I'm back, but don't panic, i haven't abandon my other stories, i've just let my mind stew for a while, so heres a new story!
In my version of things, Katara was orphaned as a child and her brother died when she was very young, she never discovered the Avatar, however she did join a group of rebels called the Equilibrium, who sought to defeat Fire Lord Ozai through infiltrating his palace and assassinating his family. Zuko was never exiled in this. any problems, just ask me to clarify. and to clear things up, this is Zutara, duh!
I don't own Avatar, if I did, you would know.
Katara stood at the railing of the ship, staring into the sea as the ship glided through the waves, behind her, Ami waited for an answer.
"You want me to be a servant in the palace?" Katara asked, clarifying things.
"A slave, more or less, in order to find out their plans." Ami told her.
"That won't be easy." Katara noted. "And there is no guarantee that I won't die." She looked behind her at Ami, the earth bender stood there with her head down. "I'll do it." Katara said, and with those words, she sealed her fate.
Her eyes snapped open and she looked around the hall in which all the slaves were sleeping. She had been dreaming a memory of almost two years ago and the words that had left her in the fire lord's palace, hiding her identity and trying to find the answers that the Equilibrium was searching for. Glancing at the window, she saw the sky had begun to lighten, the sun rose early in the fire nation and soon, so would the people. But before they rose, the servants and slaves would rise first.
Katara rose quietly, storing away her sleeping mat and pinning back her hair, as she did, her sleave fell back and exposed the brand on her arm, more like a burn scar it marked that she was a slave and property of the fire nation. Katara looked away and covered up the mark with her long crimson sleave, part of the clothes they wore as slaves, the traditional clothing of the other nations was forbidden. Around her. the other women began to stir, and across the room, separated by a wall, the male slaves were heard rising.
As they began to hurry to their work places, Katara walked down the kitchens, long before dawn, the cooks would rise and began to prepare breakfast for the people who lived in the palace, as Katara opened the door, she was eloped in a cloud of steam, unable to see she used her water bending to push the water vapour away.
"Better not let anyone see you bending." Cautioned Reye, a younger serving girl who was preparing plates for the meals to be served onto. Reye was a seventeen, a year older than Katara and an earth bender who had lived in the palace for her whole life, her mother Cali was a cook, but the both of them were marked slaves.
Above them, in the dining room, voices were heard and Reye sighted, she grabbed a light red headband to hold back her dark hair, grabbed a plate and negotiated her way out of the kitchen, followed by several other slave girls.
Katara grabbed a plate and followed them, through the halls until they reached an opening in the passages for the servants, then the plates were passed to fire nation servants, who were the only ones permitted to serve food to the palace inhabitants. They took the plates and warmed them with their fire bending so they were warm enough for the Fire Lord and his children. The slave girls meekly disappeared back into the slave passages, Katara lingered for a few seconds, turning to look as the great doors were opened for the Fire Lord, she caught sight of a set of golden eyes before she ducked into the passage, knowing that if one of them had recognized her, she would have been severely punished. Back in the kitchen, she helped wash the dishes that were returning from the main hall where the noble Fire Nation people dined, and then she washed the dishes from the higher-ranking servants who were eating then.
Finally, she was able to dry off her hands and stand to eat her own food, only the really young, or the very old servants were permitted to sit and eat, and it was usually on the dirty ground out of the way of the busy slaves.
When her small breakfast had been eaten, Katara was on duty to help the maids clean the rooms. The maids were usually paid servants, who would dust idly or pick things up from the floor while the accompanying slaves would scrub the floors, make the beds, clean the windows and walls among other chores. The maid Katara had been assigned to was particularly mean and fussy, it took about three sessions of difficult scrubbing on Katara's part until she was satisfied.
When the time came for lunch, Katara was aching all over, her knees and hands were red raw from scrubbing the ground and her back was stiff.
Slaves were permitted to dine with the higher servants for lunch, although it was at the end of the hall with the lower quality food, and then they were allowed to clean up before afternoon chores.
Katara was in the courtyard scrubbing the paving stones when a shadow fell across her face, shielding her from the blinding sun.
"You're wanted in the Fire Lords chambers." The Fire Nation solider told her. Katara looked up at him.
"Why?" She asked him, not unnerved by his tall stature, a moment later she silently cursed herself when she should have been acting like a frighted slave, then again, the things the slaves would curse about in the passageways held no trace of fear, only discontentment towards their masters, who treated them no better than the palace animals.
The soldier seemed to have no problems with this, he shrugged his shoulders and waited for her to stand up and follow him. as she walked after him, another slave girl who looked about twelve walked into the courtyard and took over her job of scrubbing.
As Katara walked behind the solider, she kept her head down and focussed on the ground in the picture of a god obedient slave, in reality she wanted to summon all the water she could and flush out all the fire benders in this godforsaken palace, but she would have difficulties doing that, according to the legends, it hadn't rained in the fire nation for years since Fire Lord Ozai had taken the throne, and it wouldn't until he was dethroned. Even the harbour with all the battleships waiting in it was sorely depleted, this place was a water benders hell.
Katara followed the soldier up the winding passages of stairs to the Fire Lord's chambers, outside, she tried to appear obedient, yet fearful, on the inside she was running with emotions, hatred and fear were the most prominent, fear of being caught as a spy and hatred towards this man who had taken her family and her people, the one who had ordered the genocide of the air benders and waged war against the world. She knew that they had no evidence about her being a spy, so far she hadn't done any spying despite being there over a year, she was waiting until she was told what to do, but she needed the fear, it kept the anger in check.
In the chambers of the Fire Lord, she knelt down as the soldier left and she remained in the room with the Fie Lord himself as well as an old man she recognised as General Iroh, he was one of the targets of the Equilibrium, there wanted to find out as much as they could about him and then kill him.
Sitting in the corner of the room was a boy who looked to be about eighteen, with dark hair and the golden eyes that Katara had seen this morning. She felt a stab of panic that she would be punished after being seen when she wasn't supposed to be seen, but the boy made no chance to jump to accusation. Instead he watched with what could be a bored expression as the two elder men played what looked like a board game. Katara was confused about her presence in the room as the two men stopped their game and turned to look at her, she duck her head and stared at the carpet, still on her knees in submission to the Fire Lord.
"She'll do." He announced. Not even looking at her and his words creating more confusion on Katara's part, she would do for what?
"Are you sure?" Iroh asked, peering at Katara.
"She's healthy, is she not?" The Fire Lord snapped. "Zuko, take her away." he ordered, the boy stood up and walked from the room, Katara guessed that she was supposed to follow him and bowed to the two men before following him from the room.
"You're my sister's and my personal slave now." Zuko said as he led her to the royal wing of the palace. "Azula killed the last girl in a temper, you will clean, you will do what we ask and nothing else, you have your own room here and you wait on us at dinner, you do not talk to the other slaves, they are beneath you now." Zuko led her to a room and stopped her there. "This is your room, you have new clothes there, you will wait on us at dinner, that's all." He said, walking away.
Katara opened the door to her new dwellings, looking around at the small bed, a wardrobe, a dresser even with a little mirror and a washbasin.
Opening the dresser, she saw that it held several outfits, she remembered that one was serving meals, two cleaning outfits designed to be comfortable in the heat, another uniform for special occasions and there was two nightshirts. On the dresser there was a new hairbrush with al her old pins and clips. On the bed, her old possessions that were stored away during the day had been unceremoniously dumped on the bed. At once, Katara went to work, ripping seams open and undoing stitches, from the folds of the cloth, hidden objects had been revealed. She had several lock picks, which she hid in the rafter of the room, some money, and when turned inside out, her clothes turned black, opportunity for when she didn't want to be seen. She changed the clothes she was wearing now into a uniform for serving before undoing her old outfit and pulling a necklace from the seam of her shirt, the water tribe necklace had originally been her mothers, but it was Katara's now and reminded her of what she was here to achieve. She hid the necklace with the lock picks and then cleaned up for serving dinner.
That night, she waited with the other higher classed servants, one of them walked over to her and handed her a pair of gloves, and Katara frowned at them.
"There for the food." A girl explained, she looked older than Katara and would have called her pretty if not for the circles under her eyes from lack of sleep and the lines around her eyes and mouth as if she frowned a lot.
"I'm Mina." She said, smiling a little.
"Katara." She said, smiling back, she liked this girl.
"Those gloves are for handling the plates, fire benders aren't allowed to serve the royal family, and so we use gloves to protect our hands." She explained.
"Then who collects the plates from the slaves?" Katara asked.
"The people who keep it warm until we serve it out, sometimes they want to wait for their food." Mina explained. "I serve the Fire Lord and General Iroh."
"And who are they?" Katara asked, motioning to the other servants.
"They pour drinks, fetch things, odd errands that the royal family want." Mina explained.
"So what do we do while they eat?" Katara asked, Mina's eyes widened in disbelief.
"You don't know what to do?" She almost wailed. "Listen carefully, you serve Zuko first, don't look up, don't make eye contact, Azula will try to trip you, dodge her foot, don't fall, you'll be punished, don't accuse her of trying to trip you, you will be punished and don't talk at all, you will be punished." Mina looked at the doors, expecting them to open at any moment.
"When they come through the doors, wait here until they pass you, stare at the ground, when they are seated, you move forward and wait at the corner of the room until the Fire Lord summons his food. When you have served them, wait in the shadows next to me until I move to take the plates away, grab the plates you put on the table, no one else's and then take them back to the slaves. Don't try to get attention and Azula will try to bait you, don't let it happen." Mina warned. The doors opened and Mina turned to look down, Katara copying her as the Fire Lord, General Iroh, Zuko and Azula walked into the room. They passed through the halls and into the dining room, where Zuko pulled the chair out stiffly for his sister, who smirked as she sat down, and watched Zuko sat across from her.
They all talked, though it looked rather stiff and formal, finally Ozai called for his food and the fire benders handed steaming plates Mina and Katara, who was glad to have the gloves to protect her skin from the hot plates. As instructed by Mina, she placed Zuko's food in front of him and then walked around to place Azula's in front of her. As Mina had warned, Azula stuck a foot out for Katara to trip on, Katara nimbly stepped around it and walked into the shadows to stand beside Mina, who stared at the ground, Katara following.
For the next hour, she stared at the ground, trying to find something more interesting than the design of the carpet, the conversation at the table was nothing to listen in on, often scathing comments directed towards Zuko, courtesy of Azula and criticism about Zuko's fire bending skills. Katara couldn't see his expression from her view of the floor, but she had no doubt that these comments were making him angry. As soon as the last person finished eating, this being Azula, Mina and Katara moved forward to remove the plates, Katara dodged Azula's foot and headed down to the servants entrance to the kitchen. As one of the slaves took the plates from her, Katara felt a piece of paper being shoved into her hands, she didn't look at it, but swiftly stuck it into her breast band before following Mina back to the dining room where everyone was standing up.
"You wait till they are asleep, you clean up, you eat the food I'll send up, then sleep, and I'll send more instructions in the morning." Mina whispered to her.
"What do I do tonight?" Katara asked her in a whisper.
"You help Azula brush her hair and change, you don't go near Zuko once the door is closed, but you wait until you are dismissed by one of them, then you go to your room and I will send food." Mina instructed. Katara nodded and watched her walk off after the two men up the stairs. Katara meekly followed Azula and Zuko to the area where their room's branched off. Zuko walked into his room and slammed the door, Katara remembered what Mina had said and made a metal note not to go near Zuko's room. instead she waited until Azula summoned her, having to brush out the younger girl's dark hair and braid it for bed. Then Azula told her to wait outside, meaning that Katara wasn't dismissed, but had to stand outside in the hall for who knows how long, Katara wasn't looking forward to this, she looked down at the ground for seemed like an hour until she heard a door open up.
She didn't look up, but she could tell by the sounds that it was Zuko's door that had opened, not Azula's.
"Go to bed." Came the sleep muffled order, followed by the slamming of a door. Katara sagged with relief and walked to her room, her feet were killing her and she was starving. As predicted, the food Mina had graciously sent was cold, but Katara didn't care, eating all of it then changing her clothes, as she did so, a piece of paper fluttered to the floor, jogging her memory. Katara pulled on her nightshirt, picking up the paper, she opened it and red the coded message.
Target 1, observe and collect information. You have until the next full moon.
Katara frowned, she knew that target 1 was Azula, the Fire Lord's favourite, she knew that she had to get information on the girl, but she needed time to do that. Crumbling the paper, she ripped it to shreds and sent it down the drain as she washed her face. Then she went to bed to prepare herself for another day at the beck and call of her enemies children.
Don't worry, they will fall in love, that is if i get reviews, and please be honest, but no scathing comments, i can insult myself!