Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender.

WARNING: All the characters and events are DIFFERENT than in the series. This means that mostly nothing will be the same. Just warning you so that there is not as much hate mail.

Hope you enjoy.


Rabbit Heart

Chapter 1

It was extremely cold this day, but the chill was comforting to the young Waterbender. She lifted her face towards the harsh breeze and smiled tight-lipped. The breath in front of her was misty and white, which tickled her face and made her laugh out loud. She hadn't felt this at home in a long time, ever since she had left her Water Tribe years ago to help the Avatar. This wistful moment could only last so long before it was destroyed.

"Are you okay?" a voice snapped her out of her peacefulness. "I'm this close to be sending you straight to the loony-bin my possibly insane sister."

"Sokka, don't be so childish," she said with a smile. Katara hadn't realized until then how much she had missed her home, her tribe, her mother.

"Do you ever miss home so much that it hurts?" she asked her brother, glancing off into the abandoned field where they were camped.

"Yeah," he said clasping her shoulder, "yes I do. But we have to be here. We can't keep holding onto something that isn't ours anymore." Katara began to sob slightly, pulling her hands to her face in order to try to hold back the tears that were beginning to fall uncontrollably. She rocked with emotion, wondering if she would be able to stop. She hadn't cried this much since her mother had been found murdered.

She took a deep breath and wiped her face, "Where's Aang?"

"How should I know where he is?" he asked with a smirk, "You two are like two pees in one crazy pod." Sokka then left after a pat on the back, leaving Katara to gather her strength that had seemed to leave her for a short while.

She glanced around, looking at nothing in particular, but rather remembering something most important. Her mother's laugh. Katara hadn't realized how much she missed that laugh. It was always the same: soft, yet strong and full of joy that it was infectious.

Katara noticed within these past years that she had been becoming more and more like her mother with each day. Not only the fact that she had the same large blue eyes as her mother, olive skin and long, chocolate hair, but also the fact that she had seen herself grow more and more aware of evil in the world, but knowing that there is still good left.

And what Katara remembered best was the manifest of pure, unadulterated evil--The Fire Lord himself. For it was because of him that her mother had been murdered. She was captured one night when the moon was gone-a lunar eclipse-and he had taken her for hostage. The Fire Lord was there himself, and Katara had seen him grab his mother and kill her because she had refused to leave.

And after that night, she had vowed to not only take care of her brother Sokka, but also vowed to take revenge on that man. So when her and her brother had found Aang and learned of his destiny as the Avatar, she knew it would be a chance to find the Fire Lord and make hum suffer as he had made her.

Katara also knew that she would not be able to destroy the Fire Lord until she was to master Waterbending. And that is exactly what she had done. And she even surprised herself when she had mastered the labored Bloodbending. She hadn't even heard of the practice until she had met the Waterbending master who had taught her all of his ways.

She owed a lot of her success to many people. She knew now that she had to go through with her plan.

Especially now that she was in the Fire Kingdom.

Rabbit Heart

Chapter 2

Katara held her hands by the fire, wishing that she was a fire bender and could make the flame a little bit larger. Unfortunately, Aang was still very insecure about his fire bending and refused to use it to grow the fire.

She huffed out of frustration, almost blowing the fire out completely. It's flame reached down to the ground and shrunk, but fortunately rose again. Even though the flame was about the size of her index finger. Toph chuckled beside her and moved her feet and swayed her head in front of the flames.

"What are you doing?" Katara asked the earth bender.

Toph looked up just enough to smile and respond, "Thinking of how I metal bended and trapped those fire benders in the boxes." Her smiled widened frighteningly.

"Oh, well…that's…nice."

Toph laughed again and went back to her thoughts of torture. At least I'm not the only one who is a sadist, Katara thought.

The flames licked the ground, dancing and entranced her. Katara lost herself in them. She imagined how she would approach the Fire Lord and how she would go through with killing him. But always at the time when she was to confront him, she did not know what else to do, or how to do it.

Kicking in frustration, the dirt flew into the fire and it disappeared. Toph exclaimed in frustration and crossed her arms, glaring at Katara.

"You know," Toph huffed, "You really need to learn manners. When you are angry, you do not put out the only source of warmth out of frustration." And with that, she left towards Appa where Aang and Sokka were sleeping.

Katara just sat there, staring at the smoke. She wondered how her friends would think if they knew why she really wanted to be here. Would they call her foolish? Or would they support her? She doubted that they would even find out until the end. She refused to let anyone in on the plan, for fear that either Aang or Sokka would disapprove. She couldn't afford that.

Not now that she had decided to leave the group and head towards the Fire Lord tomorrow.

She was so close. So close that she could almost feel the flames.

The feeling of warm fur and a huff of warm air woke her. She raised her head, only to find that Oppa had been staring at her. And for a quick moment, Appa had seemed almost human-like in his gesture. Katara closed her eyes and shook her head to get the sleep out of her. She opened her eyes slowly, so that she could catch Appa in this human-state again. But instead of finding that, Appa had his tongue hanging out and swinging his head wildly about while Aang and Sokka were dancing around him. Toph grunted and pulled Momo to her ears and fell back asleep.

She shrugged to herself and chuckled. She was going to miss this, the freeness, the innocence of it all. Ever since that horrible day when her mother was killed and fire engulfed her village, Katara had no choice but to seek revenge. No choice but to kill the man who had cause so much grief for her, for her brother and for her father.

Her father.

She had remembered that night her father was gone talking to one of the neighbors. He had come out too late, at the time when the Fire Lord Ozai slit her mothers throat.

Tears pooled in her eyes and she wiped then away with the back of her hand. Katara knew this was the right thing to do. All she needed to now was leave without anyone noticing where she was going. It was the only way.

Aang and Sokka stopped dancing and looked towards Katara who had finally walked back towards the camp. Sokka, instead of asking her how she was, he started to whistle and pick up rocks before throwing them right back down. Thank you brother, Katara told herself. You are such a supportive brother.

"Katara," Aang asked softly, "Are you alright? Your eyes are really red." He looked at her quizzically and glanced back towards Sokka, as if he would know the answers.

"She was crying," he spieled, "You know girls…they are always crying." Aang thought for a moment, and then nodded his head in agreement.

"We need to go to the town for some food. We shall leave now," Aang stated and began walking towards the market. In tow was the rest of them, including Momo.

As soon as they all reached the village, they all grabbed some Fire Nation clothing that was lying out front, and running for dear life. They needed a disguise because anyone that was not a fire bender was not welcome in this village. Especially the Avatar.

Katara chose a red skirt and a cropped one-shoulder top. Her hair was out of it's braid, and instead fell freely past her shoulders and down her back. She had never in her life had shown so much skin before, and felt rather naked. The only thing that was left to represent her tribe was her blue eyes and the necklace that her mother had given her. She wore this one backwards so that the symbol of the water tribe was covered and yet with her.

Her friends dressed in similar clothing and decided to walk around the village triumphantly. Someone from the market made a comment as they passed by that said "What, do you think you are the King?"

Sokka raised his head and exclaimed, "The King is a fool! I would be twice as better a king as he would ever be!"

His comment was met by silence. Except for the sound of a couple gasps.

"Oops," Sokka mumbled, "I mean…the King is great! He is twice…no a hundred times more better a king than I would ever be!" He smile widely and skidded away, embarrassed.

Katara knew that the time was now to run. All of her friends were distracted in trying to cover up what had happened. The opportune time to move was now. And as Aang, Sokka and Toph gathered fruits, Katara ducked to the right, through a alley, and towards the Fire Temple where she would face the Fire Lord Ozai.

May the moon protect her.

Authors Note:

I hope that you do not hate this story so much that you quit reading it. Give it a chance. Please. It's been in my head ever since I first saw the episode, except for the mention of Toph, she came later in the series and I fell in love with her. =]

Please review.

It would make me oh so happy.