saigo fui ni suru - The Final Blow

---

The blue ocean glittered in the bright sunrise as Appa descended from the blazing crimson sky. As soon as the great bison landed, a young girl hopped down from the saddle, her feet pounding on the coarse sand. And she didn't stop until she completely engulfed a middle-aged man wearing Water Tribe swag. "Daddy!" She squealed as they both toppled over.

The father pulled away and looked his daughter lovingly in the eye. "Katara...my Katara..." Her blue eyes shimmered when he spoke her name. "You look so much like your mother."

The two looked up when Sokka coughed nervously, then placed a hand behind his back as his father got to his feet. "Hey dad." He mumbled with a shrug, then held out a hand. His father shook it generously, then joined him in a hug as well.

"It's good to see you, Sokka." He whispered to him. Sokka's bottom lip quivered, but he pressed his lips together to make it less obvious to his sister, who would most likely tease him for crying.

Hakoda looked up to the flying bison, and the young boy who still sat apon its head. "Avatar Aang, are you not staying?"

The Avatar shook his head. "Nope. I've got some stuff I've gotta take care of. But I'll be back in a week."

The water tribesman nodded. "Of course. Avatar stuff, I presume."

"That's what it always is..." He shrugged, then eyed the young waterbender by his side. "See ya, Katara."

Katara's bottom lip quivered, and unlike her brother, she let the tears stream down her cheeks as she rushed up to the airbender. "You hurry back, okay?"

"I'll be back before you know it!" Aang whispered encouragingly into her ear. "I promise."

Nodding, she finally pulled away. "Okay...okay..." She smiled. "Just...just make sure you come back for us."

Aang smiled. "You couldn't pay me not to!"

And when the young waterbender backed up a few feet, the bison took off soaring into the sky until it was just a distant speck in the endless azure.

---

The young waterbender sat apon a stump of a log next to her father, a warm cup of tea in her small hands. Holding the cup up to her lips, she took a small sip. Her eyes were far away in thought. Sensing her drifting off, Hakoda began conversing with his son. "So...travelling with the Avatar must've brought all kinds of adventures for the three of you..."

"Actually, dad, it's four." Sokka corrected. "We found an earthbending tutor for Aang, and she decided to travel with us."

Hakoda's eyebrows rose. "Really? Where is she now?"

Sokka was silent, then took another sip from his cup. "She got captured by these two thugs...they've been hunting her down since we took her. That's why Aang can't stay. He's getting Toph, that's her name. We offered to go but...he insisted that he could do this by himself." He sighed and set his cup down, his expression lightening. "We found out that your battalion was stationed around the area we'd be going, so Aang suggested that we stay here."

"I'm very glad that you did!" Hakoda smiled warmly, then looked at his daughter. "And what about you, Katara? Have you found a young man yet?"

Katara instantly looked up, her crimson cheeks stained in a blush. "Well...Aang said he liked me...but...I dunno..." After going off in a stammering rampage, she looked down at her knees and kept quiet.

"Ah...Avatar Aang...he would make a fine husband." Hakoda began, but sensed his daughters embarrassment and switched to another topic. "I hear that you two went to Ba Sing Se...how was it?"

Sokka smiled and got back into the conversation. "Dull."

Hakoda's brows furrowed. "Dull? How?"

"The people there are dull...boring...flat..." Sokka listed off the adjectives with his fingers.

Katara set down her cup. "They had no clue that they were in a war! The Dai Lee made sure of that..." She crossed her arms, glaring off into space.

The water tribesman nodded. "Yes, I've heard of how the Dai Lee tried to keep peace within the walls. It's despicable. I think they're all cowards."

Sokka nodded. "Well spoken, dad."

"But did you at least get treated respectfully?" Hakoda asked.

Sokka winced slightly. "Kinda...they treated us like we were babies. Following us around. They wouldn't let us talk with the Earth King at all! It was so annoying..." He crossed his arms.

"But we did get to stay in a cool house!" Katara pointed out. "There's a plus."

"Yeah!" Sokka smiled devilishly. "And I got to knock some firebenders heads!" He punched wildly into the air as if it were a dangerous soldier.

Katara's blue eyes widened ever-so-slightly, then looked at her knees again. "You didn't get to fight any firebenders, Sokka...those were just Azula's cronies..."

"So what?!" Sokka shouted. "They were from the Fire Nation and I knocked their heads!" Suddenly, his frown deepened. "And Aang told me all about what he saw down in that crystal place..."

Katara jerked her head up, her eyes wide. "You wouldn't..." She warned, her voice wavered.

"When Aang caught you with that monster of a prince!" Sokka finished his sentence, jumping up. "What was that, Katara?!"

The waterbender looked away, her eyes shut. "It was nothing..."

"What?!"

"IT WAS NOTHING!!!!"

Both brother and sister were up on their feet now, breath hitched, fists clenched.

Hakoda stood as well. "Stop this! Sokka, Katara..."

"I would never do that to Aang!" Katara shouted, her blue eyes burned in anger and hate. "He would be crushed!"

"But he still caught you two! Together! CLOSE together!!!" Sokka retorted. "How can that be just 'nothing'?!"

"BECAUSE I SAID SO!!!"

"STOP IT, NOW!!!" Hakoda shouted, pulling Sokka back from running at his daughter. "You two come to visit and this is what I find?! You two haven't changed one bit!"

Just as Sokka was about to yell at both his father and sister, a tribesman appeared from the brush. "Hakoda!" He shouted, his eyes wide.

"Bato...what is it?" Hakoda asked, letting Sokka go, whose own curiosity was sparked, and he kept away from his sister for the moment. "What's wrong...?"

Bato turned toward the wood just as a group of soldiers entered the clearing, dragging along a tied and gagged boy about Sokka's age by a piece of rope looped around his neck. The boy squirmed at his bindings, but stopped when his eyes opened and he saw the four staring at him from the fire pit. The older man looked shocked, the younger boy's fists clenched, and the girl gasped and backed up a few steps. He recognized the girl and boy instantly, and he began to struggle against his bindings again.

"What is he doing so close to our camp?" Hakoda asked, his eyebrows furrowed.

Bato shrugged. "Who knows? We were just gathering some supplies when we came across him, sleeping on the bank of the river. It didn't take long to get him tied up."

Hakoda nodded. "Obviously, he's come a long way..." The warrior began to walk forward, his eyes glazed with hate as he approached the boy. "Well...well...well..."

The boy struggled harder against his bindings.

"What's a boy like you doing so far from home, Zuko?" His voice was like ice. "You are not welcome here. You wander into our territory. You will be treated to the fullest extent of Water Tribe law for all the sins that you have caused. Take him to that tent. Tie him up, and let no one enter. His execution will be at sunrise."

Doing as they were told, the soldiers dragged the squirmy fire prince over to the farthest tent, disappearing in the folds of fabric.

---

Hakoda turned to his daughter and son. "I want you both to stay as far from that tent as you can, you got that?" Sokka nodded firmly. It took Katara a few moments to manage a small nod. "Now, get ready for some dinner. We will feast well tonight."

Both siblings shuffled off to a tent just outside of the fire pit, vanishing inside.

---

Katara lay on her bed as the sun grew closer to the horizon. It cast off a crimson glow, full of oranges and yellows. It covered the rest of the blue in the sky until it all was a blanket of crimson.

Blue eyes closed roughly as she curled up into a ball. Truthfully, she had been lying out by the fire that afternoon. It wasn't nothing, what she'd learned about the prince. She had discovered that they both had something in common. Zuko, the prince of the Fire Nation, had lost his mother. To his home nation, even! Even though he'd gone behind her back in the end, she still felt sorry for him.

Tears streamed down her cheeks as she thought about executions. Her father wasn't about to give up a chance to kill off the fire prince once and for all. She knew inside that she needed to stop this. But, she didn't know how. How was she to convince about fifty grown men that this fire prince wasn't bad enough to be killed?

She came up empty.

---

Sokka had come in a few moments ago, asking her about dinner. But she'd told him she wasn't hungry. It wasn't a complete lie. She wasn't hungry. Not one bit. As she slid on her long sleeved robe, she snuck out the back of her tent and headed over to the one at the far corner of their campsite. As she approached it, she found two tribesmen guarding the flaps inside. Her chest rose as she breathed in deep. She'd have to get in the back way.

Creeping around the tents and chairs and smoldering fire pits, she finally made it to the back end of the tent. She held her face in her hands. Am I really doing the right thing? She asked herself, having second thoughts about this whole idea. No... she shook her head furiously. I can't turn back now...I've come this far... Taking in a deep gush of air, she knelt down and lifted the fabric just high enough for her to crawl in.

The prince sat in the very center of the tent, tied to a plank of wood attached to the top most part of the tent. His forehead was placed on his knees, and it seemed like he was sleeping. But she knew he wasn't, because of his breathing. It was short and quick. Scared.

Katara let the fabric fall back into place and she stood slightly. She let out a small sigh, letting the prince know she was there. That was when he looked up, and he met her gaze. His eyes were cold and felt lifeless as they began boring holes into hers. "K...Katara...?" He spoke wearily.

The waterbender knelt down and placed a hand over his mouth. "Shh..." She hushed him. "Don't be so loud..." She whispered so softly, then took her hand from his mouth. "God, Zuko, what have you done this time?" She asked with a smile.

Zuko looked so confused, it almost made her laugh. "But...aren't you supposed to be mad at me? Like your brother is?"

Katara smiled. "What my brother doesn't know won't hurt him." She gulped and whispered softer. "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be with Azula?"

Zuko shook his head weakly. "I gave up on her. I think she was just fooling with me, anyway." He winced and tilted his head up in an incline.

"Are you okay?!" Katara whispered in concern, her eyebrows furrowed.

The prince's eyes closed in pain. "It's just...when they tied me up...the rope burned into my skin..." He tilted his neck up just slightly so Katara could see the small cuts and scratches around the red circle encircling his neck.

"Oh my God..." Katara's voice quivered, her eyes shimmering in sadness. "They treated you so horribly."

Zuko shrugged slightly. "This is nothing. I'm used to being treated horribly..."

The young waterbender couldn't take it, and she wrapped her arms as best she could around the prince. "I'm so sorry this had to happen..."

Zuko chuckled. "And why are you here, Katara? What thought managed to bring you to me?" He quizzed with a smile.

Katara pulled away slightly. "Well...I was worried about you. And I was curious."

"Curiosity killed the cat..." Zuko mentioned, raising an eyebrow.

Katara smiled. "Satisfaction brought him back." She answered, also raising her eyebrow.

The prince couldn't help but chuckle at her response. "That's cute. Who taught it to you?"

"A friend..." The waterbender shrugged with a smile.

Zuko winced and tried shifting his position. "Ugh...this really hurts..." He moaned out softly, his eyes shut. He continued his shifting as Katara's smile disappeared. "God! It was an accident that I came here...I shouldn't even be here right now!" He whispered roughly, leaning his head back against the board. "I'm not a bad person, Katara...I'm just...I'm just..." Zuko trailed off.

"Confused." Katara answered for him. "I understand, Zuko. I do. But, if you hadn't been captured today, and if I hadn't had the courage to come talk to you...I never would've figured that out..." She met his golden, ember eyes. "I know this may sound selfish, but I'm glad I could've gotten all of that figured out before it was too late."

Zuko kept her gaze as his eyebrows furrowed in thought. The silence was almost unbearable, and Katara had to will ever muscle in her body to keep her eyes from looking at the prince's drooping shirt, revealing the toned muscles on his left shoulder, upper arm, and chest. She blushed, and looked up as Zuko gently cleared his throat. "In that case...I guess I'm glad too..."

Katara smiled, and her breath hitched as the prince leaned in, in expectancy of a kiss. Normally, she would've pulled away and rushed to the security of her fathers arms. But instead, she took her life into her own hands...

...and kissed the fire prince.

At first, her lips barely brushed his. But, after a few moments, the prince leaned forward as far as he could without hurting and deepened their kiss. She wanted his arms to hold her close, but she couldn't possibly cut the rope restricting him. She moved so close to him, so she was up against his chest; her body soaking in his wonderfully poisonous warmth. She caressed the side of his face with her gentle hands, brushing his long, emo bangs out of his face. She never wanted this to end. Never wanted her heartbeat to slow. Never wanted her body temperature to cool. And, most definitely, she never wanted to leave his side.

He took his lips off hers and sent a trail of kisses down her neck, then up to her ear. That was when he whispered something that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.

"I love you, Katara..."

Katara pulled away from his lips, her blue eyes wide. A crimson blush dashed across her cheeks as she stammered as quietly as she could muster, "Wh...what? What did you say?!"

Zuko shrugged and was about to repeat, but he paused when he heard a distant voice call out, "Katara! Katara, where are you?!"

The waterbender turned to the fire prince. "I...I have to go, Zuko."

"No." He pleaded, looking her innocently in the eye. "Please stay with me..."

Tears came to Katara's eyes as she placed her hand apon the side of the prince's cheek. "I...I have to go. It's my father. I have to go..." She repeated over and over again, and a tear dripped slowly down her face.

"Please..." Zuko breathed as she gently pulled her hand from Zuko's cheek. She stood gingerly and turned, keeping her eyes from the prince as she knelt down by the tent fabric and pulled it up. "...Don't go...don't leave me..."

But his plea's fell short as Katara disappeared behind the fabric. He banged his head apon the pole binding him. "DAMMIT!!!" He cried out angrily.

"Hey! Keep it down in there!" A guard spoke sharply through the opening of the tent.

---

Katara sniffled as she walked further from the prince's tent. Wiping her nose with the sleeve of her robe, she heard the voice of her father call out again. "Katara! Where are you, girl?" Quickly, she gathered a few flowers and such from the ground and called out, "Coming daddy!"

She turned right and came face to face with her father. "There you are! I've been looking everywhere for you! Where have you been?!"

Katara pointed over to a small patch of flowers. "I was just picking some flowers. I got bored so...I decided to wander around."

Hakoda placed an arm around his daughter. "You're so warm, Katara! What have you been doing, running?"

The waterbenders cheeks turned a light pink as she remembered her whole body pressed up against the prince. His heat must've still been on her. "Yeah. I decided to go for a little run." She lied, looking down at the ground.

"Well...don't run off like that! I was worried. Next time, tell me where you're going!" Hakoda scolded his daughter.

Katara sighed. "Okay, daddy."

---

That night, the waterbender couldn't sleep. All she could think of was Zuko, and his execution at sunrise. Silently, she promised herself that she'd do something about this. Hopefully, she'd get there in time to stop the deed before it was done.

With this thought in her head, she let her eyelids shut, and she drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, Katara awoke to Sokka hurriedly leaving their tent. "Sokka!" She called to him. Soon enough, he appeared back in the flap of the tent.

"What is it, sis?" He asked quickly.

Katara scratched her head and sat up. "Where are you going?"

Sokka looked at her like she was crazy. "Didn't you remember? The execution! It's already started, and you're gonna make me miss it!"

Katara paled. "NO!"

She didn't even bother putting on her shoes as she jumped out of the tent and around Sokka, who looked completely confused.

Katara's feet pounded against the ground as she gained speed, and she didn't stop when a sharp rock cut the bottom of her foot. Beads of sweat formed on her forehead and trickled back into her hair and down her face. Finally, she began breathing heavily, and her legs began to feel like two fifty pound pieces of lead. But she didn't stop. She couldn't.

Please...lord...please let me be in time...

---

The prince was thrown against a mossy boulder just a few miles away from camp. A steady pair of drums beat from a few feet away as Hakoda walked up to him, a large spear in his hands. His eyes were glazed in hate, and he spoke nothing as he approached Zuko. His glare only deepened when he reached him, staring down at his bare back with thousands of tiny cuts marring his skin.

Zuko winced as one of the soldiers to the right of him sent a whip snaking across his back. "Agh!" He cried out as the whip bit into his back again and again, until his skin was beet red and bloody.

The soldier pulled away and nodded to Hakoda, who nodded as well. He raised his spear in preparation to strike.

This was what Katara saw when she came to the clearing.

"STOP!!!"

Using the last bit of energy she had left, she burst forward and threw herself at the prince, laying down by his side. Her breath was as uneven as it'd ever been and her right foot throbbed in pain from a large cut, but she didn't care. All of that was unimportant right now.

She held one of Zuko's tied hands in hers as her fathers eyes widened. "Katara?!" He shouted. "Are you crazy? Get out of the way!"

"No!" She shouted back, her eyes boring furious holes into his. "I won't let you kill him! I love him!"

Hakoda backed up at this statement, his eyebrows raised in utmost shock. She could hear Sokka's protesting growl from the audience, and she knew that he would surely kill her after all this. "But..." Hakoda stammered. "But, he's..."

"He's not a bad person." Katara answered for him. "I know."

Hakoda shook his head. "You don't know, Katara! You don't! Stand aside, now!"

"If you kill him, then you'll have to kill me too!" Katara shouted, tears streaming down her cheeks. "He doesn't deserve to die! Please try to understand!" She pleaded with him.

Hakoda's eyebrows furrowed as he mulled this thought over. He gazed down at his daughter, her protective stance over this fire prince. She pressed her cheek against the side of his face. Hakoda gulped and closed his eyes, letting out a sigh. "Oh, Katara..." He would never kill his daughter, not ever. His eyes opened. "I guess...I guess if you trust him...I can too..."

Katara let a smile cross her lips as Hakoda commanded a few tribesmen to cut the prince loose. Zuko rubbed his offended wrists and looked up at Katara. She smiled wider, and the two embraced, tightly.

"I was getting really scared there...I thought you weren't going to come..." Zuko smiled at her, holding her face in his hands.

The waterbender pressed her cheek further into his palm. "I couldn't just let you die, Zuko...I love you..."

And, again, the two embraced.

---

Sokka looked over at his sister, held in Zuko's warm hold, and he approached his father. "Dad...how can we be so sure that we can trust him?"

Hakoda smiled and put his spear down as he also gazed at his daughter and the fire prince. "I know...because I trust my daughter. It'd do you some good to do the same..."

Sokka sighed and placed a hand behind his neck. "Aang will certainly be surprised when he gets back...won't he?"