Love In Danger chapter 19: The Southern Waterbenders

Katara was eating lunch with Sokka and Suki in the Earth King's palace. It was a relatively quiet, peaceful and uninteresting day as all the days living in the palace tended to be. Though Katara at least never found a reason to be dissatisfied with the food or service, both were excellent which was to be appreciated; she was now three months into her pregnancy and had just started to show so her appreciation of being taken care of had increased though so to did her boredom and her wish that Aang would finish his search for Long Feng and return so the Earth King would stop insisting she remain in the palace under guard all the time.

"Aang sure is taking a long time getting back" Suki said as she filled her bowl with rice. "I wonder if he's even found Long Feng."

"If I know Aang he's already found Long Feng beaten him to a pulp and taught everyone a warm- touchy lesson about hope and love or eating your vegetables or something" said Sokka as he stuffed his face with roasted chicken.

"Still, this is a lot longer than he said he would be gone" Katara said. "I'm starting to get worried about him."

"Aang's a fully realized Avatar he can take Long Feng and his agents with both hands tied behind his back" Sokka assured.

The cooing of Sokka and Suki's child Hakoda became noticeable when he had reached over the table towards one of the plates of food. Everyone was so distracted by that they didn't notice Momo swiping dozens of pastries from the table.

"Sorry little Hakoda, this is grown up food" Sokka said as he picked his son up and held him in his arms. The baby resembled his father in almost every way, except he was slightly paler than him and had greenish eyes, traits inherited from his mother. "Guess he's going to end up liking meat too."

"He sure is just like his daddy" Suki said.

"Heaven help us" Katara teased. She and Suki laughed. 

"Very funny" Sokka replied.

"Hey what's the baby doing now?" Suki asked.

"What do you mean?" Sokka said as he turned his head back towards his son. He then knew what Suki had been talking about. Hakoda was pushing his arms forward and pulling them back rhythmically.

"Is he doing some kind of dance?" Sokka asked.

"I don't think so Sokka" Katara said. "Look!" She pointed to an open teapot on the table. The tea inside of the pot was moving being pushed forward and pulled back in waves at the same time that little Hakoda moved his arms.

Sokka held the baby's arms for a second. The tea ceased to move. He released Hakoda's arms and he resumed pushing and pulling merrily as if it was some kind of game. The tea responded to his movements once more.

"Sokka, little Hakoda is a Waterbender!" Katara shouted. "Spirits almighty!" Sokka exclaimed. Suki was left speechless.

"Another Southern Waterbender!" Katara beamed joyfully. "I never thought I would see the day!"

"I was worried he would turn out too much like his aunt" Sokka joked as the shock began to wear off.

"Still a bender with warrior parents, that's a potent mix Sokka," said Suki.

"You're right" Sokka agreed. "Imagine how strong he'll be if we train him as a Waterbender and a Kyoshi and Water Tribe warrior! He'll be like an Avatar only a million times better!"

"Where do you get that logic from Sokka?" Katara asked.

"Water, boomerang, club, fan, sword and other sword beat Air, Water, Earth and Fire easily" Sokka boasted.

Katara simply rolled her eyes.

"When you say 'other sword' do you mean mine or yours?" Suki asked. "Your sword" Sokka said simply.

"What? My sword is way better than yours, your sword is the 'other sword'!" Suki protested. "My sword is made from a meteorite!" Sokka defended.

"My sword is a katana, that's way better than a Jian!" "My sword can cut through solid steel!"

"If you made a katana out of meteorite ore it could slice through a wall of diamond like a wet noodle!"

"Ok, ok both of your swords are awesome but what would Hakoda need with one, he's a Waterbender?" Katara interjected.

"It would sure come in handy during a lunar eclipse or if he was stranded in the middle of a desert attacked by Sandbenders" Sokka pointed out.

"Yeah, like with Zuko and his twin swords. He could also use one of them with his bending" Suki added.

"I guess that makes sense" Katara said, remembering how helpless and frustrated she felt when away from a source of water during an emergency.

"Of course, someone does have to teach him Waterbending in the first place" Sokka said. "Is that something that interests you?"

"Really me?" Katara asked, surprised. "Who else?" Suki asked.

"Well Master Pakku…" Katara started.

"Is a jerk" Sokka finished. "Little Hakoda here would have much more fun learning from you."

"Wow, I'm flattered guys, I'd love to teach my little nephew Waterbending" Katara accepted happily.

"And maybe Uncle Aang can give you a hand with that every now and then too" Sokka said. "Of course, he'll have his hands tied teaching four little ones to master Airbending" Suki said. Katara's smile suddenly sank for a moment. "…Yeah…" she said.

Suki and Sokka looked at each other worriedly.

"Uh is something wrong Katara?" Suki asked concerned. "What? No…well…" Katara stuttered.

"Come on Katara" Sokka encouraged.

"It's just that…" she started, "…well it's not like I never thought of Aang and I having kids when we were dating and I knew that there was a good chance they would turn out Airbenders but it's just that…well when I didn't know what they were going to be it just felt more natural but now…it may sound selfish but knowing that none of my children will ever be Waterbenders just feels so planned."

"Well, that does make sense" Suki said. "It's only natural that you would want one of your children to be a Waterbender like you."

"Yeah, but it's still selfish" said Katara. "There are hundreds of Waterbenders in the world and counting these children there are only five Airbenders. The world needs more Airbenders to be born than it needs Waterbenders but still…I always wanted to raise a Waterbending daughter in our tribe the way mom never got to raise me. I always wanted to be like her."

"Katara you're already exactly like our mother" Sokka said seriously. "…You really think so?" Katara asked.

"Of course, you've been acting like my mom and the mom of the entire group you're for as long as I can remember. You've been training for this your entire life!"

Katara smiled and laughed.

Sokka continued, "Katara these are still your babies and when they come, you're going to love them more than anything in the world and they're going to love you." He placed his palm on her belly. "And these are still my nieces and nephews whether they're Waterbenders, Airbenders, or even Firebenders. They're still our family."

Katara reached out and hugged her brother tightly. "Thanks, Sokka" she said. "You were never that good with words when I was pregnant" Suki said.

"You're a lot tougher than Katara" Sokka said simply. "Hey!" Katara shouted.

Suddenly a loud knocking came from the other side of the door that was the entrance to the room. "Come in," said Suki.

The door swung open. In its entrance stood the head guard of the palace.

"Forgive us, we have failed" he gasped as he fell flat on his face. A knife was protruding from his back, just above his heart. He had been murdered.

Sokka and Suki quickly drew their swords and stood up. Sokka hid Hakoda in the back of the room. Katara rose as well.

"Get behind us Katara" Sokka said direly. "We've got to protect the babies." Normally Katara would have objected to this plan, but in this case, she agreed so she complied.

The sounds of scuffling continued outside until four men burst into the room, their hands incased in gloves of solid stone.

"The Avatar's wife!" shouted one as he pointed to Katara. Katara immediately recognized two of the men. They had previously attacked her in Iroh's tea shop. They were poli and jing, Long Feng's second and third in command.

"You're not laying one hand on my sister!" Sokka shouted protectively.

"It's Sokka of the Water Tribe, the warrior who scarred our leader's face!" one of the lesser agents shouted.

"Two birds with one stone" poli said with malice.

jing had been promoted to second in command since the failed assassination attempt on Katara in the Jasmine Dragon where poli's hand had been injured so it was he who ordered, "Capture the Avatar's wife!"

"And kill her brother!" poli said, repeating Long Feng's orders.

The two lesser agents ran forward. One went to Suki, the other to Sokka their rocks hands outstretched. Suki parried her enemies attacked and sliced the inside of his leg then kicked him to the ground. Sokka used his left hand to throw forth his boomerang and as the man dodged it Sokka cut his right arm with his jian. As the man jumped up and prepared to attack angrily again Sokka's boomerang came whirling back and struck him in the back of the head. He fell to the ground, throbbing in pain. Sokka caught his boomerang.

"Get up men!" poli ordered.

"Long Feng's wrath will be brought down on all of us if we fail again!" jing hollered.

The men struggled to their feet. This time their superiors weren't going to risk one-on-one fights anymore.

As Sokka and Suki focused on defending themselves from their assailant's attacks poli and jing shot their rock gloves forward, which grabbed Suki and Sokka's arms and strapped them to the walls. The lesser agents used their gloves to fasten their legs to wall. They had dropped their weapons during the impact.

poli and jing faced Katara themselves. Opening her water skin, she shot out a whip of liquid but the two Dai Li agents jumped to the side. Her technique was slowed; pregnancy had begun to shape her body in a way not conducive to battle.

jing launched forward the metal cuffs in his sleeves usually reserved for trapping Earthbenders and they clasped around Katara's wrists. Pulling back on the chains harshly he made Katara drop to her knees and poli kicked up slabs of rock that trapped and immobilized her.

"We meet again" poli said as he knelt down in front of her. Katara said nothing and looked defiantly at him. "You mean you don't remember? I got this handsome wound because of you." He held up his right arm and slid down his sleeve. A healed-over stub was where his right hand should be. Obviously, it had been amputated.

"Poli" she said horrified and guilty.

"So, you do remember me. I wonder if you remember that I wasn't a lefty before this happened!" he shouted angrily.

"Poli I'm sorry about your hand we were protecting the babies…" "Save it!" he said, gripping her throat in his remaining hand.

"Poli stop it!" jing barked. "We were ordered to bring her to Long Feng alive!"

Katara remembered that voice, the voice of the man who had hesitated to kill her when he had learned of her pregnancy. She couldn't help but hear a similar tone this time.

"Fine" poli said, grabbing one of Katara's arms as jing took the other. Together they encased her in a cocoon of rock using the slabs that had trapped her.

"Stay here and finish off the rest" poli said to the other two as little Hakoda began crying.

"No!" said jing. "We were only ordered to kill the Water Tribe warrior. We have no reason to harm the woman and baby."

"Jing, she heard…!" poli started, pointing to Suki.

"She heard nothing the king's forces wouldn't assume without her" jing protested. "Just kill the Avatar's brother-in-law."

With that poli and jing left with Katara.

"Katara!" Sokka shouted desperately trying to wrench himself free. The two remaining agents stepped in front of him, removing knives from their sleeves.

Quick as a flash Suki pulled her fan out from her waist and threw it at one of the agents. Distracted by his given task to kill Sokka the assassin did not notice and the fan struck him in the back of the head. The steel lining and frame of the fan was so hard that when it struck him it knocked the agent unconscious.

The remaining agent momentarily looked to where his comrade fell and Sokka saw an opportunity and seized it. He reached behind his back to where his club was fastened and took it with his free hand. He swung it forward and hit the final agent in the leg. The agent's femur shattered like glass and he toppled down. Sokka struck him once more in the head, knocking him out.

Using his club, Sokka smashed the rock gloves binding him to rubble, freeing himself. He did the same to Suki. Suki went to grab little Hakoda but Sokka immediately ran out the door to where poli and jing had fled with Katara. Their feet had been covered in rock boots as well as their hands so there were indents in the ground that served as tracks. He followed them out to the balcony.

"KATARA!" he yelled hopelessly when he reached the balcony. He looked urgently around for more tracks, any indication to where his sister had been taken. There was none, they had completely disappeared.

"NO!"

Note:

That was some chapters we, Katara gets captured and Aang at this point doesn't even know in fact