A Desperate Bargain

Timeskip:

Aang, Katara and Sokka were getting quite worried. The three of them had one goal at the moment, and that was to escape. As of the moment they were currently on top of a fire nation ship, their escape - Appa, Aang's flying bison - was standing right behind them, however they couldn't yet escape. The reason why was the older, angry looking, pony tailed boy with a scar on his eye. He was clearly a powerful fire bender, and definitely a determined one if the way he was trying to catch Aang was any indication, and if he wasn't trouble enough then add in the fact that he had several other firebender troops standing behind him.

"Give up," Prince Zuko - the previously mentioned angry boy - growled as he and his men stood ready to jump into combat. "if you surrender I won't harm any of you, I'll even let the two water tribe peasants go free." He said, adding the last part to Aang.

Aang paused, Zuko's words echoed in his head. Yes Zuko had been trying to catch him but he had kept his word before when they agreed that Aang would come with him in exchange for leaving the water tribe alone. And right now Katara and Sokka were in danger, that was a fact. Aang knew he was a powerful airbender but he was still out matched, Sokka was limited to a boomerang and a club since he wasn't able to bend any elements at all and while Katara was a waterbender, she was not a trained one, he himself had never waterbended before but he was sure that at this point he was probably better than her. Aang supposed they could quickly make a run for it and jump on Appa but that was clearly a bad idea since it was very likely that they would simply shoot them straight back down to the ship, and Aang didn't want to risk Appa - his best friend - like that. Aang's best bet had been the Avatar state, however he had already used that less than a minute ago, and he was still tired from doing so.

"Aang! No!" Katara quickly said when she saw that Aang was actually considering accepting Zuko's offer.

"Aang, maybe." Sokka said in a weak voice as he looked at the firebenders opposite him. "I was kidding!" He said in a defensive voice when he saw that Katara was glaring at him with a heat that would make a firebender proud.

"Do you promise not to hurt them?" Aang asked, lowering his staff.

"I won't if you cooperate. You have my word." Zuko nodded, speaking honestly.

"I'll do it." Aang said in a solemn voice, Zuko gestured to two of his men who walked forwards towards Aang, both holding spears in their hands.

"Aang, you can't!" Katara replied as she grabbed his arm and attempted to drag him to Appa, only for Aang to stay rooted in the spot where he was standing, refusing to move.

"I have to, Katara." Aang sad with a sad expression on his face. "Take your brother and go, please." He begged, lowering his head slightly as the two men came closer. Sokka held his club in one hand, his boomerang in the other. His mind was in overdrive as he tried to think of a way to get out of this safely along with Aang and Katara, unfortunately he wasn't able to come up with anything.

"You don't have to!" Katara said, tears dripping down her face.

"Yes, I do." Aang said with a sad smile when the two men were mere feet away, the trio looked to the men that held their spears defensively, ready to fight back if any of the three try and attack.

"No, back off!" Katara shouted to the two fire nation men as she stepped in front of Aang.

"What are you doing?!" Aang and Sokka asked at the same time.

"I'm not giving you up without a fight!" Katara said in a determined voice, the two boys exchanged looks of disbelief, apparently she was willing to ignore the fact that she barely knew how to water bend. Sokka in particular was more than surprised, he knew his sister could be stubborn but this was a whole new level of stubborn when compared to her previous acts, though he supposed this situation was a level up from arguing about who was going to clean the tents.

The fire nation men continued moving forwards but were stopped when an air blast sent them flying backwards and landing mere feet away from Zuko.

"That wasn't me!" Aang quickly said when everyone looked at him.

A second later the air around them shifted and someone dropped into view, the air around this new person shifted so it would slow his landing. He landed in-between the fire nation and the trio while a triangle shaped glider landed a short distance behind Appa.