Introduction: My second Avatar fic, my first Zutara and yes I do plan on breaching one of the big no-nos I will not tell you which one because then I will loose all my fun! This takes place a short time after the season final as in Zuko has his ship back and Zula's on the move. I do not plan on one big long serious story I just wrote this chapter the way I did because I don't want the boys to leave Katara behind for some stupid little reason. The story is just going to go up from here so enjoy! And please, please tell me what you think

Why so afraid

Katara sat on the ground hissing through her teeth at the pain. They had finally managed to get away from those awful fire benders, and now both boys were getting on Katara's nerves with their worried glances and pacing as she tried to heal the wound on her lower back. Nothing, it wouldn't heal. A few tears rolling down her cheeks she removed her hand a hopeless look on her face.

"Please Katara let me try. You're tired and it might work better if someone else tries to heal you rather you healing yourself all the time." Aang had a point but Katara shook her head just the same. They didn't know her injury was more than a burn in fact they probably thought she had received it fighting back when that bastard Commander Huo had taken her.

"Don't be stupid Katara you need help now, so just turn around and let Aang try." Sokka was handling his fear for his sister in his regular way: hiding it as best as he could, which meant that he turned into a bossy pain in the butt.

"I can't!" Sokka knelt down and hugged his distraught sister tightly pinning her arms to her sides.

"Shhh, it's all right Katara, it's alright." While Sokka was distracting Katara Aang snuck around behind her and quickly pulled up her robe and the shirt she wore under it reveling the angry red burn.

"Nooo!" Katara cried when she noticed what was going on but Sokka held firm, making her stay relatively still while Aang inspected the wound in horror.

"How bad is it?" Sokka asked growing more and more worried with every second that passed. Katara flinched when Aang reached out to trace around the edge of the wound.

"It's- it's… Sokka it's a brand." A shocked silence filled the air as Sokka pulled a hiccupping Katara closer and looked over her shoulder while Aang pulled the fabric out of the way to give him a better view. There were no doubts about what it was as they inspected the inch wide fire nation emblem with a small wave rising through the bottom of it.

"What…" Sokka stopped for a moment to lick his lips before he tried again. "What does this mean?" Aang shook his head having no idea when they heard Katara's muffled voice start to tell them.

"It means I'm fire nation property," She was interrupted by another hiccup as she tried to regain her composure. "the wave is to say I'm a water bender and if I get captured again and they see this I get the same punishment as a run away slave."

"You can't mean death!" Aang cried looking horrified.

"No." Katara shook her head. "But the screams I heard while in the fortress are enough to make me wish it was." A violent shiver went throughout her body. "Where did you guys set up camp for the night?" Katara asked sounding drained and they happilylet her change the subject.

"We didn't, we let Appa rest all of today so after we got you cleaned up we could keep going until we were a safe distance." Sokka supplied. Katara nodded groggily and started to move from Sokka's now gentle embrace to the hulking figure that was Appa.

"Aang can't you do anything about the…you know?" Aang shook his head.

"I already tried while she was explaining, I think they put a poison or something on the metal they used to stop it from being healed with water bending."

"So it has to heal on it's own?"

"Ya and let's hope it heals smoothly, the less noticeable it is on her skin the better, even if it will be covered by her clothes." Sokka nodded and they went to follow the sleepy Katara up onto Appa.

Sokka had been unsuccessful in his search for food so Katara tired of hearing both him and her stomach grumbling had decided to give it a go. "Come on Momo, I could use your nose's help." Jumping onto her shoulder, it only took a few minutes of walking before Momo's nose shot into the air and he went darting off ahead, Katara following at a jog laughing.

Momo having out run her, she stopped to look around and find which way he had gone. "Now where did that lemur go?" Turning to look behind her she turned right into a large armor covered chest.

"Do I look like a lemur to you?" Katara looked into the skull like mask that covered the soldier's face terrified. In no time at all she had jumped back, opened her water skin and launched an expert water whip at him. Striking his chest it left behind a significant dent but other wise had no effect, neither causing him to voice pain nor slowing his approach.

Walking backwards as he walked for ward Katara struck him with multiple attacks before finally deciding to use all her precious little water to drench him and freeze it. It didn't hold for as long as she would have liked and soon she was being restrained before her world suddenly went black.

When she woke up her head was throbbing and her mouth felt like someone had filled it with sand. Slowly waking up more and more Katara began to get a sense of her surroundings. The combination of torchlight dancing across her eyelids, the steady drip on water hitting stone and the ropes around her wrists biting into her skin to keep her standing told her she was not somewhere she wanted to be.

"My, my, my sleeping beauty awakes." A gentle somewhat mocking female voice taunted, suddenly Katara found her face being lifted by a soft hand and she opened her eyes to see who it was. She was met with a young woman perhaps a year or so older than herself with brown rimmed amber irises and a beautiful face; at least it would have been beautiful if not for the evil gleam in her eyes and some how petrifying turn to her peach painted lips

"Such pretty blue eyes. I'm so glade you decided to wake up, I was afraid I wouldn't get to hear you scream before I had to leave. Commander Huo?" Katara froze and the same mountain of a man that she had bumped into in the forest -only this time he wore no armor and looked as if he had just been in a nasty fight which he had lost- walked over and knelt before this girl.

"Yes mistress?" Came his deep gravelly voice.

"I do believe she is thirsty would you please bring her some water?" This girl frightened the hell out of Katara. Her tone, touch and for the most part words suggested kindness and sweetness while her face suggested evil plans to come. 'Sweetened Evil' Katara thought with a shudder. "Oh and Huo,"

"Yes mistress?"

"You better hurry as our guest is getting cold too." Eyes darting to see his reaction Katara was chilled to the bone by the grin he gave to his 'mistress' upon hearing these words.

"As you wish." Unhappily Katara was left alone with this girl; face still forced up to look at her. After an eternity of looking at each other Commander Huo came back, knelt on the floor and presented the girl with a small round basin of water holding it high above his bowed head.

"Thank you Huo now could you move it a little closer?" Commander Huo shifted his position a bit so that the basin was directly in front of Katara and few inches below her chin.

"Good." She said looking back at Katara. "Now I know you must be very thirsty my dear so why don't you have a DRINK?" On the last word she shoved Katara's face into the water so she couldn't breath. Struggling did nothing to help, the Commander stayed firm as a rock and the girl's nails just dug deeper and deeper into Katara's scalp. 'I'm going to die if I don't…' Even with her hands restrained all it took was a flick of her wrist to make the water leap out of the dish.

"Thought so. Well thank you for that little revelation. Now that we know which one to use… Huo bring me the poker and the appropriate fitting" Thankfully Katara no longer had the hand beneath her chin directing which way she could face, so she could watch now as following her orders like an obedient pet Commander Huo stood, placed the empty basin on the nearby table, and began to shuffle through the other things there, which consisted of four small bundles wrapped in cloth as well as a long metal pole that sat next to them. He opened two of the bundles before he found the one he was obviously looking for. Then he took whatever it was and started screwing it only the end on the pole

"Now, now Huo didn't you notice that she is curious as to what those are?" The girl clucked. "Hand that to me then show her the others." Looking more than a little exasperated Commander Huo handed her the pole and began to uncover the other pieces while the woman drape her hand over the added piece and set her hand alight.

"These girlie," Commander Huo gestured to the bits on the table." are brands. This one," He said picking up one that simply held the fire nation emblem on it. "Is used on non-benders. This one," He said holding up the next one, which held the same emblem except that a small arrow rose from the bottom, "Would be used on airbenders if there were any left. And this one," He picked the last a visible sneer on his lips. " is used on earthbenders."

"What about waterbenders?" Katara already knew but she asked anyway.

"What do you think I'm heating up?" Asked the pure evil girl. "Done!" She cried happily handing it over to the Commander who walked behind Katara and pulled the fabric out of the way.

"And finally last and certainly least I'd like to personally introduce you to the one we use on waterbenders."

Katara screamed when she woke up only to find Aang and Momo on her in an instant; Aang holding her close and rocking her as she cried, Momo gurgling comfortingly next to her ear.

"I don't know what I would have done if you guys hadn't come so soon after they took me. I don't know what I would have…"

"It's ok Katara, it's going to be all ok. I'll make sure of it."

A/N: Ok so I may not have won you over with this chapter but I believe in a proper set up so there.