She smiles thoughtfully at her kettle, letting her eyes wander and see the still sealed cactus juice, the last 'gift' Sokka had given her. Pouring herself a hefty glass of the cactus juice, she sits down on the couch, nursing the liquid. Within a few sips, she begins to feel the effects of the forbidden liquid, and her mind begins to slip into distorted memories of her broken past. Faint memories of Sokka from their childhood fade in and out, but soon, her mind can only focus on one thing..

"Master Katara, no!" A White Lotus member screamed, grabbing at the sleeve of my coat, trying to hold me back. Before the man could get a good hold on me, I lunged forward, hopping on Appa. "Yip Yip!" I said, oblivious to the world around me. I could only focus on one thing. Sokka. Tears streamed from my eyes, and though I wasn't as nimble as I once was, I could still fight. "Good boy." I patted Appa on the head, leaping off his saddle and running towards the Boiling Rock. Running faster than I ever could at any age, I finally reached the inside walls of the prison. My feet slamming across the metal floor, I ran through the prison looking into was each door. "Sokka?!" I screamed, knowing something was wrong. And that's when I heard it. Her laughter...The sound still echoes in my ears. My eyes shifted from one closed door to the other, but I knew that there was only one place my brother could be. Sparks and flashes of blue radiated from the small square window and frame of the door. "Azula!" I hissed, gritting my teeth. Running up to that room, I peered in through the window, the scene I saw terrified me, mostly because it was my own brothers lifeless and helpless body that lay mangled on the floor before me. Standing above him was Azula. Once princess of the Fire Nation, she who can do things more terrible than I imagined with just the look of an eye. I pried the door open, and without thinking, huddled over my brother, protecting him with my body. "Get out of the way!" Azula demanded they'd let her out, but she cracked again and became a threat to the Fire Nation, so here she was again, in the Boiling Rock. Fumbling with my water pouch, Azula struck me with her blue flame and it grazed my arm, causing sharp pain. "Katara," I heard my brothers faint whisper. "Shh, Sokka." I hissed back, trying to hold back the tears of joy that he was alive. I got up, pinning Azula up against the wall, then striking her hard with ice. She falls to the ground, giving me a good distraction to get Sokka and I out of the small jail cell. Huddled up against the wall opposite the cell, I cradled my injured brother in my arms. "Sokka, you're going to be okay.." I said, holding him close to me, trying to blink away the tears. His breathing patterns were irregular and he winced in pain every time he tried to shift my arms. He was my brother, he protected me from everything. Though our young age, we made it through so much. The war that took so much from us. Our mothers death, and trying to make things normal after the war was over. No matter where we went, my brother was always that little piece of home I carried with me. The fear was almost masked by the tears in his eyes. His tight grip on my hand soon became loose and his body limp. He was gone. I hugged him closely and then what was the known world became a blur. Why Sokka went to challenge Azula was beyond me, but I knew there must have been a good reason he did it.

In my drunken state, I put down my empty glass of cactus juice and hobbled over to bed. Intoxication is the only good time to remember such painful things, especially when you're the only one left to remember them...