The Dai Li threw Katara into a hole they opened with their earth bending. She tumbled down the hill.
She hadn't been there for very long when a Dai Li agent tossed an earth kingdom boy into the hole as well.
"You've got company" he said.
Katara looked at the boy. He had a scar on his face. She knew that face; she feared it.
"Zuko! Why did they throw you in here? Oh, wait, let me guess. It's a trap. So that when Aang shows up to help me, you can finally have him in your little Fire Nation clutches!" Katara was so angry. She was screaming at him. Everything that she Sokka, Aang and Toph had to go through was all because of him and his Nation. He was the enemy, he had tried to kill them so many times.
All he did was glance at her and then look back to the place he was staring at the ground.
This angered Katara even more. "You're a terrible person! You know that? Always following us! Hunting the Avatar! Trying to capture the world's last hope for peace! But what do you care! You're the Fire Lord's son. Spreading war and violence and hatred is in your blood!"
She hated him. With every fiber in her being, she hated him.
Zuko responded. "You don't know what you're talking about."
Zuko knew she was speaking out of some truth, but his life wasn't as black and white as she assumed. He had a hard childhood, and his father, the Fire Lord, hated him and was ashamed of him.
Again her hatred flared up inside. "I don't? How dare you." She was screaming at him. "You have no idea what this was has put me through! Me personally." Her eyes were tearing up and her voice was breaking. To hide it, she spoke quieter. "The Fire Nation took my mother away from me."
She was opening up to him. She wasn't sure why, but she wanted him to feel her anger. She wanted it to hurt him.
Zuko looked at her. "I'm sorry. That's something we have in common."
Katara wiped away her tears and look at him shocked. He was a Prince. His life's perfect. Or at least she thought it was. Maybe it wasn't. She realized it was wrong for her to be taking out her anger on him.
She softened towards Zuko. "I'm sorry I yelled at you before."
"It doesn't matter."
She was blaming him for all her problems, even though they weren't his fault. She began to explain to him. He had to understand. She wanted forgiveness. "It's just that for so long now, whenever I would imagine the face of the enemy, it was your face."
Zuko knew scar was his shame, and his barrier between other people. "My face? I see." He touched his scar, almost to check that it was still there. Because of his time in the Earth Kingdom, he had been freed of the horrible anger it had given him.
"No, no. that's not what I meant." The last thing she wanted to do was offend him.
"It's okay. I used to think this scar marked me. The mark of the banished prince, cursed to chase the Avatar forever. But lately, I've realized I'm free to determine my own destiny, even if I'll never be free of my mark."
Katara wanted to help him. He was such a different Zuko than the one who had tried to capture Aang. He was vulnerable, human. Not some heartless villain. He deserved to be free of his scar, just as he was free of his evil self. "Maybe you could be free of it."
Zuko was shocked that she'd help him. From what he'd heard, she hated him. Maybe not so much now. "What?"
"I have healing abilities."
Zuko's heart sank. "It's a scar, it can't be healed."
Katara was still hopeful. "This is water from the Spirit Oasis at the North Pole. It has special properties, so I've been saving it for something important." She walked right in front of him. "I don't know if it would work, but…"
Zuko's heart was beating fast out of excitement. It could really be gone.
Katara saw his face in the lighting, she began to wonder what he would look like without his scar. He'd probably be very handsome. She gingerly put her hand on his scar and energy passed between them. They were holding eye contact when Aang interrupted with Iroh.
Katara jumped. "Aang!" She was so excited they had come she gave him a hug.
Zuko was hugging his uncle when Aang glared at him and he glared back.
The boat rushed out onto the open sea. Spray flew up from the water and hit the deck railings. People were busy all around, but she was just standing at the rails.
Katara loved the water, especially the ocean. Its salty waves helped to clear her head. Aang was still unconscious below deck. But, she knew he was coming back, eventually.
At least she had this time to herself, to think. What had really happened in that cave?
Zuko. That name flamed in her insides, good or bad, she couldn't tell. To think she had almost wasted the water from the spirit oasis on him. But if she had used it, and it healed him… Would he have still betrayed them?
Of course he would have, she thought. He was always evil.
But he also was just a hurt boy.
She had felt a connection there when he told her about his mother.
I wonder if Zuko would have stayed good, would we have—
No Katara, she told herself. He is evil and always will be.
But what if he was good? Would we become friends, or even more? She blushed.
It was one moment of connection. Get over it. She told herself. He had his chance and he chose to be evil and stab us all in the back. He even betrayed his own uncle. He almost killed Aang.
He's evil and always will be. He found a weakness in your armor and used it to make you care about him. Harden your heart and never let him in again…
But, I think I might have—
As she was still arguing with herself,
"Aang's awake!" someone yelled.
Good, she thought. Finally, someone who won't confuse me.
"Aang!" she yelled.
So she hardened her heart towards Zuko, relieved to have her mind off the subject.