Chapter 1: Nightmare

She looked so helpless and ragged in only her under boundings, her blue Water Tribe clothing having been torn to unrecognizable pieces a while back. She kept her brilliant blue eyes shut because all that surrounded her was darkness. She never could see the chains that bound her hands and feet to the wall, but she knew they were there. Their cold metal rubbed and dug into her small, delicate wrists. Her arms were sore and had long lost feeling from being extended and unable to move above her head for so long. Bruises covered her battered body. She didn't know exactly where each of them came from—either falling and stumbling through the woods, being dragged across the steel deck of a ship, or from his hand. A single tear escaped from her eye as she replayed her last day or so in her mind…

Katara, Aang, and Sokka were determined to find Aang an Earthbending teacher. They knew it wouldn't be long before Aang finally found a teacher that "listened and waited." In the meantime though, Appa had been flying for hours, and they all needed rest. They landed in a clearing in the forest next to a river and set up camp. When nightfall came, all three curled up and fell asleep fast.

Katara jerked up out of her sleep, a cold sweat on her brow. She kept having the same vivid nightmare about the day her mother was taken. Knowing she wouldn't be able to fall back asleep, Katara got up. She decided to take a walk to take her mind off of her torturous nightmare. The sun's light was just barely beginning to peek out from the edge of the earth. Katara would return in a couple of hours when the boys would wake up.

Katara began walking alongside the river downstream so she would have an easy marker to follow back. Her mind was filled to the brim with images of her mother. The day she had been taken, her eyes had been teary, but she had still looked so strong. She had kept telling Katara that everything would be alright, even when the Fire Nation soldiers were dragging her away. All Katara wanted was to be like her mother: to be strong even when she knew things weren't going right. She always tried to appear powerful and composed in front of Aang and her brother. Katara knew they knew she was a strong bender, but she still thought they viewed her as weak sometimes. She was the one who would occasionally trip over a root, get scraped up, and then immediately have the boys rushing over to help her up and tell her to be more careful. If it was Sokka who fell, he was only laughed at. But she would show them. When it came down to it, they would see that she was able to fight just as well as them.

Katara hadn't been paying much attention to the forest around her before, but soon she looked up to see faint glows through the trees in front of her along the river. Were those fires? She cautiously walked closer and ducked behind a tree. Katara gasped as she realized who the fires belonged to. There was a Fire Nation ship banked on the edge of the river. It was large and made of metal, but smaller than the battle ships she had seen at the North Pole. There were several campfires in the forest surrounding the ship where the crew was camped out.

Katara had to get back to Aang and Sokka; they had to get out of there! She carefully stepped back. She turned around to walk back just as she bumped into something. Katara's heart stopped . Her eyes widened and a cold chill ran down her spine. She slowly looked up into the face of a uniformed and armed Fire Nation soldier. Without even thinking, she turned and bolted into the forest. She ran away from the Fire Nation camp, but not towards Aang and Sokka. Katara couldn't lead them straight to the Avatar. Her feet pounded on the ground, and she could hear the louder pounding of the soldier's feet behind her. She thought about turning around to attack. She had her water skin on her, and it was only one guy. Before she even had the chance, something caught the corner of her eye. A second soldier was coming at her from her left side.

Sentries! They had sentries posted around the camp, and she'd run right in the direction of another one.

But Katara should have never taken her focus off of her path in front of her. As she shifted her eyes back to the front, her foot caught on a root that pulled her down hard to the ground. All of her breath was knocked from her body. What she wouldn't give to have the boys rushing over to help her right then. She quickly and painfully got to her hands and knees to try to recover. She turned her head to see how close her pursuers were just in time to see a big, black, Fire Nation boot coming straight towards her head.

Then everything went black.

When Katara's eyes opened, all she could see was darkness. She could feel heavy chains around her wrists and ankles that clinked together even with the slightest movement. Her mouth was dry, she was thirsty, and her entire body ached. The air around her was cool and damp. She could feel it on her skin...a lot of her skin. Her robes had been removed, and she was left in only her under boundings. The wall against her back was cold metal. She had gone from having a nightmare to being in one. She was on the Fire Nation ship.

Katara could hear the muffled sound of boots walking across the hard floor outside getting closer. Had she the energy to gasp, she would've. Keys jingled in her door's lock. Someone walked inside the room and shut the door behind them. Katara could hear a man's deep, steady breathing. The temperature of the room rose. A flicker of fire from the man's palm dimly illuminated the room.

She would've recognized that face anywhere.

He walked over to her and put his face much closer to her's than necessary. Katara anxiously swallowed, but her mouth was parched.

"Will the Avatar come looking for you?" She could feel his hot breath on her face when he asked. He was so close to her face she could feel the heat radiating from him.

Katara was confused at first. It wasn't his usual "Where is the Avatar" interrogation. A weak, broken smile twitched on her lips. He had finally changed it up.

"Answer me." He got closer and his voice got lower.

Katara wasn't going to answer him. She'd had her mind set on keeping silent the instant she'd seen his face. She turned her head slowly to face him. Her lips parted as if she were about to speak. Then, before he could even move, she spat right into his face, only inches away from his scar. Her weak smile grew a little stronger.

His eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. He drug his sleeved arm across his face and calmly backed away a little. Then suddenly, his fist came out of nowhere, landing sharply in her side. Her breath sucked in harshly. She grimaced and ground her teeth to keep from crying out.

"Fine. It doesn't matter if you answer me or not. You have to mean something to the Avatar if you follow him around like a helpless child." His voice dripped with malice. "He'll come for you, and he'll surrender so that nothing happens to you. The Avatar is easily predictable." He put out his fire and his footsteps echoed in the tiny cell as he walked to the exit.

Katara's voice stopped him at the door. "Is that what this has come to Zuko? Hitting girls?" Her hoarse, dry voice, spoke in choppy phrases, unable to keep her breathing steady after the piercing blow. "I guess it is true what they say...like father, like son." Her last phrase was coated in ice.

Zuko's fists balled up as he stepped out and slammed her cell door behind him.

That was the last time she had seen him, and that had to have been at least twelve hours ago. The boat had begun rocking not too long after Zuko had left her. She knew they had left the bank of the river. Where they were headed, Katara had no idea. Katara had slept some, but for how long, she didn't know. She hadn't had water the whole time she was on the ship, and she was so thirsty. All Katara knew was that she was scared. As much as she hated to be, she was scared about everything—about where they were going, about Aang and Sokka, and mostly about seeing Zuko again. She hoped he wouldn't come back, but she knew he would. And when he did, who knew what would happen.

Author's Note: There you have it...my first chapter of my fist Zutara fic! I really just write for fun, so I don't know if it's that great. Just if anybody reads this please post a review! If I don't get any feedback, I won't think anybody's reading. I don't know if I'll keep posting if I don't get reviews...so review please if you do read! Just let me know if it's worth continuing, or if it's not interesting enough to even write more...but please be respectful :)