A/N: This is my second original Avatar: The Last Airbender story. I hope that you enjoy it. The characters' ages have all been bumped up three years. No time has been elapsed to make them this age, I just changed it. It takes place after the season finale of book one. It is a Zutara story, so please, Kataangers, (btw: the word "kataang" has the word "taang" in it, so it kind of defeats the whole porpose) no flaming. Thank you.
Fate's Sense of Humor
I was near out of breath and energy. I could feel my legs become jelly- like with every step I took. I didn't know how long we had been running or how long it would be until I would collapse. That didn't seem to matter; all I could think about was how badly we needed to get back to Appa. My chest heaved out heavy breaths; in, out, in, out. My chest felt compressed and constricted. As if it would explode at any moment, but I couldn't think of the pain. I couldn't think about what would become of us we failed. All I needed to focus on was getting back Appa. We would be safe then.
Sure, Katara. We'll never be safe. Zuko will always come and find us and then we'll have to start this all over again. I chided myself.
It was like this day after day: running, hiding, ducking out of the way, and over again the next day. Nothing changed at all. It felt as if we were trapped in a time paradox. It, it wasn't fair at all. While we were barely surviving, the Fire Lord was out there spreading all his evil and malice and we could be doing something! We were held back because we didn't have any money or resources at all! It felt as if we were stuck doing the same pitiful routine until the Fire Lord crushed the world in his grasp.
Would it ever end? Are we trapped in this endless chase? It seemed like an all too real idea. For all we knew, we could have been working for a lost cause. Even if it was true, we couldn't let our minds even come close to drifting to that idea. Nobody wanted to believe that it was true. We didn't want to believe- let alone think- that the Fire Nation had already won the upper hand as soon as the war had started. We just couldn't let ourselves fall into that hopeless and de- pressed hole that we sometimes found ourselves digging.
I looked over at Sokka. He was fading all too quickly; just like me. I looked back to where I was going, feeling my feet begin to slip and slide. I could only feel the pain in my legs, my arms, everywhere, but it felt as if it were an annoying thrumming ringing all throughout my body. The tree limbs clawed at me like they were just trying to get me captured by the psychotic prince after us. I couldn't give into their desire; I just couldn't fail and let Zuko take us all.
The madness had all started when Aang, Sokka, and I were out looking for some fruits and nuts for our lunch, when we walked straight into Zuko's camp. Just our luck. And it was just the thing Zuko had been looking for- us to slip up. Now we're running for our lives with fireballs shot at us from every which way. No one could repel any of the ongoing attacks sent at us. Though my heart urged me to take a stand and silence Zuko once and for all, I just didn't believe that I had enough energy to do so. But Aang, Aang was making himself useful by shooting airballs at them, picking off the band of soldiers one by one. It amazed me to see the determination in someone as small and young as him. But also broke my heart, knowing that a teenage boy should be off playing with his friends and not fighting some silly and unfair war. I had seen that look of determination once before; it was held high upon my dad's face when he had left us to go fight the Fire Nation off. It was a look I prayed that I had to never see it upon anyone else's face that I held so near and dear to my heart.
I looked behind me to see who else was left. Only Zuko. Figures. He has the determination of a platypus bear. He was raised a warrior though, born to breed malice and cruelty into the world. He looked as if he had just started to run. It wasn't fair! It wasn't fair that Zuko seemed to be in perfect condition! How could he not have started to fade already? Why was he the one who was the best at practically everything? Fate just didn't ever give us a break.
I knew what I had to do. Though the distant thrumming in my body pleaded with me to stop my insatiable acts, I ignored them. If no one stood their ground and fought Zuko, then no one would be escaping today or any day for that matter. Zuko had to be stopped, and it appeared that no one else was going to do that. So, by default, I was left with the heavy burden of stopping and allowing Sokka and Aang to fend for themselves against the domestic challenges that the two of them both lack: cooking, sewing, and keeping each other from getting lost.
I slowed down, receiving a confused look from Aang and Sokka. My feet slammed into the ground, halting my tracks. The earth spewed dust at me, clinging to my calves and ankles.
"Go on ahead!" I shouted at them. "I'll stop Zuko."
Sokka protested, gliding towards me, "We're not leaving you, Katara."
They had to leave. It was the only thing to do. If no one left while someone else held Zuko back, then we would all perish. They didn't understand that. They just didn't, but they had to.
"I'll hold him off. If I don't, then..." I trailed off, not wanting to say those few words. The whole world would die without Aang.
"But-" Aang started, but I cut him off.
"Don't argue! Just go! Go now!"
Aang and Sokka sprinted away and out of my view as the giant woods enveloped around their tiny frames. I watched them disappear, praying that it wouldn't be the last I would ever see of them again.
I turned around, taking a battle stance, ready to fight a long awaited battle. Zuko jogged up to me with a smirk on his face. "Well," he chuckled. "Look what we have here. The water peasant is going to fight me."
Anger boiled up inside me. How dare he! All he thought of me was this insignificant little water peasant! The way he looked down on me turned my blood hot and my ambitions sinful. I would finally show him that I was just as good as he was, and even better. This battle would silence his indifference and con-descending looks towards me. "I have a name; you do realize this don't you? It's Katara!" I corrected him. "You know, that's a lot of smack talk for someone with so little talent! You know I've got an idea, how about you just turn around and never bother us again! Do that and you won't be sorry!" I shouted back, prepared for what he would spew at me next.
Fire burned in his eyes, traveling from his golden orbs to his hands, whistling out fire through the knuckles. "You must see, my dear Katara," he emphasized my name, mocking me. My eyes narrowed in disgust. "that all I'm after is that pathetic excuse of a bender. If you simply become a good, submissive, little girl, then maybe I'll go easy on you and not share such wrath that I'm having trouble keeping in."
"You'll never get past me. If it's the last thing I do!"
"Oh, don't worry. It will be,"
"We'll see..." I breathed.
The fight began with fire flaring its ferocious roar at me, disorienting me for just a split moment. I quickly and practically blindly somersaulted out to the left, resulting in slamming into a tree. "Uh..!" I let out. My side screamed at me cease this foolish behavior, but I ignored it.
Get it together, girl. Don't act rashly.
We went back and forth for what seemed to be like hours, though I knew that we had only been fighting for three or four minutes. Fire and water clashed in an endless battle. Hisses and snaps were to have been heard from all through the forest. I was determined to win. I had too. I just had too. The fate of the world depended on me winning. I couldn't live with myself if I lost to Zuko. Well if I lived after this fight.
Sweat poured more and more down my forehead, my neck, and my back. I so desperately wanted to take just a second or two to wipe it away, but if I did so, then all hope of me coming out as victor would be crumbled and burned into a pathetic pile of ash.
Zuko swung his hands around. Two long, fiery ropes followed his hands, licking at the bark of nearby trees, setting them ablaze. Fire jumped to life as he threw his arms at me. The ropes bared their hot teeth at, making me reel back in fear.
My mind slowed down and my actions felt as if they had been set in slow motion. I gathered the water from my flask. With eloquent motions, I summoned the water to do my biding. It followed the movements and formed itself into its own watery ropes, wrapping around my arms up to my elbows. I sent them thrashing at Zuko. The four elemental ropes clashed, sending sparks and drops of water falling onto our head and shoulders.
The battle raged on. Attacks were sent back and forth between the two of us. I wondered how Sokka and Aang were doing. I ever so worried about them. Would they be able to escape and live by themselves if I didn't survive? Such thought raged through my head and water and fire splashed against my will power.
The fire Zuko had created was making the battle field a blazing inferno. Fear seeped down into my soul and shook me even more than it would have normally. For whatever reason, I feared that I would not make it out alive, let alone on top.
Fire grabbed my left arm, right below my shoulder. I cried out in pain. How could I have been so stupid? Zuko gained the upper hand from his last maneuver. Jolts of electric pain pulsed through my arm. My tendons screamed in agony. I tried to bend with both hands, but received a sharp gasp as an answer.
Got to think! What can I do that would win me the upper hand with using only one hand?
I bender the simplest form I knew: a whip. A whip wouldn't do much, but I had already realized that I was going to lose to the banished fire prince. Rage escaped my deep ugly center and into the world.
I lunged out at Zuko. Water swung to the left. Zuko glided put of the way easily. What a stupid move I just made! My defense was gone! I had no way to defend myself! Oh, I had really done it that time. There was no way I was going to be able to win this one.
Zuko jumped forward, shooting flaming wrath at me. I screamed as fire caged me in, closing in and destroying my world...
Pure blackness and bliss surrounded me. I glided through a world without suffering or pain. I felt as if I had passed through the mortal world and had been taken to a world without suffering angst. It felt wonderful. Wait... No, there was pain. Horrible pain shot through like an arrow. It pierced me, sending waves of pain in my head and all over body.
I groaned as my senses came into balance. My eyes fluttered open. The only color I saw was red. It shook my being and an arrow of pure fear sliced through my stomach. I had been kidnapped by the Fire Nation. Panic soared through my veins. All the horror stories of what the Fire Nation had done to captive women rushed into my head like a flooded river.
My mind instantly went into survival mode. I analyzed my bounds, knowing that if I had no idea how I had been tied, I would have no chance of ever escaping. I followed my right arm from the shoulder down, realizing that my wrist had been tied to my ankle, as the same for my left hand. I stared at my knees, seeing that they had also been tied. Rope had been wrapped around my claves and lower thighs then connected together, making it impossible to walk.
I began to struggle to release myself, thrashing about as if I was some kind of animal. I had to get free. Pain racked my entire body, shaking my muscles and organs. I cried out, feeling my injuries come into reality. I looked at my left arm. It had been bandaged, but I could clearly see blood had soaked that bandage. My entire chest was bandaged also. Blood had seeped through also, showing the world that the master waterbender, Katara had been injured this badly in battle. I stopped, knowing that I could not get anywhere injuring myself anymore than I had already been. I needed to think and be resourceful of my surroundings.
I had no idea where I was exactly; all I knew was that I had been captured by Zuko in the previous battle. I scanned the room I was being held in. For whatever reason, I had not been taken to a cell. It looked as if it was an actual room, and that's what terrified me beyond belief. The fact that I had been taken to an actual room was not the thing that scared me, but that I had been placed on a bed.
