Katara had known that Azula would find them before long. There was only so much the team could do to protect Aang. They had been caught. It was her fault, really. She had entered fire territory and forgotten to wear her contacts. The bright blue of her eyes caught a shopkeeper's and before long, she, Sokka, Toph, and Zuko were being dragged into cold cells. Aang had escaped. He had refused to let them be captured until Zuko had curled fire in his fists and grabbed Aang's wrists, yelling at him to run and hide. Katara had noticed Zuko's loyalty. He had surprised her.
"Do you think Aang is safe?" Sokka whispered to the group, looking around at their different cells.
"He's smart. He'll know where to go." Toph murmured to herself from her cell.
"This is all my fault." Katara whispered. No one heard her. Except Zuko. He stirred slightly in his cell and replied with his back turned,
"The Water Tribe is full of good people. A symbol of your heritage is something to be proud of, not to blame."
"Well, here we are." Azula's sultry voice stopped any thoughts. She entered with three other guards. "If I remember correctly, I have some business to settle with you and your team." She walked over to Toph's cell and looked at her in pity. "If you could see them, you wouldn't stay." She spat.
"Don't talk to her." Sokka stated calmly. Azula turned on him in slight amusement.
"I suppose I'll ask you first then." She decided.
"Ask me what?" Sokka wondered innocently.
"The Avatar." Azula hissed. "Where is he?"
"I don't know." Sokka answered honestly. Azula threw her hands against the bars, sending heat smoking through the cell.
"Don't touch him!" Katara cried.
"And what will you do about it? Can you tell me where the Avatar is?" Azula looked over at Katara.
"I will not." Katara folded her arms.
"Then we have no other option." Azula motioned her guards to move. "Take that one."
"No!" Sokka yelled as the guards took Katara out of the cell and moved her to the center of the room. "Katara, do something!"
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Azula warned. "My men are trained and if you so much as bend a droplet of water, I'll kill all your friends without hesitating."
"I don't know where he is." Katara reiterated meekly.
"Well now we'll make sure of that, won't we?" Azula watched as the guards tied her arms above her head to the chain that hung from the ceiling. Her feet were positioned on three blocks so she could hold herself up. "Why are you here in fire territory?" Azula asked.
"We are just passing through." Katara lied.
"Not the answer I was looking for." Azula tisked her tongue and slid a block out from the stack. Katara's feet slipped slightly and she moved to her tip toes to keep her arms from burning. "Let's try this again. Where are you on your way to?"
"We are only looking for safe places to train." Katara replied firmly.
"Wrong again." Azula removed another block and Katara's arms stretched as her feet moved desperately to keep pressure off her wrists. Azula moved closer. "She's strong. Much stronger than I last saw her. When she saved you, Zuko." Azula looked back at her brother. He was watching the scene with a glare on his face. "But this time, you're not there to help her." She motioned for the guards to pull Katara's shirt up. They yanked it up over her stomach and Azula's hands lit up.
"No!" Zuko yelled. "Azula, stop!"
"Zuko, be quiet!" Katara snapped. Azula slowly moved her pointer finger closer to the skin covering Katara's ribs.
"This can all stop as soon as someone offers information." Azula reminded. Katara began to shake and sweat in anticipation. She couldn't help the fear that showed plainly in her eyes. Azula's finger contacted her skin and she screamed in spite of herself. It was like no pain she had known before. She smelled her burning flesh and felt her stomach turning. She couldn't tell if Azula had pulled back or not, because the burning was still present. She distantly heard Sokka yelling at Azula and she felt the guards letting her shirt fall back down. "Next time I won't be so generous." Azula spat. "Now someone tell me the location of the Avatar!" she screamed.
"We'll never tell you! Someone like you could never understand the mission of the Avatar because…." Katara's voice tapered off. She had never called someone these names, and was scared to finish her sentence.
"Because?" Azula prodded.
"Because…because you're a selfish, murderous, fat, slut who has no purpose in life." Katara finished and Toph chuckled under her breath. Zuko's mouth fell open. Azula's eyes shimmered in flames. Before anyone could stop her, she removed the last block from Katara's stance and she hung from the ceiling by her wrists. She whimpered and Azula ran her fingers over Katara's neck, burning the skin as she went. Katara writhed in pain sweat and tears mixing and running down her face and neck. She couldn't see. Couldn't think. And then it stopped. She was let down. She was being pushed back into her cell. Her vision began to clear.
"Katara." Sokka's voice called to her. "Katara?"
"What's happening?" she mumbled.
"I've been waiting for this for a long time." Azula snickered. "To pay you back for deserting the family, ruining my plans, and following a path of selfish dreamers. Our father started a rich and glorious line in the Fire Tribe and you think you can just destroy it because you want to play with the Avatar? You're such a disappointment."
"Zuko?" Katara stumbled to the front of her cell to see Zuko kneeling on the floor, arms chained apart, shirt off.
"Do your worst, sister, just don't touch her again." Zuko looked down.
"You are fond of the waterbender?" Azula looked at him intently. "I thought you hated her." She pondered this for a moment, then turned to the guards. "He's all yours. Whip him." And with that, hell was unleashed on Zuko. The flogging consisted of thick straps of leather, each studded with flaming iron clasps and diamonds on the ends. The first hit was brutal, tearing deep into his skin, blood beginning to drip down his back.
"Noooo!" Katara screamed as the tears streamed down her face. She clung to the bars. She was dying inside as she heard the grunts of pain he made, saw his face in agony, saw him suffer instead of her. And in that moment she realized, she loved him. She loved Zuko and couldn't understand the feeling in her chest, the tight, constricting muscles strangling her practically with feeling for him.
"The little waterbender seems to be fond of you." Azula snickered. Zuko looked up at that and met Katara's eyes. The tears blurred the image of him, but she looked back. He bit his lip and she looked down. He had read it in her eyes. She did love him. And he had questioned her with that gaze.
"Do you really?" he seemed to ask.
"I do." She whispered.
"Leave him." Azula scoffed and left one guard to watch them. As soon as they left, Toph worked the earth under them, pushing the guard off the ground and into the bars. Sokka took the keys from him and unlocked his cell, just in time to send water into the man's lungs, drowning him.
"Let me out!" Katara cried, eyes on Zuko. Sokka opened her cell and she rushed to Zuko, lifting his face up. "Zuko." She whispered.
"I'm alright." He reassured her. She took his chains in her hands to ease some of the weight off of him. He motioned her to drop the chains and come back to him. She knelt in front of him and ran a hand over his face. "Sokka, let me down. I need to feel her." His hands crashed down with the chains, freed. He reached up and ran his fingers gently over her neck. "I can't believe she did this." He murmured. "Your beautiful skin."
"Your back." Katara reminded. Zuko reached down and lifted her shirt gently, examining the marks on her ribs. He grimaced.
"These will scar." He frowned.
"It's ok." She shook her head.
"She lies." Zuko said. "Azula, I mean."
"Yes." Katara listened.
"Was she lying when she said you were fond of me?" he wondered, a small smirk appearing on his lips, but the seriousness present in his eyes.
"I…I…" Katara stuttered.
"Katara…." He prodded.
"No." she breathed out. "No she wasn't lying. It killed me to watch them hurt you. I don't want you to be hurt. I want you to be invigorated."
"And you know," Zuko began as he told her between kisses, "I couldn't stand to watch her brand your body, when I wanted to be the first one, the only one to leave scars on you."