Oh. Yes, I suppose it is." Guilt flooded Raiden at the thought of his distant girlfriend. Akane's letters had been sweet, chatty, and included detailed itineraries of her unit's movements. He had barely skimmed them. Shadowing the Fire Lord took all of his attention.

Naoki gave him a funny look. "Well, get yourself together in the next 10 hours. Your girlfriend deserves a good time."

He sighed. "You're right. She does."

Author's Note: Thanks for reading! Please leave me a review!