Summary: Why they didn't kill her, she never bothered to ask. She just survived. As the war waged on and was lost, she was forgotten, the lost last Waterbender of the South Pole.

Disclaimer: I don't own A:TLA. If I did, I would be set for life. Instead, I'm scraping money together to buy chips and selling everything I own for Skyrim.

Author's Note: I started this…three years ago. I wrote four paragraphs and never touched it again. So this should be fun, 'cause I also don't remember where the hell I was going with it.

Almost Thought We'd Made It Home

Katara looked up at the scary man and shivered, pulling herself further back into the corner of the cell. It was dark and she was uncomfortable. It was much hotter than it was at home, and the only ones besides her in the room were the soldiers, who moved in and out of the room almost randomly and only one at a time. But she heard activity outside, a constant stream of footsteps and voices too soft to hear. She could hear the water beating at the sides of the ship, and it always sounded like it was going to break the folded metal like paper. Never before had Katara been afraid of water. The water was almost as loud was the engine. The noise was deafening. The guards seemed used to it, but it scared her. It was so loud and she could feel it in her chest, rumbling and moving in circles and circles and circles. It grated on the edge of her mind and kept her from whatever restless sleep she might have been granted.

One of the men was standing over her now, his helmet leaving a demon's shadow on the floor and wall behind her. She whimpered in fright when he reached for her through the door of her makeshift cage, but it was only to put a small tray of food in front of her. Defiant, she didn't touch it, but she looked at it longingly. Her stomach growled treacherously, but a ridiculous and irrational fear kept her from reaching out.

"We won't poison you, girl."

The sudden sound of his voice frightened her, but his words and tone were comforting. She looked up at the guard silently, as if awaiting more approval, but he only towered over her, silence once more. She hesitated, but was emboldened when he reached down and took a bite of the bread on the plate, proving to her there was nothing dangerous about it. After waiting a few minutes and seeing no change in him, she reached forward hesitantly to grab a bite. She wrapped her fingers cautiously around a piece of meat.

Ow! It was hot!

Her hand jerked back as if bitten. She cradled it against her chest, pulled her knees to her chest, and buried her face in her arms, a fluid and singular sequence. Her hand stung and her tongue tingled with pain that was more imagined. It was burning... She closed her eyes and saw orange, heard screams, and her limbs jerked in response to forces that had ceased to pull on her hours ago. She disappeared into her mind and the shadows wrapped around her, ignoring the guard taking her food or leaving the room or murmuring a temporary farewell.

Her eyelids felt heavy and her throat closed up, but not the slightest whimper escaped her throat. She wouldn't let herself cry, but she was too terrified to even try to put on a brave front.

What will happen to Mom…? Will she be…okay?

Memories of what had happened came back to her. After that man had tried to take her mother…Katara had completely lost control. She shook as she remembered her mother's horrified face as her hasty plans fell through and her treachery was revealed with a child's reckless actions. She hugged herself even tighter, if that was possible. Her arms shook. She had thought for sure she was going to die. The man had been about to kill her. His fist was aflame, and his face even more so. Even her mother's body over hers couldn't stop the heat from reaching Katara, reaching inside her and instilling a terror the likes of which she had never felt before. But she wasn't dead. No, her fate was far worse. By some sadistic spirit's choice, Katara was headed for the Fire Nation.

She lowered herself to lie down, staring straight ahead until she was too tired to do that. But when she closed her eyes, they burned as dirt and soot were ground in. She resumed staring, after trying in vain to blink or rub the grime away. She began counting the feet as they paced back and forth in front of her, and paying only distant attention when she was addressed. The days melted to hours and the hours became mere breathless minutes, and every minute became an agonizing eternity.

The rest of the journey was spent in stubborn silence and a perseverance born simply because she had nothing else to do. She didn't know how long that was, but it felt like a long, long time. She was lulled into a trance, staring at the ground in front of her feet blankly, only vaguely aware of the distant threat of water beating against her prison and the menacing roar of the engine that carried her further and further from home. She closed her eyes and tried to dream of home, but her every fantasy was disrupted by the smell of coal and metal. Her dreams were rudely interrupted by bells and shouts. She began to waste away. As the eternities stacked up, she came face to face with the bleak and hopeless reality that she was likely never going to go home again. She tried to spin fantasies of her brother or father or mother coming to save her, but all her daydreams ended in flames.

There was nothing especially memorable about the journey to the port. In fact, the only reason she knew where she was going was because her guard had a habit of…rambling. She noted later, though, that her food stopped burning, and years later, she would recognize the guard that left her food out before giving it to her so that it wasn't hot when she got it. It wouldn't be the last time that kindness would reach her soon-to-be-frozen heart, and perhaps that was why her story was set to end the way it was.

The first step off the ship was one Katara would remember until her very last breath. She remembered what it'd looked like when she'd boarded: she had been surrounded by charred white and the smell of burning flesh, the smell of her family's wails echoing in her ears. She remembered it vividly, and her feet stumbled before she got to the door. A rough hand hauled her up, and she whimpered softly as her little limbs were forced to carry the weight of the heavy chains dragging her down. Her legs shook and wobbled, trying to dance to an ocean's rhythm that no longer beat beneath her. She was supported between the two guards, one of whom had a lighter hand than the other.

There was a mighty creak as the doors swung open again and Katara's head split in half from the noise combined with the blinding light that shone directly onto her face. They allowed her to lift her hands and shield her face, which burned immediately in the sun. She sucked in her breath and her exhale came in ragged coughs. The air was different! What had once tasted like ocean and ice now tasted of soot and spicy foods, and the air burned her lungs. The world she saw was different; everything was red and everything was wood…what sense did that make? People milled passed slowly with seemingly nothing to do, dressed in russet reds and deep browns and faded dusty blacks.

This land is poisonous, she decided, as the coughs subsided and the guards began her trek down. People stared at her as she descended towards her next prison, whispering and pointing at the broken creature, the chained animal, the little girl, the last Water Bender.

"It's not as bad as it looks. Really," her guard murmured as he helped her. Before the doors closed, she imagined a smile in his voice. But his next sentence was grim and apologetic and heavy with promises of anguish to come. "Welcome to the Fire Nation."