Title: Burns
Author: reignofblood
Fandom: Avatar the Last Airbender
Rating: M
Pairing: Zutara
Summary: Ozai kills Aang before the Day of Black Sun and captures the gang. Zuko and Katara's fates intertwine as both suffer under the tyranny of fire.
Disclaimer: ATLA belongs to Bryke and Nickelodeon. I'm just borrowing their universe and characters to satisfy my (and probably your) OTP fantasies which the canon failed to grant me.
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Prologue
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"She's awake."
"How can you tell, she hasn't moved since Chun burned her face."
"He singed off a pretty decent chunk of hair, too."
"Pity, she was a pretty one. But really, how do you know she's awake."
"My last post was three years at Boiling Rock; I know a fighter when I see one. Believe me, she's awake and waiting for the next opportunity to make a run for it."
"Well she's almost out of time," the guard glanced out the small barred window of the ship's prison hold, "I can see the shoreline already."
"Wonder what they're going to do with her in court. She'll need more than your average lazy guard and dank cell to hold her captive." the other guard turned to the limp body lying in the small cell before them. "But then again, the prince might take a liking to her."
"What's that supposed to mean? She's barely a woman yet."
"The prince is hardly a grown man himself, but in any case, I suppose her face is ruined now anyway."
"Really, it is a pity."
The wooden planks of the prison floor had cracked and splintered with age, the moisture of the sea water collecting along the rough notches and impresses of the wood. The first and last time she had tried to escape, Katara had bent enough moisture from the wood floor to break the lock of her cell and make a run for the stairs up to the deck. While the guard nearer to her in the prison hold had been too stunned to reach her in time, the other guard at the top of the stairs was able to stop her with a bolt of fire – straight to the face.
Now, Katara had her fresh burns pressed against the cool wooden planks, letting the moisture of the floor sap away the sting and the gentle churning of the waves soothe her soul.
Katara was tired. She had fought when Ozai's men ambushed them right before the Day of Black Sun. She had fought when her father's ship sank. She had fought when Ozai emerged from the troops to kill the Avatar himself. She had fought when Aang fell. She had fought when Ozai won. Even as she watched first Suki, then Sokka, and finally Toph give up, Katara had fought, fought, fought.
But now, Katara had stopped fighting.
They had locked each of them in separate cells, and, after that initial escape attempt, Katara began to let herself be taken. By the guards back to her cell. By their defeat to her despair. By Aang's death to an emotionless void.
It was too much for her mind to process and before tears could form her subconscious had chosen to block everything out to save her from insanity. All Katara could feel now was the itch of the wood grain against her cheek and the chill of sea water against her burns.
Twenty-four hours ago, the guard would not have been wrong in calling her a fighter. But Katara was not a fighter anymore.
Now, Katara was only broken.