Day 2 of Zutara week is here! I feel like I've done nothing but look at Zutara art all day! Oh well! It's fun!

So I did something differant with this. I wanted to do something dark and angsty and this came out. I cried while I wrote it. Anyway I hope you like! Please R&R.

Katara stared out into the ocean from the deck of the Fire Navy ship. She spoke to no one, ate next to nothing, and was constantly gazing at the horizon. The same single word question running through her mind, Why?

Flashback

"Katara?"

"What do you want?" she said coldly and turned away from the banished prince.

He stared at her back trying to think of something to say.

"Well…um…it's just that I… I wanted to …um."

"Spit it out already." She said as she spun around to face him.

"I'm… sorry."

She just stared at him. How could he expect her to accept that?

"You know what; just stop trying, because I don't care anymore."

"Katara wait! I know that I hurt you, possibly more than anyone else, and I know that no matter what I do I can never make it up to you, but I will never stop trying."

She scowled at that, shooting him a deadly look.

"You had your chance." She turned to leave but was stopped by a firm grip on her wrist. That touch alone sent sparks of electricity through her veins as it had a time long ago when the atmosphere of a dimly lit cave had sparked with hope, but the air around them now was charged with a different type of energy and she turned to shove him off.

She stopped when she saw a spark forming behind his amber eyes.

"You think I don't regret that night every time I think about it. I made the wrong choice, and I have to deal with the consequences of that. I don't have to explain myself to you. I know what I did, I know that if I had done anything different, I would have constantly been unsure of my path, but now I know for sure what I must do. Now I know that my father and my sister must be taken down at all costs. I'm telling you this because my deepest regret is that I hurt you and that will be the one thing that forever will haunt me."

She stood there contemplating what to say. An inner battle was taking place inside of her. He sounded sincere, but she wasn't willing to let go. She shoved him away with a scowl and stormed off.

End Flashback.

The waterbender wiped tears from her face as she recalled the memory. She opened her clenched fist to reveal a small hair piece in the middle of her sweaty palm. The tears increased as she was swept into another memory.

flashback

"Let me go!" Katara yelled at two Firebenders holding her down. She could hear the telltale sounds of a fight in the other room. She kicked and screamed but the soldiers were strong. She tried to waterbend but they stopped her. She had to get out.

Then time stopped.

A flash of light.

A scream.

Gasping breaths.

"No." She thought.

While the soldiers were distracted she pulled water from the air and froze them in place. Sprinting as fast as she could she tried to keep the tears from her eyes.

Then time stopped again.

The only noise heard was the sound of her heart beating as she looked upon the scene.

Azula stood in fighting stance, arm outstretched and pointing straight ahead to where a lump of read and black lay lifeless.

"NO!" Cried the water bender as she ran to the smoking heap on the floor.

"Zuko! No!" She knelt by the body and pulled water from the air once again. Her glowing hands gently ran over his chest, stomach, and neck desperately pleading with him to wake up. This couldn't be happening. She had just found it in her heart to forgive him. She had hoped… and then it hit her, harder than the lightning that had taken Zuko away from her, the reason why she was so hurt by his betrayal in the first place. Shock covered her face.

A crazed cackle rose from the other side of the room as Azula stood by the only window overlooking the setting sun.

"Poor little water peasant. You just realized it didn't you?"

Katara glared at the fire princess through tear filled eyes.

"How could you? He was your brother!"

"As if, He chose his path when he turned against the Fire Nation."

Katara rose from the body of the deceased prince with new anger and hate filling her.

"No, he never turned against his nation. He only ever did what was best for it, even if that meant he turned against you!"

Azula scowled and lunged toward the waterbender. Katara easily dodged and rolled around to face the princess. They stared at each other until the sunlight was completely gone.

Azula was the first to break the silence.

"My, my, you are foolish. You shall perish just as my idiot brother!"

Sorrow overwhelmed Katara as she watched Azula prepare to attack. Was this the end? She gazed once again at the body of the one she had shunned for far too long.

"No." she said and raised her arms.

The sparks from Azula's attack dissipated almost instantly as she found her self unable to move. With fear filled eyes she looked up at Katara, the full moon perfectly visible from the window behind the waterbender.

"You wouldn't." the princess hissed out, but it didn't stop Katara.

A jerk of the wrist and it was over.

The water bender collapsed, misery overtaking her. She crawled over to the lifeless body of the banished prince and ran her hand across his cold cheek.

She stayed like that all night. Her sobs and cries of pain were what lead the Avatar to the scene of the waterbender kneeling over her lost prince.

"Why?" Katara yelled out to the ocean.

"Why did you have to die? Why did you hurt me again?"

She was shaking now, unable to control her emotions, afraid to vocalize the one question that truly haunted her.

She fell to her knees, screaming at the horizon. She sat like that staring with unseeing eyes until she found her voice again.

"Why did I realize too late that I love you?"

With that the electrifying pain of lost love coursed through every bone in her body. It was too late.