Sokka blinked rapidly as he regained consciousness, trying to sit up only to have a hand push him back down onto a soft bed. Everything was a blur to him as his eyes tried to take in his surroundings. The only thing that he could even see looked like a green blob with some white mixed into it.
However, once his vision cleared, he saw the blob was actually Suki staring right back at him, one of her hands placed on his chest to hold him down.
"Relax Sokka," she told him, "take it easy."
"Ugh, what happened?" he tried to sit back up and this time, Suki helped him instead of pushing him back down.
"We don't know," she answered, "Aang and I found you unconscious in the streets last night."
"That doesn't make any sense," Sokka grumbled, looking around to find that he was in his bedroom, "how did I get here then?"
Suki scoffed at him, "We carried you back genius."
"Oh right, of course," Sokka laughed self-consciously, his hand coming up to the back of his head, feeling a large bump there. He winced a little when his hand ran across it.
"Someone must have it you in the back of the head," Suki explained, reaching around him to grab his hand, stopping him from touching the tender skin.
"Who?" Sokka asked.
"It has to be the same guys we've been going after," another familiar voice said.
Sokka turned around to see Aang sitting on the window sill with a small letter in his hands. Upon seeing him though, a wave of worry hit Sokka for the airbender looked back at him sadly, looking like he was trying to hold back tears.
"Where's Katara?" Sokka asked nervously, his heart aching with more worry when Aang turned around to look out the window and into the bright sky in response.
Seeing that Aang wasn't going to answer, Suki answered for him, taking Sokka's hand in hers for his own comfort to the news she was about to break to him, "She wasn't there with you. They took her."
"What?" Sokka's eyes widened and he shook his head stubbornly, "No...no they couldn't have taken her. Maybe she just ran away..."
"I'm sorry Sokka," Suki squeezed his hand tighter.
He looked over to Aang for an answer and the airbender looked back at him, a couple of tears finally dripping from his eyes.
"It's true," he choked out, waving the letter that he had in front of him, "It's all explained here. We found this laying on top of you last night."
"They want Aang to meet them at their airship today, just a few hours from now," Suki continued before adding a little solemnly, "And if he doesn't they'll...they said they'll kill her."
"Well then we have to go and get her back," Sokka said desperately, "If we only have a few hours..."
"They want me to come alone," Aang interrupted, gripping the letter tightly in his hands, causing the paper to crinkle a little, "They said if I bring any one else with me they'll kill Katara anyway, whether we get there on time or not. I can't even bring Appa..."
Sokka remained quiet for a few moments before speaking up again, "Let me see the letter."
Aang nodded and walked over to him, handing him the small piece of paper before taking a seat next to his friend. He and Suki stayed silent for a few minutes to allow Sokka to read it.
"It looks like this is only part of the letter," Sokka observed after he read it, "The paper is ripped in half...where is second part?"
Suki shook her head, "we have no idea but that paper alone tells us enough."
"Well what are we going to do?" Sokka questioned letting the piece paper fall from his hands and onto the floor, "Are we just going to give into what these guys are asking?"
Suki and Aang exchanged glances before the ex-Kyoshi Warrior spoke up, "We don't really have any other choice."
"Sure we do," Sokka argued, "We just can't have Aang go there alone. It could only make things worse."
"Sokka," Aang started, causing the older boy to look at him, "Things are already worse. You saw what they did in Omashu and then they killed Kuei. Whatever these guys want they have proven that they will do anything to get it," Aang took a deep breath and forced the next words out, "They'll kill Katara to if they have to. If we want her alive, we have to do what they say."
Sokka shook his head, "What makes you think they won't kill her anyway?"
Aang opened his mouth about to speak only to hang his head down afterwards, not knowing the answer to Sokka's question.
"We don't know what they'll do to her," Suki spoke up, "but if we don't listen to them, they will kill her for sure."
Sokka hung his head, mimicking Aang's position, knowing that Suki was right, "Where is their airship at?" Sokka asked Aang quietly.
"It hovering above the Serpents Pass," Aang answered standing up, "It will only take me ten or fifteen minutes to get there...I need to leave now."
"Wait," Sokka said, following Aang as he walked out of the bedroom and into the main room of the house, "We at least need to come up with a plan to get you and Katara out of there when you get her."
"I'll take my bison whistle," Aang answered simply, pulling the object of his robe pocket briefly before putting it back in, "You and Suki just wait next to Appa. Then once I can save Katara, I will call you guys there and we can escape."
"I don't think these guys are going to make it that easy," Suki stated.
"Well it's the only thing we can do without risking them killing Katara," Aang responded, walking over to grab his staff that was leaning against a wall near the front door, "Just go wait by Appa, I should be able to call you guys in a few hours but whatever you, don't come unless I say so.
"Okay," Sokka nodded, knowing that they didn't have much of a choice, "Just go get my sister Aang."
"I will," the Avatar answered determinedly, opening the front door, as well as his glider, before he shot up into the skies.
Sokka and Suki watched him go until he just appeared as a black dot in the sky, praying that their friend would be okay.
"Do you think he'll be able to get her?" Suki asked worriedly.
"I don't know," Sokka murmured in response, taking a deep breath as he felt a few tears prickle his eyes out of worry for his sister, "But I hope so."
Tau walked down the halls of the airship towards where Ryu should be with the young watertribe girl they had captured the night before. After a few minutes of walking through the mazelike corridors he finally came to the room where they should be and sure enough, there they were. He walked in just as Ryu was putting a few things into a bag. Tau couldn't see what the things were but he assumed it had something to do with what he had asked for Ryu to do a few hours ago.
"Finished?" Tau asked
The earthbender turned to him, slinging his bag over his shoulder as he walked up to his leader, "Yeah, it's all done."
"How is she?"Tau asked glancing briefly at the young Waterbender lying on a metal table behind his friend.
"She's fine," Ryu assured, walking out of the room, "she's just unconscious for the time being. She should be up in a few minutes."
Tau nodded in approval as Ryu disappeared into the hallway, leaving him alone in the small room with the unconscious Waterbender. Tau closed the door to the room before turning back to study her for a few moments.
She was lying with her back down on the metal table, arms outstretched as they were strapped down by tight ropes that were tied to the legs of the table closest to her head. Those were the only things holding her down though. Her legs were free to move and besides the bruise on her right cheek where Ryu had knocked her out last night, she was unharmed.
Satisfied with her condition, Tau turned his attention to the window to see if he could spot the Avatar coming towards them. Part of Tau wondered if the girl in their custody meant enough to the Avatar to make him come to them on their own demands. Judging by what he saw at the park a few days before, he would think she would. Then again, this is the Avatar he was thinking about. Wouldn't anyone be expendable to him if it was in the best interest of the rest of the world? Hopefully, the Avatar cared about the Waterbender as much as Tau hoped he did. Their plans depended on it.
The rest of Tau's thoughts were interrupted however when he heard the Waterbender stir, hearing a couple groans come from her direction and he turned his head towards her to see her glancing around the room, her eyes finally resting on him.
She glared at him and tried to sit up only to find out that she was strapped down. Tau was silent as she struggled to free herself for the next few moments before she simply just gave up, lying back down on the table, still glaring at him with those blue eyes of hers.
"You don't have to struggle," Tau told her once she calmed down, "You're not going to be hurt."
The girl snorted, "Right, like I'm going to believe you."
"You should," Tau shrugged, "The only reason that we would have to hurt you is if the Avatar doesn't comply with our demands. Tell me, does he care about you enough to do what is necessary to free you or would he just leave you to rot here?"
She stayed silent and looked away from him, refusing to answer.
"I think he cares about you enough, judging by what I saw at the park the other day," Tau continued, smiling at her, "I'm willing to bet that he gave you that ring to."
Katara glanced at the ring in question that was still being worn on her left hand, the ring that she never took off. She turned her head back to glare at the man in front of her, venom in her voice, "What does it matter to you?"
"Just curious," he shrugged, "Seeing that the watertribe costumes require a man to give his love a betrothal necklace, I'm going to assume that you two aren't engaged yet...though that ring may be a promise for things to come perhaps?"
She didn't answer, but when he saw a light blush rise to her cheeks he knew there was some truth to what he had said.
"In that case," Tau spoke up again, "I would think that he would move with all haste to come and save you, yes?"
"And when he does you'll regret this and everything else you have done," she scowled at him.
Tau gave out a short laugh before smirking at her, "Trust me; I know that I, nor my companions, stand a chance against the all powerful Avatar. It's why we brought you here...to even things out. He wouldn't dare try anything stupid knowing that we could harm you whenever we pleased."
"Whatever happened to not hurting me?" she grunted, "or did you forget about saying that already?"
"If the Avatar cooperates, no harm will come to you," Tau assured, walking over to lean against a countertop to the right of the table, her eye's following him as he moved, "Whether you are hurt or not is all up to him. As long as he does what I tell him to you'll be fine."
"So...what? I'm just a way for you to get him to obey you," Katara spat at him, "How brave. Three grown men ambushing a seventeen year old girl at night; what did you have to do, spend the daylight hours gathering up the courage to do it?"
Tau let out a small smile, amused by her remark, but he ignored all of it except for one thing, "So you're seventeen now? I figured you would be somewhere around that age."
She snorted, "How would you know?"
"I know a lot about you Katara," Tau said, seeing her eyes widen when she heard him say her name, "I meant what I said last night. It really is a shame that we had to meet again this way."
Katara rolled her eyes, "So is this where you get all vague on me?"
"No," Tau shook his head, letting out another smile, "I'll be very upfront with you. My name is Tau, and if my blue eyes haven't given it away by now, I am from the Watertribes. More specifically, the Southern Tribe."
Katara's eyes widened, he voice finally losing its venomous tone to confusion, "But...you're a waterbender. Before me the last Waterbender at the South Pole was a woman named Hama..."
"She was the last one people knew of," Tau interrupted her, walking over to the window to gaze out into the skies as he continued, "It was common knowledge that the Fire Nation was wiping out all of the waterbenders in the Southern Tribe. Being a Waterbender only brought chaos to our people. I knew this; my parents would tell me stories when I was young. So, when I was about six and I discovered I was a Waterbender, I kept it a secret. I had found out on my own when I was in my bedroom one day, alone, with no one there to see it...so keeping it a secret was easy as long as I kept my mouth shut about it."
Tau looked back at Katara, seeing her looking back at him curiously, though anger still filled her eyes.
"I felt like that was what I needed to do," he continued, "If word got out that I was a Waterbender, there was risk that the Fire Nation would find out and they would return to raid us again...and I couldn't bring myself to risk that. I was young but I knew the dangers. Being a Waterbender wasn't a gift...it was a curse."
"No its not," Katara spoke up for the first time in a while, "Waterbending is a gift. It's something that brought our tribe hope."
"Only to have that hope taken away when the Fire Nation attacked again," Tau countered, "The fact of the matter is, Waterbenders only brought sorrow to our tribe in the end so I never spoke of my abilities. Instead, I practiced alone, outside of the village for hours each day. I spent years hiding what I was learning and eventually I became strong enough that I didn't even need a source of water anymore for my waterbending to be affective..."
"You could just pull waves of water from the air right?" Katara guessed, remembering what Zuko had told her, I guess Aang was right about him just being a really strong bender.
Tau smiled and nodded before continuing where he had left off, "Of course I had no one to compare my abilities to but I knew that I was able to do something few Waterbender were able to. I only wish that I could have shared it with the rest of the tribe but I continued to force myself to keep it a secret. I knew I couldn't risk our tribe's safety. The Fire Nation hadn't come back in years and I wasn't going to be the one to bring them back...and then you came along."
Katara's head instantly perked up when he mentioned her.
Tau shook his head in disgust as he looked back out the window, "You showed your first waterbending at only four years of age and your dad, being the chief, let the whole tribe know. You were the center of attention, people praised you...some practically even worshiped you. Right then though, all of my years of trying to keep my abilities a secret went in vein. It had proven worthless," Tau narrowed his eyes a little bitterly, "While I kept my abilities secret for the good of the tribe, so much that not even my own parents knew, you were just going around and showing your bending off without hesitation and people encouraged it...I'd be lying if I said it didn't make me jealous. I was eighteen at the time, I had kept my secret for twelve years and then you made all of it worth nothing."
"Well what you did was your choice," Katara countered, "You can't possibly be blaming me for your problems."
"Oh, I'm not blaming you," Tau glanced briefly at her, "That wasn't even the start of my problems. You see a few months later, your father decided to go and help fight in the war. I went along with him, and that proved to be the biggest mistake in my life."
Tau paused and Katara was suddenly reminded about her dad telling her during her and Aang's anniversary a few months ago how he had left to fight in the war when she was four. Whatever this man was talking about, it had to be the same thing that her dad had told her, but then why would that be a mistake?
"If you went with my dad though then you would have had the chance to finally reveal your abilities," Katara questioned, "That would be good right?"
"That's what I thought too," Tau snorted, "and for a time that is exactly what happened. Your father was surprised at first when I showed him what I could do but in the coming months, I became his ace in the hole. We went from village to village and sometimes, the rest of the watertribe warriors wouldn't even have to fight...I would just go in and take out the small group of firebenders myself. My waterbending far outmatched their bending and at first it was a blessing to out tribes warriors but later on, it proved to be my downfall."
Tau paused for a couple moments before continuing, his voice taking on a slightly bitter tone, "There was one city we came across, Honlu, and the only way to get into it was by crossing a massive bridge and the Fire Nation was closing in on it. We knew we couldn't' win, so your father decided the city needed to be evacuated and he ordered me to take a few Earthbenders to hold the Fire Nation at the bridge for as long as we could. He assured me that he would come back to get us out once the city was emptied. Unfortunately, that never happened. The Earthbenders and I held the Fire Nation off for hours, I began thinking that your father was having trouble evacuating the city but later on, after the Fire Nation overran the city and captured me...I learned that the city had been completely evacuated a couple hours before my capture. "
"But...my dad said he would come back for you," Katara stated, a little shocked.
"Saying things and doing them are two different things," Tau snorted and turned back to her angrily, "Turns out, your father simply believed it was too risky to come back and get me and the Earthbender's. He and the other watertribe warriors retreated with the rest of the city. He left me behind and for the next DECADE, I was a Fire Nation prisoner, forced to endure whatever torture they decided to do. And trust me, they tortured prisoners whenever they got bored, and they were bored rather often."
Tau finally stopped speaking; his hands had clenched to fists as the memories came back to him.
"No," Katara shook her head after a few moments, "My father wouldn't have just left you behind like that. There has to be another reason for what happened. My dad's very brave..."
"Your father's a coward," Tau spat out suddenly, "He ran away to save his own skin and there is nothing more to it. Whatever you think he is just comes from him deceiving you."
"That's not true!" Katara argued, "You don't have the whole story."
"Sure I do," Tau answered, "When me and the Earthbenders were captured, the Fire Nation General told us how the watertribe warriors were seen fleeing the city hours ago. Your father decided that his own life was more important and that I was just expendable despite all that I had done to help him in months before the Battle of Honlu...and when I had the chance, I made sure he paid for what he did."
Katara suddenly felt a chill run up her spine for Tau's eyes had darkened hauntingly, "W-what do you mean?"
"A year or two after my capture, I was to be transported to a prison that was more secure than the one I had been in," Tau started, leaning back against the wall with his arms crossed, staring at her with a mixture of emotions, "The group that was doing the transporting was called the Southern Raiders and they had ordered me to hand over any possessions I still had."
Katara eyes widened upon him mentioning the Southern Raiders and she saw his hand creep up to grasp and necklace that he had around his neck.
"This necklace is my most prized possession. It was passed down from my family directly from Avatar Kuruk," Tau heard Katara gasp slightly at the knowledge that he was descended from an Avatar before he continued, "I couldn't let them take it so I offer them a deal to let them keep my necklace in exchange for some information. They agreed and a few days later I met with the leader of the Southern Raiders."
"Yan Rah," Katara whispered, just quietly enough for him to hear her. She was beginning to connect the pieces and a sickening feeling formed in her stomach.
"Correct," Tau smiled, "he let me keep my necklace and I told him what I knew...which also happened to be the one thing I could do to get back at your father for his betrayal."
"W-what di-did you t-tell him," Katara voice quivered for she already knew the answer.
"That there was one last Waterbender in the Southern Watertribe," Tau said simply.
The two remained silent a few moments after before Katara finally lost it and attempted to lash out at him.
"You...you're the source that Yan Rah had!" she screamed as she pulled at the ropes holder her down, "how could you! You knew it was me! Why didn't you tell them that I was the Waterbender?"
"Because I wasn't sure what would hurt your father more; losing his wife or losing his daughter...so I held back that little piece of information," Tau smirked, not sympathetic in the least bit, "I knew your father wouldn't give himself up for you, his cowardice wouldn't allow it but your mother...she was respectable and I knew that if the Fire Nation returned she would be the only one in the tribe that would not give you up. I knew it would either be you or her that would be killed...the fact that you are wearing your mothers necklace and that you are still alive, I assume that your mother did sacrifice herself for you."
"You're a monster!" Katara yelled, continuing her struggle, "I swear to you, once I get out of here I'll..."
"Do what?" Tau interrupted, "Don't you get it by now. Everything you and your friends have done these past few months has been by my design."
Katara finally stopped struggling as he spoke, breathing heavily and glaring at him angrily as he continued.
"I let Fire Lord Zuko live so he could ask the Avatar to come to Omashu," he told her, "And then I killed Kuei to bring the Avatar to Ba Sing Se. I need his help with what I am trying to do and one way or another, I am going to get it."
"What is it you want?" Katara snorted at him.
"That doesn't concern you," Tau said simply.
"Well whatever it is, he won't help you!" she growled back, "And once he saves me, I'll make sure you pay for what you've done!"
"Good luck," Tau answered simply, before looking back out the window, "the Avatar has to play by my rules if he wants you returned unharmed and if a few minutes we'll find out just how much he cares about you."
Katara didn't say anything back, as she watched him look out the window with a smirk on his face.
The Avatar has arrived.