This is my first avatar story, and my first fanfiction story in a very long time, so I'm not exactly sure how it'll turn out, but hopefully you like it! Note that this will be an AxK centered story, and there is some hinted KxZ stuff for people who like that pairing, but it won't be the mainly-focused ship, sry. And I'd just like to point out to anyone who doesn't want to be totally confused in this story, that Aang has already mastered earthbending, waterbending, airbending(duh), and just a little bit of firebending.

Note: Since this story has been long finished, I'm going back and thouroughlyediting every chapter. If you've happened to just stumble upon this story, or are re-reading it(although I don't think you'll find a need to, lol), if the word "edited" is seen just below the disclaimer, it means I've edited this chapter(though for some strange reason my computer refuses to fix typos). Because we all know this story needs it, lol. Enjoy the edited version.

Disclaimer: I don’t own the show. The genius creators made the show, and I definitely don’t compare to their superior creativity.

Edited

“Destiny's Prison”

Chapter 1

Clouds drifted over the night sky, blanketing the moon in its starry bed. The dark shadow fell over the forest, seeping its way into the thick cluster of trees until the whole world went black.

A chill wind swept through, rushing through the thinnest of trees and into the campsite that Aang, Katara, and Sokka were sleeping in. The chill made Katara stir in her sleep, until she suddenly woke, feeling cold and groggy. She reached to pull on her coat, when she realized that Aang was nowhere in sight. Being careful not to wake up her brother, Katara silently crept out of camp in search of the missing airbender.

She found him in a remote area at the base of a small cliff over looking the forest and the sea beyond it. He was laid back against the trunk of a tree, sitting on a high branch with Momo sprawled across his lap. Katara approached him quietly, and saw that he was in a trance, staring at the cloudy night sky while absentmindedly stroking his pet lemur.

“Aang?”Katara asked softly. Aang snapped out of this trance and looked down at the waterbender.

“Hey. What are you doing out here so late?”he asked.

Momo looked up from his perch and climbed down the tree to scuttle onto Katara’s shoulder. Katara patted Momo’s head, and the little lemur slid down her shoulder and lazily rested in the arch of her forearm. She stared dazedly at the catlike creature, Aang’s question slowly slipping out of her mind.

“What are you doing out here?”Aang repeated. Finally Katara looked up and smiled apologetically.

“Sokka was snoring again,”she said, smiling to herself at the thought of nobody getting any sleep because of her older brother.

“Again?”he laughed.

“Why are you out here?”she asked curiously.

“Just thinking...”he replied, looking back to the dark horizon.

“In the middle of the night? About what?”she asked, placing her hand against the trunk of the tree.

“Just...stuff,”he answered quietly, bringing his knees up to his chest and staring back at the clouds. Momo’s ears perked up, as if sensing a problem going on in the young airbender’s head.

“What kind of stuff?”she asked, concern rising in her voice.

“...I don’t know. I just never thought I'd be able to make it this far is all,"he said quietly, bringing his knees up to his chest.

"You've come a long way, Aang,"she replied in the same soft tone, gently fingering the tips of Momo's soft, furry ears.

"But I only got this far because I had you guys to help me, so...I don't know what I'm going to do after the war's over."

Katara gaped at him, the arm holding the lazy lemur drooping slightly as his words slowly etched into the walls of her mind.

"What do you mean, Aang?"she asked quietly. He hugged his knees towards him, his gaze fixing on the black sky as he sought a way to answer her.

At last, he replied, "You weren't planning on staying with me when the war ends, right?"

"Of course we were planning to stay with you! We couldn't just leave you after all we've been through together!"she exclaimed, slightly appalled that he had even considered such a thing. His expression brightened slightly, illuminating the sad glaze in his eyes and forcing a lopsided grin to appear on his face.

"But it seems selfish of me, to keep you guys from your family. Won't you ever get homesick?"he asked softly, and Katara was disappointed to see the light in his eyes flicker away, as if it had never been there in the first place.

"We're happy with you,"she answered truthfully, "Besides, I think we'd be more homesick away from you than we are now."

A second flicker of happiness flashed through his slivery eyes, disappearing like it had before as soon as if had appeared. It made the waterbender feel uneasy, though she couldn't explain why.

The young avatar frowned, sensing her uneasiness, and quickly turned his head away, as if he too was afraid of her looking at him.

Then in a faint whisper barely audible, he muttered, "Thanks."

Momo, bored of Katara, hopped off her arm and climbed back up the tree, wrapping itself around Aangs neck and letting his long tail fall behind his shoulder. Katara stared at them for a while, wondering what he could possibly be thinking about that would cloud his regular happy-go-lucky personality so thickly. Why was he avoiding her gaze so purposefully? Even in the dead of night, he was never this...quiet. Something had to be wrong. It had become a part of her instincts whenever he was with her. She could sense when he was sad, or happy, or just when he needed someone to talk to. And right now she knew that something was wrong with him.

“...Do you think everyone in the fire nation is bad?”he suddenly asked.

She shrugged slightly, unsure of the question. “I think it's more of what they're commanded to do than how they are as people. I don't know. I know the firelord is evil,”she replied.

“Do you think that’s the reason the fire nation started the war in the first place? Because of the firelord?”Aang asked quietly.

“Maybe. I think the fire nation was probably talked into doing didn't always have war, so maybe there was somebody who started it,”Katara said softly, looking down, "Why do you ask Aang?”

“I don’t know, I guess I’m just curious why this war started in the first place. I wouldn’t know. That’s all,”he said quietly.

Katara looked up at the dazed boy and frowned. Something was troubling her friend that he wasn’t telling her. She could tell by the lack of his regular enthusiasm and cheerful disposition. But she knew better to invade the mental prison he kept his feelings bottled up in. Aang always confided in her eventually. Still, it could never hurt to guess.

“You know Aang, if you’re afraidSokka or I would betray you for the fire nation, you have my word that that will never happen,”Katara said after a long period of silence.

“No, I wasn’t thinking about that,”he said quietly, “Thanks for caring though.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“No.”

Katara heaved a misty sigh and looked around, taking in the scene through the dark veil of the night sky. Trees sprung from the earth in ordered lines, creating many paths and roads to follow. Very few rays of light were able to be seen, even with the full moon’s light dotting the forest floor with its heavenly light. In the distance, pillows of smoke weighed down on the starry sky. She looked back up to Aang, wondering if he had ever noticed how beautiful it was up there.

Suddenly the airbender leaped up, frightening the sleeping lemur off his shoulders.

“Zuko!”he shouted, jumping down the tree with the help of his airbendering and grabbed Katara’s hand. Before she could say anything, he rocketed into the dark forest,dragging her at a breakneck speed and almost sweeping the waterbender off her feet.

“How did Zuko find us?”she shouted through heavy gasps of breath.

“I don’t know, but we need to get Sokka and ride Appa out of here! He landed at the southwest end, so we have to hurry!”

Aang suddenly flung out his arm and a gust of wind flew past his fingertips. The force knocked aside a large area of brush. He pulled the waterbender into the newly cleared path and blasted away a few more branches.

“We’re going the wrong way!”Katara shouted, her voice faltering from the loss of energy.

“This is a shortcut! Trust me!”

Suddenly the path of shadowy trees stopped abruptly and expanded into a large clearing. Katara had to wait until she caught sight of her older brother and the massive image of Appa to realize that they had landed right back at swayed for a moment, slowly regaining the feeling back in her legs when it suddenly dawned on her why she was so short of breath.

“Sokka!”she shouted, rushing over to her brother. She shook her brother frantically, until at last he moaned and opened his eyes.

“Morning already?”he mumbled sleepily.

“It's the fire nation! We have to get out of here!”she exclaimed.

“Okay, okay, whatever. I’m up,”he replied groggily, slowly pulling himself out of his sleeping bag.

She frantically began stuffing their belongings in bags, nearly tripping over the motionless mound of furs that was her brother. He groaned sleepily and sat up, her message finally sinking in and jumping out of bed. She threw a disapproving glare at him, stuffing several lumpy bags in his arms.

“Guys! Pick up the pace and keep quiet! I can already see the smoke from their ship!”Aang hissed, having just woken up the sleeping bison.

Katara and Sokka looked to the night sky, and sure enough, clouds of black smoke rose up from the southwest end, spilling into the inky sky like was evident that they hadparked their ship by the shore to make a brief search of the island.

When everything was packed and stored, the three teens scrambled on Appa’s back, nervously eyeing the hazy sky.

“Yip yip!”Aang shouted. Appa jumped into the air and suddenly let out a low, bellowing roar, rolling back and forth as if it was in intense pain.

“Appa, what’s wrong?”Aang shouted through its raging bellows. The giant bison suddenly crashed to the forest floor and gave a final moan before falling unconscious.

“Appa!”

Aang jumped to the ground and knelt down in front of the injured bison. He noticed a dark red spot on Appa’s foreleg, and a single arrow protruding from a pool of blood. He reached out to touch the hurt arm, when a painfully familiar voice stopped him.

“Take one more step and I’ll shoot you too.” Everyone turned to see prince Zuko standing on the opposite side of the clearing and a nearby soldier with a bow and arrow in hand. His entire crew stood behind him, their fists held out in preparation for an on-coming attack.

Aang gasped and quickly backed away, gripping his staff tighter and keeping close eye contact with the firebender. Katara and Sokka took their battle stances.

“You’re not escaping from me this time avatar,”the prince muttered, stepping forward. Aang ignored this, gripping his staff even tighter than before and glaring at the prince, never letting his eye contact fade in case of the possibility of missing an opening move.

Suddenly Zuko sprang forward, sending a blast of hot fire in Aang’s direction. Aang had seen this move countless times before and had numerous ways to avoid it.

The avatar easily evaded it and sent a gust of air to meet the fire blast, sending it hurling back at the prince. Zuko staggered backward, unprepared for the blow, and was slammed into a nearby tree. Katara followed up by using her waterbending to freeze him down.

As if on cue, his entire crew sent over twenty fire blasts at Aang. He spun into the air, deflecting most of the hits until a particularly powerful one broke through his wind barrier and caused him to fall six feet to the ground. He quickly recovered from the shock, but was thrown back by the hot force of Zuko’s flame. The prince had been able to melt the binding ice into water and had broken free.

Taking advantage of his moment of weakness, Zuko armed his bow and aimed it at the young avatar while two other guards sent hot flames at him. Aang was able to reflect the fire directed at him, but unfortunetely set it off to the side without thinking, setting a section of forest embers burned the ground, erupting into a forest fire no sooner than it had landed. Puffs of thick black smoke rose out from the burning trees, blinding the three teens so that they couldn't tell where anybody was.

“Aang!”Katara shouted, “Aang fly!” The airbender quickly stood up, only to be pulled back by the lieutenant, who had taken advantage of the smokey atmosphere and snuck behind him when he wasn't looking. He quickly pulled his arms behind him and threw his staff to the side, giving him no way to escape. Aang struggled against his grip, but to no avail. He was about to open his mouth to send out a huge gust of air in an attempt to break free, but the soldier quickly put his hand over his mouth, making any means of escape impossible.

Blindly turning towards the muffled screams Aang was making, she pulled open the small flask she carried and threateningly let a wad of water hover over her palm.

“Let him go!”she shouted.

“Try, and I'll kill you along with the avatar,”Zuko said dangerously.

“You leave him alone!”she said defiantly, ignoring his threats and Sokka’s protesting hisses.

“What are you going to do? Splash me with a little water? Tell your mommy? Oh right, you don’t have one,”he smirked.

“Shut up!”she shouted angrily, “What about yours? Was she too embarrassed to show her face in public after her son went and got himself such an ugly scar?”

She could see a tiny flash of fire light in the prince’s eyes as her words sank in. She took a step backwards, knowing that she had crossed the line.

The prince suddenly thrust out his hand and sent a burst of fire back at the girl. Her water whip easily deflected the attack, and before he had time to think, she sent another whacking at his feet. He jumped backwards and sent a second fire blast at her. She raised her hand, prepared to use water to defend herself, but found to her great misfortune that she had completely run out. The fire blast continued to race towards her, and being completely defenceless, she took the hit and fell to her knees, panting heavily.

“Katara!”Aang shouted. Zuko spun around and re-aimed his arrow.

“Take one more step and I’ll shoot!”he warned.

“Katara...,”he mumbled, trying desperately to free himself.

After much struggling, he managed to free one of his arms from the guard’s grasp and find his staff through the black vapor. He looked up in time to see Zuko’s bow being released and an arrow whiz toward him.

The young airbender quickly turned away just as the jagged spear thrust into his left shoulder, a burning pain searing through his skin the moment of the impact. Blurred images filled Aang’s head as fresh blood pooled down his front, until at last, he lost consciousness...

So much better edited... Anyways, please tell me what you thought!