Author's note: about Chenlian's name, it's written with the characters for 'morning' and 'lotus'. I also want to mention that 'chen', written with a different character, can also stand for the sign of the dragon. Just thought it was interesting.

Fight02: Prisoner

Aang woke up after a nightmare about a storm where, on the verge of drowning, his eyes and arrow markings had glowed; he had put his fists together, and frozen himself and Appa in a huge ball of ice. It was Katara who had woken him up. He was in a tent in the village. The girl barely let him enough time to dress that she dragged him outside with his staff. She introduced the boy to the entire village, now consisting of only women of all ages and children... and a dog or two. They could be twenty at most. Aang greeted them politely but some villagers still backed away from him. The elder explained that it was because they had not seen an airbender in a hundred years and thought they were extinct.

"'Extinct'?" Aang repeated, clueless. Katara introduced the older woman as her grandmother, called Gran Gran. Sokka snatched the boy's staff, thinking it was a weapon that couldn't stab anything. Aang airbended it back to his hand and said it was for airbending. He opened it into an orange-winged glider, and before the children, amazed at the 'magic trick', explained that it was not magic, but airbending. It let him control the air currents around his glider and fly. As a demonstration he launched himself into the air with his glider and soared through the air, doing loops as the villagers on the ground pointed at him in wonder and voiced their amazement. Aang looked down at Katara who smiled at him, rendering him so enthralled that he slammed right into Sokka's guard tower with a 'oof'. He pulled his head out of the tower and fell to the ground with his glider. The girl helped Aang back to his feet. He twirled his glider shut as Sokka examined the damaged tower behind him, Sokka who was soon buried by a huge bank of snow.

"Great. You're an airbender, Katara's a waterbender... together you can just waste time all day long." The water tribesman snapped, getting up angrily.

"You're a waterbender!" The tattooed boy exclaimed, ecstatic.

"Well... sort of. Not yet." She stammered. It was then that Gran Gran led her granddaughter away, saying she had chores. The young female elatedly told her relative that she knew he was the real thing and she had at last found a bender to teach her. But the elderly warned her not to put all her hopes in that boy. However, Katara was too happy to listen.

"But he's special! I can tell. I sense he's filled with much wisdom." She looked at Aang who was fooling around with the children. He had his tongue frozen to his staff.

After waking up Chenlian did some stretching and strengthening exercises again, checked her traps and took the few animals she had caught. After rekindling the fire, she cooked them with the tubers and herbs, ate, saved the rest in her box departed on foot, alternating her pace with slow walk, fast walk, and running, and then took flight again with firebending.

On the Fire Nation Ship, Zuko was training under the rigorous supervision of his uncle. The prince blasted fire from his hands at the guards, but missed. Then the guards attacked him with blasts of fire from their fists, but Zuko dodged and back flipped over the guards to land behind them. Iroh stood up and sighed.

"No! Power in fire bending comes from the breath. Not the muscles. The breath becomes energy in the body. The energy extends past your limbs and becomes fire." The old man explained in a strict tone while doing a demonstration and releasing a controlled plume of flames that stopped right before his nephew's face. "Get it right this time."

"Enough! I've been drilling this sequence all day. Teach me the next set. I'm more than ready." The prince ordered, marching up to his uncle.

"No, you are impatient. You have yet to master your basics." Then the old man sat back down, his arms apart in an imposing posture, his hands on his knees, and he added more forcefully: "Drill it again!"

The prince growled and blasted one of the guards backward with fire shot from his left foot. Both men were frowning deeply.

"The sages tell us that the Avatar is the last airbender. He must be over a hundred years old by now. He's had a century to master the four elements. I'll need more than basic firebending to defeat him. You WILL teach me the advanced set!"

Iroh sighed and gave in.

"Very well. But first I must finish my roast duck." He took his bowl and chopsticks and began eating with delight before the anguished expression of his nephew, appalled at just how laid back his uncle was.

This afternoon at the water tribe village, Sokka was pacing back and forth, his arms behind his back. It was clearly an important speech for an important training session.

"Now men, it's important that you show no fear when you face a firebender. In the Water Tribe, we fight to the last man standing. For without courage, how can we call ourselves men?" He gravely told the six toddlers before him. One of them raised his hand.

"I gotta pee."

"Listen! Until your fathers return from the war, they're counting on you to be the men of this tribe. And that means no potty breaks."

"But I really gotta go."

"Okay... who else has to go?" Sokka sighed resignedly. All six raised their hands. The teen warrior slapped his forehead in disgust as all six left.

Katara came in, searching for Aang who emerged pointedly from a small igloo type bathroom stall. He adjusted his pants and smiled at the little boys coming to use the toilet and commented that "Everything freezes in there!" thus making the toddlers laugh. Sokka complained and told his sister to get him out of here. This lesson was for warriors only. Suddenly, they heard a cry of joy and turned their heads. Aang on his back, Appa had his tail propped up using a makeshift sawhorse. And the kids were using his back and tail as a slide to land in a pile of snow. The children, and soon Katara, all started laughing.

"Stop! Stop it right now!" Sokka shouted at the children as he ran to them and took a spear that had been utilised in the sawhorse. "What's wrong with you?" He asked Aang. "We don't have time for fun and games with a war going on!"

"What war?" The airbender hopped down off Appa. "What are you talking about?"

"You're kidding, right?" The teen with the ponytail raised an eyebrow at him. Aang's gaze shifted slightly off Sokka to look at something beyond him.

"PENGUIN!" He yelled. The otter-penguin, aware that it had been spotted, made a surprised noise and turned to waddle away. Aang used his airbending skill to run at unbelievable speed toward the horizon where the penguin had just been.

"He's kidding, right?" The boy asked his sister, raising his eyebrow again. But from the waterbender's face, she knew no more than he did.

Katara followed Aang to an otter-penguin colony not far where the aquatic flightless birds were waddling and squawking around. She was looking for the child when she saw him chasing after the animals, falling face first in the snow, catching one at last before being dragged away by it instead... The airbender also did an imitation of them waddling and squawking to amuse the cute blue-eyed girl. Then Katara offered to teach him how to catch an otter-penguin if he would teach her waterbending. He agreed, but warned her that he was an airbender, not a waterbender, and asked if there was not anyone in the tribe who could teach her, and the girl told him sadly that she was the only waterbender in the whole South Pole. When Aang talked about the North Pole, Katara said they had had no contact with their sister tribe in a long time as it was on the other side of the world. Aang wanted to fly her to the Northern Water Tribe with Appa to help her search for a waterbending master, but she had never left home before and was still hesitating.

"Well, you think about it. But in the meantime, can you teach me to catch one of these penguins?"

"Okay, listen closely my young pupil. Catching penguins is an ancient and sacred art. Observe." Katara instructed in a tone mocking the great teaching masters. She produced a little fish from her coat and tossed it at Aang who instantly got surrounded by a horde of hungry penguins.

Up until late afternoon, Katara and Aang rocketed off the ice bank and through the frozen landscape, each sitting atop a penguin, laughing and whooping happily. They emerged from tunnels and got off their mounts, which stood up and dizzily wandered away making little chirping noises. The two benders walked forward, looking at something in front of them. Aang made an amazed sound. It was a huge and derelict Fire Navy ship locked in the ice and silhouetted by the sun behind it. It looked really ominous, and was a very bad memory for the Southern Water Tribe. The boy walked toward it. Katara tried to warn him that it could be booby-trapped and they were not allowed to go near it.

"If you wanna be a bender, you have to let go of fear." Her friend replied. Reluctant and uncertain, she nonetheless followed him in.

Aang and Katara climbed up and entered the ship through a gaping hole in one of forward compartments below the water line. They walked around the dark corridors inside past many a darkened room. They stopped to look at the weapons stored in the armory. This ship, as part of the Fire Nation's first attacks, had haunted the Southern Water Tribe since Gran Gran was a little girl.

"Okay, back up. I have friends all over the world, even in the Fire Nation. I've never seen any war." The boy contradicted her. It sounded like he did not want to believe. Then she asked him how long he thought he had been trapped in the ice. The monk believed it had just been a few days but to Katara's opinion, it was more like a hundred years!

"What? That's impossible. Do I look like a hundred-twelve year old man to you?" He raised an eyebrow at her, slightly offended.

"Think about it. The war is a century old. You don't know about it because, somehow, you were in there that whole time. It's the only explanation."

Aang puts his hand to his head and staggered backward. Stunned and horrified by this realization. He sank to the floor.

"A hundred years! I can't believe it."

"I'm sorry, Aang. Maybe somehow there's a bright side to all this." The waterbender knelt at his side and put a comforting hand on his back.

"I did get to meet you." Aang said with a smile. Katara could not help but smile back.

"Come on. Let's get out of here." She said, helping him up, and they started walking again. The airbender entered another room on the ship. The brown-haired girl wanted to head back as this place was creepy. Just as the bald child was going to answer, his foot dragged a trip wire on the floor. Behind them a grate dropped from the ceiling and blocked the door. They grabbed it just after it fell shut. They were trapped.

"What's that you said about booby traps?" Aang asked.

Around them, the machinery in the room started to operate. Gauges were spinning madly, wheels began to turn and steam to pour out of some of the equipment. Suddenly, a bright flare explodes out of the Fire Navy ship and into the sky, leaving a trail of smoke behind it. Aang and Katara saw it out the window of the ship's bridge.

"Uh oh."

The flare rose and reached its zenith where it exploded in a small shower of sparks. The boy noticed a hole in the ceiling and told his female friend to hold on tight as he picked her up in his arms. She cried out in surprise, and he launched them both through the hole in the ceiling. He landed with her in his arms on top of the bridge. However, this had not escaped Prince Zuko's attention who, through the lens of a telescope, followed the flare down for a few moments, before shifting downwards to show the airbender hopping down the ship and the ice which encases it to the ground below, with a girl in his arms.

"The last airbender. Quite agile for his old age. Wake my uncle! Tell him I found the Avatar..." The prince ordered before looking back into his telescope to see the two running across the ice away from the ship. He then scanned left quickly, and pulled it back right to focus on a village. "...as well as his hiding place..." And Zuko's right eye narrowed in determination.

It was nearly sunset. The villagers had also seen the flare. Then Aang and Katara approached. Everyone was waiting for them at the entrance of the village. The children were glad to see Aang back but not the adults. Sokka came forward angrily. He pointed at him and accused him of having set off that flare to lead the Fire Navy straight to them. The two tried to explain that it was just an accident, that they had fallen into a booby trap. Gran Gran blamed her granddaughter for having known and still gone. Now they were all in danger. The airbender tried to defend her saying it was his fault, not hers.

"Aha! The traitor confesses! Warriors, away from the enemy!" Sokka ordered. The children stepped back toward their mothers. "The foreigner is banned from our village!"

This time, it was Katara's turn to try and defend Aang and convince her brother that he was making a mistake, that Aang was not their enemy, and that he had brought them something they hadn't had in a long time: fun. To what Sokka replied that they could not fight firebenders with fun.

"You should try it sometime." Aang suggested with a smile.

"Get out of our village. Now!" The teen warrior shouted. His younger sister implored her grandmother not to let Sokka do this. But their grandmother agreed with him as the girl knew going on that ship was forbidden. Sokka was right. It was best if the airbender left.

"Then I'm banished too!" Katara yelled bitterly. She took her friend by the shoulder and began to leave. Appa ready to fly off before them, her brother and tribe behind them, and she and Aang in the middle, with the sun setting over the sea.

"Where do you think you're going?!" Sokka cried at her.

"To find a waterbender! Aang is taking me to the North Pole!"

"I am? Great!" The tattooed boy exclaimed, confused at first, before brightening.

"Katara!"

The girl stopped.

"Would you really choose him over your tribe? Your own family?" Her brother pleaded. She paused, doubt and indecision on her pretty face. Aang came up next to her.

"Katara, I don't want to come between you and your family." He said sincerely before walking toward Appa.

"So, you're leaving the South Pole? This is goodbye?" She asked softly. She did not want him to leave. The monk thanked her for penguin sledding with him. "Where will you go?" Katara asked, concerned. Aang put a hand on Appa.

"Guess I'll go back home and look for the airbenders." He paused and thought. "Wow, I haven't cleaned my room in a hundred years. Not looking forward to that." He attempted to joke. But he was just as sad as she was to be separated and leave like this. He airbended himself onto Appa's head where he took the reigns and turned to address the village.

"It was nice meeting everyone."

"Let's see your bison fly now, air boy." Sokka commented in a sarcastic and biting tone, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Come on, Appa, you can do it! Yip! Yip!" The airbender encouraged his furry friend. Appa rumbled and got onto his feet.

"Yeah, I thought so."

Just then a little girl with pig tails rushes forward with a cry to stand by Katara.

"Aang! Don't go! We'll miss you!" The little one begged, her eyes shining with tears.

"I'll miss you too." Aang replied sadly. He turned to look at Katara, whose braids were blowing in the breeze. The boy turned away and shook the reigns once more and Appa walked off at last. The little crying girl walked back to the village while Gran Gran came up behind Katara.

"Katara, you'll feel better after you-"

"You happy now? There goes my one chance of becoming a waterbender!" Her granddaughter cut her off, furious and tearful. She too stalked off angrily, leaving Gran Gran alone. Sokka commanded the little ones to ready the defences and forbid any potty break.

In the frozen wasteland outside the village Appa and Aang were resting in the curves of some ice formations shaped like doughnut holes. The beast was laying on his back in the lower one while its owner and friend was in the smaller higher one. Appa rumbled.

"Yeah, I liked her too." The boy sighed dismally. It was obvious who he had been thinking about. He looked out toward the sea of mist and got up with a start. He had seen a Fire Navy ship, and it was steaming toward the village! He slid down his perch and told Appa to wait here. Appa rumbled in reply and shifted his position slightly.

In his tent, Sokka was silently putting on his war garb and face paint. In the ship, Prince Zuko was also getting ready for battle as attendants helped him into his armor. Sokka left his tent with his weapons, and climbed atop the ice wall surrounding the village where he stood alone, scanning the mist for any sign of the enemy. Suddenly, a deep rumbling noise was heard and the ground began to shake. Parts of the wall on which he was standing started to crumble. The villagers looked around in alarm. The guard tower collapsed in a heap of snow and ice.

"Oh man!" Sokka exclaimed, disappointed. A panic broke out in the village as people began to run everywhere. Katara was in their midst but stopped after seeing something in the mist. Suddenly, there, just in front of her brother, a massive shadow emerged from the fog, dwarfing Sokka. It was the bow of Prince Zuko's ship.

"Ohhh, man!" Sokka's voice quivered fearfully.

The vessel was cutting its way through the ice to the city wall itself. As the ship continued to ice break towards the wall, Katara put Gran Gran into one of the tents in the rear and then took a little child out of harm's way as the ice floor of the village was starting to crack all over the place under the stress. After she had put the child in a tent, she turned to look back at her brother who was poised both tragically and comically to the ship's hull with his weapon. She yelled at him to get out of the way. As the ship reached the wall, the ice collapsed into a heap of snow which tumbled back into the village, carrying Sokka with it. The vessel came to a halt. Steam wafted up from where the bow had split the ice. The villagers, Katara in front, emerged from their shelters and stared in trepidation and amazement at the ship. The waterbender and her warrior brother drew a deep breath in anticipation. With a noise of metal on metal the bowsprit of the ship pivoted and its tip landed onto the village's floor, becoming a huge gangplank. Sokka fell backward to avoid being crushed. The steam cleared from the top of the bowsprit, revealing Zuko and a host of Fire Nation soldiers. The armoured prince walked down the gangplank stairs, followed by guards. Sokka, who stood up and charged at Zuko with an adolescent war cry. He ran up to the Prince, who casually and expertly kicked his weapon out of his hand and then kicked him in the face, sending him sprawling on the ice at his right. His head stuck in the snow and he struggled comically to free himself. The villagers drew back in fright at the ease with which their only warrior had been dispatched by the invaders. Zuko walked forward and looked over the crowd, then marched over to Katara and her grandmother. He asked where they were hiding him. Before the lack of immediate response he grabbed Gran Gran and showed her to the villagers.

"He'd be about this age? Master of all elements?" He added. Again: no response. After a brief pause, he roughly threw Gran Gran back to Katara. With a cry of frustration he launched a splash of fire, the flame arching horizontally over the villager's heads. They cowered in fear. "I know you're hiding him!" He shouted impatiently. Behind Zuko, Sokka stood up, his face paint largely gone. He retrieved his weapon and, with another cry, charged at the prince who turned to him in annoyance and easily dodged and flipped him over his head. Zuko fired a blast at Sokka, but the water tribe warrior rolled out of the way, throwing his boomerang at Zuko as he did. Caught by surprise, the firebender barely avoided the boomerang. He looked back in anger at the enemy teen over the near miss. A little boy in the crowd threw Sokka a spear.

"Show no fear!" The little one yelled. The young man caught it and charged at prince again, who, as Sokka reached him, broke off pieces of the spear shaft with his wrist guards. After the head of the spear has been shorn off, the prince grabbed the spear and repeatedly hit his opponent on the forehead before breaking it in half and dropping the pieces on the ground. The lone and proud warrior was also on the ground, rubbing his head. All his attacks having miserably failed due to the enemy's superior skills, he was not so proud anymore... Zuko was standing sternly over him when in the sky the boomerang reappeared and slammed him in the back of the head, knocking his helmet. Furious, the prince began to spit fire out of his hands as he hovered menacingly over Sokka.

It was then that Aang skyrocketed towards the village on a penguin, staff in hand and flew right under Zuko, sweeping his legs out from under him. The prince of the Fire Nation landed butt up. The helmet landed on his behind. The children cheered as Aang reached the villagers. As he and the penguin banked, they dumped a lot of snow on the cheering kids. They stopped cheering for a moment, looked at each other, then kept on cheering again. The otter-penguin slid to a halt and pushed its passenger off. It got up, looked at Aang, and then turned and waddled away.

"Hey Katara. Hey Sokka." The airbender greeted them casually with a smile.

"Hi Aang. Thanks for comin'." Sokka greeted back, dryly. Aang looked over at the Firebenders. The Fire Prince got to his feet and assumed a firebending stance. The child readied his staff, surrounded by Zuko and his men. They started to close in, but he blew them away on either side of him with blasts of air and snow before blasting Zuko as well, but he held his ground, shielding his face from the wind.

"Looking for me?!" Aang challenged him.

"You're the airbender? You're the Avatar?" The teenager in the red armor asked, incredulous, melting the snow that had landed on him with his body heat. Sokka and Katara could not believe it either. Zuko and Aang maneuvered into position against each other in the middle of the village.

"I've spent years preparing for this encounter... Training... Meditating... You're just a child!" The prince frowned.

"Well, you're just a teenager." Aang replied back, clueless as to what the firebender could be so angry about. Zuko fired blast after blast. Aang cried out, hard pressed, fear showing on his youthful face. He dissipated each blast by rapidly twirling his staff in front of him. But the dissipation did not block the fire from reaching the villagers and they cried out. The tattooed boy looked behind, realizing that he could not protect them all. He stopped.

"If I go with you, will you promise to leave everyone alone?"

Zuko was still in a firebending stance, but after a brief pause he straightened up and nodded stiffly. He, too, disliked hurting people unnecessarily. The soldiers took Aang's staff and lead him to the ship. Katara rushed forward.

"No, Aang! Don't do this!" She cried distressfully.

"Don't worry, Katara, it'll be okay. Take care of Appa for me until I get back."

The soldiers pushed him forward.

"Head a course to the Fire Nation. I'm going home." Zuko ordered. They boarded the ship and the bowsprit rose back up. Aang looked back wistfully at his new friend as the ship was closing. He was trying to smile reassuringly. But seeing the pain and the tears in the girl's blue eyes, his smile faltered and vanished and the bowsprit closed over him, snapping into place.

The Black Cliffs: an uninhabited length of high coastal cliff-face and stacks located on an uninhabited inner island of the Fire Nation that took their name from the dark volcanic rock from which they were formed. Home to the boarcupines, and the koala sheep. The koala sheep notably were famed for their gentle and fearless disposition and their unbelievably soft and fluffy wool. And after years of being chained to those poles, what could be more comforting to Chenlian's sore body than those sweet and cuddly creatures? After a dinner of fish, wild herbs, tubers, and berries, she trained again and went to rest and snuggled against one, closing her eyes. Such an ideal pillow it made. Instinctively, she groped around for another one she used as a plush toy. Even back in her mansion a long time ago she could not remember sleeping on something as comfy as that animal. And yet that was such a happy time: training, studying, sleeping, eating yummy things, regularly being invited to the palace...

Although her reason for going had first been to answer to someone's unspoken challenge (or so it felt like) it had gradually changed to a wish to meet someone else. But now was not the time to dwell on the past. She had had enough time for that. She had to focus on the future, on getting to the Avatar, and even more at hand on not making a mistake during her journey... or so she thought, but was unable to deny that longing she had to return home, even just her beach house on Ember Island. She knew there would be no one waiting for her no matter how much she would have wished. It was just a place... But it was no use trying to reason. Could she really move forward like this? She had never seen their face once since her capture and their banishment. Assassins had killed them before she could escape and get back to them. Then she had spent quite some time wandering through the world, desperately trying to adjust to the changes in her life, keep herself together, and walk forward, no matter what. But Chenlian never had the chance to properly say her goodbyes to that life she once had. How could she completely devote herself to her purpose if she was still prisoner of the past?

The next day, she would go to Ember Island. That was the only way to make sure. Bathed in the memories of her childhood, recalling how happy she was then before suddenly falling into a precipice of despair. Will she be able to break free from the chains of sorrow and hatred, or will the white hot fetters of revenge only burn deeper into her?

Zuko's ship had gone into the cloudy Antarctic white night, leaving a jagged path through the ice as plainly visible as the shattered village wall. A fire was burning at the center of the village and the inhabitants were all busy fixing the damage done by the attack. They looked sad. Katara was at the water's edge looking out at the sun over the sea. Sokka walked by behind her carrying some things.

"We have to go after that ship, Sokka. Aang saved our tribe; now we have to save him." She told her brother firmly, full of determination.

"Katara, I-"

"Why can't you realize that he's on our side? If we don't help him, no one will. I know you don't like Aang, but we owe him and I-" She ranted again, interrupting him.

"Katara! Are you gonna talk all day or are you comin' with me?" He cut her off with more authority this time and motioned to his left to show a canoe ready to go. The girl cried out his name happily and gave him a bear hug. "Get in. We're going to save your boyfriend." He teased his little sis.

"He's not my-"

"Whatever." The boy shrugged.

"What do you two think you're doing?" Gran Gran suddenly appeared behind them. They turned and tried to look innocent. The elder's tone and expression was severe, but then she smiled and offered them a blue bundle. "You'll need these. You have a long journey ahead of you. It's been so long since I've had hope. But you brought it back to life, my little waterbender." She hugged her granddaughter. "And you, my brave warrior, be nice to your sister." She embraced her grandson, knowing his habit of taunting people and being sarcastic. He patted her on the shoulder, a little embarrassed and not used to such a display of affection from his older family member, and a little reluctant to do what she was asking. "Aang is the Avatar. He's the world's only chance. You both found him for a reason. Now your destinies are intertwined with his." She declared gravely. The siblings looked at each other, slightly apprehensive. Katara pointed out that they could not catch up with a war ship on a canoe. It was then that they heard a low rumble and saw Appa mounting the crest of hill and approaching.

"Appa!" The girl yelled out happily and running toward the animal.

"You just love taking me out of my comfort zone, don't ya?" Sokka said again, sarcastically.

On the foredeck of Zuko's ship that was cutting through the water, Aang, hands bound behind him, was facing Zuko, Iroh and a group of guards.

"This staff will make an excellent gift for my father. I suppose you wouldn't know of fathers, being raised by monks. Take the Avatar to the prison hold." The prince said. "And take this to my quarters." He shoved the staff in Iroh's direction who took it before in turn giving it to the guard on his left, telling him to take it to his quarters for him. Guard who had no choice but to obey. Aang was escorted down some stairs into the ship and into the hallways. The airbender challenged the guards who ordered him to stay silent. They stopped in front of a door. As one of the guards moved to open the door with a key, Aang drew a great breath and blew the guard with the key into the door, knocking him out. The breath also propelled him backwards and into the guard behind him. They are blown all the way back down and crashed into the stairs they came down on. The guard is knocked out since Aang used him to cushion his own impact. The boy airbended himself back up onto the deck and airbended the door at the end of the deck open. He entered the ship and ran down the hall. One of the guards Aang just escaped from emerged and shouted up to a guard on the bridge deck.

"The Avatar has escaped!"