When Zuko had first gone missing, Cordelia had assumed he was simply taking care of something. Perhaps something involving his sister, or her friends, or possibly even Mikaela. However, when the days had stretched on and she hadn't heard from him, she'd become worried. And when she'd finally spoken with Katara and realized she hadn't heard from the firebender either... well, by that point, Cordelia had known something was wrong. The problem was, she didn't know what.
She'd assumed Wolfram & Hart was responsible. She had even begun working on a plan to locate and rescue the prince from the clutches of the evil law firm.
Except every contact she spoke with told her the same thing. He wasn't at Wolfram & Hart. In fact, they had no more of an idea where he was than she did. For once, they truly were innocent.
Cordelia, of course, hadn't believed it at first. Because if they weren't behind Zuko's disappearance, she had no idea who was. So if she ever wanted to see him again, she needed the Senior Partners to be the ones responsible. Yet clearly, they weren't. And for the next few days, she was stuck on what to do next.
That was when Katara stepped in.
She didn't know very many people in Los Angeles aside from those in Angel Investigations and those from back home. She hadn't made a point to make any real friends to speak of who were native to this city. No contacts, necessarily, in the strictest sense of the word. Although she did have a couple of favors she was able to call in. Those she had earned in the short amount of time she'd lived in this strange world.
One man in particular, whose life Katara had saved about three weeks earlier, happened to be a janitor for UCLA. A middle-aged man who spoke only broken English and worked sixty hours a week to provide for his family, he had ended up on the wrong end of a vampire's fangs one evening and she'd just happened upon the scene just in time to intervene.
She'd only told him her name was Katara, yet that seemed to be enough information that he was able to find her. Of course, he could have asked about a girl who could waterbend named Katara and probably been pointed in the direction of the Hyperion. She didn't ask, though, just stared in mild shock when she found him standing in the lobby one late afternoon.
He told her a little story about a man who was running an experiment at the school. He was keeping someone prisoner there. He called him 'little prince' and insisted he bend.
That was all Katara had to hear. And once Cordelia found out where exactly at the school, they were on their way. Both were livid and were equally ready to get Zuko out of there.
The door to the basement shattered into a thousand pieces under the pressure of the wave of water Katara sent at it. She didn't care about being quiet. She wanted to make her presence known. They both did. Then, they were going to quite possibly kill whoever was responsible.