Hey, ya'll. I know I probably shouldn't start one story while I'm still working on another, but my muse told me to, so I am. Hope you like it.
Chapter 1
***Katara's P.o.v.***
I was always the one that had to be responsible, the one that lead and took care of everyone else. That was just how I was. All through out school, college and even after that, my friends always saw me as "the mom" of our little group.
Which was why it was so odd for me to be walking down a dark alley way in the middle of the night. I wasn't even sure why I did it, but the flask of water at my side was enough to reassure me against anyone that might be stupid enough to try to attack me.
But I'm getting a little ahead of myself. Our story really starts five years ago, my first year at college. I was young, having graduated early from high school at sixteen. I had met a man then, with black hair, nice blue eyes, and a toned body with tanned skin.
He was much older than me, a fourth or fifth year at least, and very suave on top of that. I fell hard, and I fell fast.
That made it only harder to lose him after I found out he was cheating on me, though he said again and again that it was nothing, that I was mistaken, but I had seen him making out with a tall red head at a bar. He even tried to make the excuse that he was drunk and had lost control of what he was doing, but I knew better than that. It wouldn't be the first time he had gotten a younger girl drunk so she wouldn't remember that she had slept with him when she woke up the next morning. He had actually tried it on me once, but I had always been able to hold my liquor, me being a water bender, and I froze him to the wall to teach him a lesson in manners. Needless to say, he didn't try it again.
And it wasn't like I ever even slept with the guy, because he had been trying to pressure me into doing it, but I never had, being underage. I transferred colleges to one across the country, and tried to forget about him.
Which brings us back to why I was in a dark alley way in the middle of the day in the first place.
I had seen him again today, for the first time in five years. He had been with a pretty brunette, even though she was rather short, and I had seen a ring on her left hand. I had ducked into the alley to try to avoid the both of them, though I was debating on whether or not to tell her about her husband's cheating record.
But even if he had seen me, I doubt that he would have recognized me at all. I had matured a lot since then, both physically and mentally. My bending had been passable at that age, but years of physical training to use my body as a weapon along with all kinds of liquids had hardened me, and I was now considered one of the greatest masters in the world.
I used to have dull brown eyes and my hair cut into a bob at my earlobes, but now my hair is well past my waist, and my eyes are intense and expressive.
My height had also changed, along with my shape. I had been pretty curvy as a teenager, but my body was now more muscle that anything, and I was at least six inches taller than I had been.
Even if he hadn't recognized me, I still didn't want to have to run into him again. I didn't even use a name when I have to talk about the guy. He was just "that-one-idiotic-jerk-that-I-refuse-to-name" and that was how it had been for a long time. I wasn't about to change his status, either, which was another reason I didn't want to meet him.
So I walked down the dark alley, being the idiot I usually don't act like. Alleys really aren't as bad as you think they might be, besides the fact that they're very dirty because no one feels the need to clean them at all. I mean, think about it. Why would they want to? You could hardly drag someone into an alley way and beat them if it was squeaky clean and white-washed. It just wouldn't work.
There was one problem with this one, though. I realized as I got to be about half-way down. The alley dead-ended. Crap. Now I would have to hide by the front of the stupid thing until he and his wife left. If she even was his wife. They might just be engaged, for all I know.
Or not. I hadn't been trained almost all my adult life to not be able to sense when people that wished me ill intent were nearby and coming to get me.
How stupid did they think I was? I'm a trained water-bending master, and I have water with me. Plus the fact that I had a secret weapon I could use if I needed to, but I hoped it wouldn't come to that. (Besides the fact that no one but the woman who taught it to me and I were supposed to know about it. She died a few days after the secret was passed on, and I was all that was left of her legacy. Or so I thought. But if she had told anyone about it and didn't tell me, I would find a way to resurrect the old crone and kill her myself.)
I could sense at least one fire bender and several earth benders, which was actually rather odd. Most mercenaries, which was what I expected my attackers to be, were either air or earth benders. There aren't enough water benders as it was, so we tend to like to keep to ourselves.
Fire benders have a different reason, though. It seemed to go against their code of honor to be hired guns, but the occasional one did pop up here and there. It was usually some kind of high ranking person that has fallen out of grace, and they didn't know what else to do for money. It was also out of the ordinary for earth and fire benders to work together, because they don't tend to get along well with each other at all.
The ground started to move beneath my feet, a gentle rolling at first, then a harder, more aggressive motion that was almost like a small, controlled earthquake. Well, I might as well make it as hard for them as I possibly can. I couldn't move very well on the ground, and so I jumped onto a nearby metal dumpster, then swung up to a cat walk just above it.
In the entire alley, it was the best defensible position. The earth benders would have a hard time trying to sense where I was through all the metal, and they would have to be in line of sight to know where to send projectiles to hit me. That took away their advantage to be able to fight me and still not be seen. Also, it gave the fire bender I was likely to face less room to maneuver. Fire bending moves were longer and more aggressive, whereas I could stand in one small area and still have room to move around with my element around me.
I never really got a chance to see how much the ground would have given me an advantage, however, because I felt a small prick of pain at the back of my neck, and I felt myself go woozy.
: Sleep darts are cheating.: I thought indignantly as my eyes started to close. My last image was shaggy raven black hair and golden eyes staring into mine, and I blacked out.
***Zuko's P.o.v.***
The princess was actually smarter than my report and description of her led me to believe. She hadn't screamed and panicked like most nobles do when the earth started to move, and she showed some kind of tactical training when she swung up onto the catwalk over the alley.
Which lead to my first question. What the heck was a woman of royal birth doing in the middle of a dead-end deserted alley way without her entourage? My report had lead me to believe that Princess Hitalanie was very sheltered, and rarely on her own.
Not that it was really any of my concern. She was only a package to be delivered, and a payday to be collected.
Still, I couldn't help but notice the brilliant blue of her eyes just before they closed, and the gentle curves of her body as I supported her weight. She was actually very beautiful, but I pushed that to the back of my head as I carried her down the catwalk. You can't get close to people with the job I have. One way or another, they would end up leaving you.
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