Mutant powers. It sounded like something out of a comic book or a movie. But when certain children were able to control fire, water, air or earth, people panicked. Mass genocide? Or some sort of peaceful alternative? The debate carried on for so long that the children grew up. They grew up surrounded by fear and hatred. They had their children, and passed on their distrust of others to them. It was only natural. When these children grew up, it was only a matter of time before something happened; there were so many of them. What made it worse was that each power seemed to remain in certain areas, excluding those that controlled water. North America held claim to the mutants with the power to fly by controlling the air around them. People who could control the earth were found mostly in Asia. A smaller group that controlled fire was divided between parts of Europe and Africa. Water mutants were scattered across the globe in South America, Australia, England, and other random places.

The tension between the USA and China was too great to ignore. And WWIII was the result. There was no clear loser . . . but the horrific loss of most of the USA was the result of a poor leader with little decision-making skills. Of course people blamed mutants; it was easier than trying to work out the politics and ridiculous catalysts to the devastation of that many nuclear bombs. Years passed and fire mutants began to collect themselves. Too long had they been downtrodden and hated. Their power was dangerous and frightening, and there was no one strong enough to fight them.

The only threat to their rise in power was a rumor. A small rumor, but enough that the leader of the Fire mutants commissioned his son and daughter, both skilled assassins, to carry out this task. Everyone fully expected his daughter to claim the honor of killing the one people had named "Avatar", for the son was said to be weak, as he had refused to carry out the task of destroying a village with Earth mutants in it. Two years led to no results except for more rumors and more hope among all non-Fire mutants.

Zuko gave up. It was impossible to stay calm. He was about to make the biggest move in his career should he complete this task. In an attempt to still his erratic breathing and pounding heart he paused for a moment on the balcony. It didn't help, so Zuko continued on, gently sliding the window open-It wasn't even locked!-and drawing out his knife. Silently he maneuvered into the room. All that assassin training came in handy sometimes. Straightening, Zuko found the bed and in the dim light made out a figure sleeping. It was too easy. Zuko crept over to the bed-Where are your friends now?--and raised his knife . . .

"Don't move." The distinctive click of a gun. Zuko felt like swearing, but instead plunged the knife into . . . pillows. There was a slightly malicious laugh. "Did you really think we would let you murder Aang that easily?" Zuko started to turn but a fist came out of nowhere and hit his head . . . hard. "I've got the gun. You don't. You might want to remember that I can kill you." Now Zuko swore.

"Don't be rude." The voice said again . . . female. Who-"Tie your hands together." A zip tie was tossed at him. Instead Zuko created a flame and whirled . . . only to be hit in the head again, not with a fist but the butt of a gun. He slumped down, falling on the bed. Dazedly he could feel his captor putting handcuffs on his wrists and throwing him down on a chair. He woke up a little more as his arm was suddenly pricked.

"Hey" he mumbled half-heartedly.

"Sorry. It's necessary." A blinding light pierced his eyelids and Zuko tried to lift his hands to cover his eyes, but found them immobile. For a second he thought he had been paralyzed, but them felt the rope around him. Rope. He smirked. Flammable-You can't keep a Fire mutant in something flammable. Nice try with the handcuffs though . . .

"You can't burn them." The girl came into his field of vision. "I just drugged you."

Zuko almost swore again, but saw the girl still holding the gun and bit his tongue. "Who are you?" He chose to growl instead. The girl's bright blue eyes widened in surprise and then narrowed in anger.

"Please. You chase us for two years and you don't even know who I am? You're a worse assassin than I thought."

Zuko cast his foggy memory back towards his previous encounters with the Avatar and his friends. "Oh. It has been a year though."

"I suppose." The girl's expression didn't change as she left Zuko's field of vision. He heard a foreign clicking noise. "Sokka? Yes, it all worked. I've got him. No, I'm not hurt, stop worrying. Hurry up, okay? Yeah. Love you too." Oh. Ancient cellphone no doubt.

"What do you want with me?"

"Nothing."

Zuko raised an eyebrow as the girl re-entered his vision. "Fine, you don't have to tell me if you don't to."

"I'm serious." The girl's level gaze left no doubt of that. "I'm just delaying you." She sat down on the bed. "Your turn. What are you doing?"

Zuko looked at her incredulously. "Uh, what does it look like? I'm sitting here, tied up, and I'm extremely angry."

The girl shook her head. "Why are you doing this? Chasing us, I mean."

Zuko almost laughed. "Isn't it obvious? I'm in love with you and I'm trying to get you to like me." It was totally worth it for the girl's reaction. Her jaw dropped, blood flooded her cheeks, and she looked away. A second later she had shaken her head and turned back, expression somewhat calmer.

"Stop playing games."

"No, I'm serious." Zuko didn't let a smile even touch his lips, "Who wouldn't fall in love with you?" He began to obviously rake her body with his eyes-Which was an added bonus to this game . . .

The girl's expression turned bitter and angry. There was something else . . . ha, self-conscious. That's what she was. It became difficult to keep the smirk off his face, so Zuko added on: "Since you're here . . . alone . . . I'm assuming you've realized this yourself . . . so that's why you have me here."

If she was blushing before, it was nothing compared to what she was doing now. "You're disgusting." She spat. She had a temper. Zuko catalogued this for further use. He wanted to keep the banter going, but the girl turned away. "Just be quiet." Her tone was already weary. Despite his failure, Zuko thought to himself that this might just be fun. And he in the meantime he could assassinate a semi-dangerous Water mutant.

Good was not a word she would use to describe her situation. Her prisoner had been asking for over an hour to go to the bathroom, and pretty soon she would have no choice but to let him.

"Do it in your pants. See if I care."

"It will smell bad."

Katara groaned and slammed her book shut. "Fine!" She picked up her gun. "No funny business."

"What, am I going to use a hairbrush to kill you?"

"Probably." Katara untied him. Zuko held out his handcuffed hands, but Katara shook her head. "Make it quick."

He moaned and whined until finally moving into the bathroom. All Katara could do was smile slightly. Annoyed as she was with him, he had to be more annoyed. The humiliation of a full-fledged assassin being captured by a worthless Water mutant had to be acute. Katara drew some water from the air and began molding it, changing it from ice to liquid and then back to gas. It was a good meditation exercise.

"Nice."

Katara almost shrieked but held it back and gasped instead, kicking out and hitting Zuko in the solar plexus. He fell back, wordlessly gasping on the floor, and had he been Aang or Sokka she would have laughed and then scolded him for startling her, but her heart was beating too fast for that. She pulled him onto the chair roughly and retied his ropes with fumbling fingers. She could feel his breath finally slowing through the ropes.

"You're twitchy, aren't you."

"Shut up."

"For sure you are naive. Can't even pay attention to where your prisoner is."

"I said-" Katara yanked the ropes, "-shut up, Zuko."

He went silent at this and for a moment Katara was thankful, until he opened his mouth again.

"What's your name?"

"Why do you care." Katara finished her overly-complicated knots and stood back.

"Why not?"

"That was a rhetorical questions."

"I want to know."

Katara went around him to sit on the bed when he stuck out a foot. Ungracefully she fell. Ignoring this, Katara flopped down on the bed.

"Untie me, and I'll join you."

Katara snapped. Whipping out her knife-Oh you better be scared of this beautiful blade--she thrust the point towards his neck, stopping when she just nicked his skin. "Keep this up, and-" she slid the blade down his chest and then lower, keeping her eyes fixed on his face "-and you will definitely regret it." It shut him up remarkably well. Two whole hours passed before he spoke again.

"So, what is your name?"

"I'm not going to tell you." Katara stopped sharpening her knife--It was good to keep him nervous-"You'll just look me up in whatever databases your wimpy group has and find out who I'm related to, and then kill them. It's not happening."

"Apparently you have never actually used a computer." His tone was so condescending that Katara felt a frown once again slide onto her face. "For one, our databases are not that extensive. And two, there are so many people with the same name that there will be no way to find you."

"Why should I trust anything you say?" Katara murmured, turning back to her knife.

"Because it doesn't matter in the long run. We could annihilate everyone on this miserable planet in one moment and stay alive ourselves. Why does your name matter?"

"Why don't you annihilate everyone?" Katara ignored the last part.

"Why waste good people?" Katara looked up sharply. His face was blank until he finally grinned evilly. "When they can be used?"

Katara snarled, "You make me sick!" She turned away, attempting to run her hands through her hair before the knots stopped her. Glaring at him once more, she strode across the room and into the bathroom. He hadn't flushed. Of course. Wincing as she ran the brush through her long hair, Katara once again considered cutting it all off. It was so impractical, having such long hair. Katara pulled it back into a ponytail with a sigh. Her own vanity stopped her.

"Someday" she muttered.

"What was that?"

"Nothing!" Katara snapped. How could one boy be this annoying? She dealt with two every day, and they never made her this furious.

"I'm hungry."

"Good for you." He would get hungry this fast. Teenage boys always did . . . Katara paused. How old was he? She pulled out two protein packets from her backpack, mixing them in cups of water. She moved back to him. His golden eyes watched every move she made, which was completely unnerving.

"How old are you?" She asked.

"Interested, are we?" Katara gave a pointed look towards her knife. His tone changed. "I'm not telling you."

Katara took a slip of her liquid food. She smiled slowly. "Sure about that?"

His resolve lasted all of half a minute-Boys could never resist food-"I'm eighteen."

Katara said nothing,-only two years older than her?-just took control of his food and moved it towards his face. His scowl was enough to let her know how humiliating this was for him.

"Just act like it's a straw." She moved it up to his lips and he awkwardly consumed it.

"Thanks." He said gruffly.

"No problem." Katara returned with surprise. She settled back on the bed to read. It was getting late. Her eyes itched with tiredness. She wouldn't fall asleep too soon though, she still had to give Zuko another dose of inhibitor before sunrise. Katara tried to keep her focus on the book. She was so tired . . . it had been a long night.-A very long night . . .