KATARA POV

I stopped screaming for help a couple of minutes after he tossed me into the room as it seemed to do me no good. I stared at the ceiling and thought about Sokka.

There was no way he would be able to find me. I could feel the boat slowing down and then it lurched. I flew forward and into the wall.

I sat up and rubbed my head, sighing pitifully. My door was suddenly yanked open and I was again met with the unsmiling face of my captor.

"Stand up." He said forcefully. I stood and was pulled from the cabin into a dark hallway. After a couple of turns, I was thrown into another room and left alone again.

I lay on the bed and began to cry. I was never going to see my family again.

ZUKO POV

I paced my control room and thought about how I would inform the Southern Water Tribe that I had a member of their minuscule village and would return her if the Avatar was handed over to the Fire Nation.

Uncle entered the room with a look of shock and a letter.

"A messenger hawk just brought this to me." He said softly.

"And?" I asked annoyed, I had no time for this.

"Your father and sister were murdered by rebels. You are the new Fire Lord. You are to return immediately; I've already commanded the captain to change the course."

My knees went weak and I grabbed the table to steady myself. "I am the Fire Lord?"

Uncle simply nodded. "Apparently the rebels had every member of the Royal family killed. Save for you and me. The letter the Sages sent states that the rebels supported your act of bravery and consider you a good man. According to the Fire Sages, it is required in a case like this that the surviving family member takes the throne in order to continue the bloodline of Agni."

I immediately felt the hardening in my heart towards the war melt away. As Fire Lord, I could end the war.

"How long until we reach the mainland." I asked, suddenly feeling more confident than I had in the 3 years I'd been banished.

"About a week, if we ignore the time needed to stop for supplies." Iroh said.

"Send a message back telling them to clear out everything of my family from the palace. I want no memories of them. Tell the sages to inform the nation that their prince has returned and will end the war."

"How?" Iroh questioned with a confused look on his face.

"By an alliance with the Southern Water Tribe of course." I said, my plan suddenly becoming very clear. "I originally needed that girl to lure the Avatar but I can marry her and show the world how far the Fire Nation has come."

"Why can't you just return her to her home?"

I rolled my eyes and glared at Uncle. "She needs to stay here, I just said I will be marrying her. Just so we can cement the alliance. Her family can move into the palace for all I care but with all the times I've been to that god forsaken lump of ice, one could believe she and I planned it."

Uncle simply nodded and quickly wrote out the letter. I watched him scurry back to the messenger hawk and slip the letter into its little pouch. As the bird ascended, I felt my spirits do the same.

KATARA POV

I woke up with a headache unlike anything I'd ever felt before. A light knocking on my door made me squint in pain.

Through my half-lidded eyes, I saw the muscular frame of the man who captured me. He had taken off his armor and his hair was falling into his face, but it didn't cover all of the scar that stretched across the left side of his face.

He glared at my appearance and told me to get off the floor. I groaned and curled into a ball without moving.

"My name is Zuko, the once banished prince of the Fire Nation, but now Fire Lord."

I immediately bowed to him. "It is an honor." I said, attempting to keep the hate out of my voice. This man was the ruler of the nation that murdered my mother.

"At least your people taught you some manners." He said harshly. I looked up and noticed his hand held out to me.

"I'm not stupid as you may assume. I know to treat royalty with respect, not matter how much I disagree with their politics." I replied as I stood without his assistance.

"I don't remember asking for your opinion. I need you to do something."

I closed my eyes and pretended that he didn't exist.

"I said, I need you to do something."

"And I was ignoring you."

"Look the attitude isn't going to get you anywhere."

I turned to face him and gave him a look, "You're the one with the attitude. I have a headache, I'm freezing and I'm starving but I haven't complained one bit. You marched in with a frown on your face and then started making orders and requesting favors."

He frowned deeper and then took a deep breath. "I'm Zuko. What is your name?"

"Katara. Daughter of the chief."

"So you're the princess of the Southern Water Tribe?"

"If you want to say that."

ZUKO POV

"That's perfect."

"Why is that perfect?" she questioned.

"Because the prince of the Fire Nation will marry a Princess of the Water Tribe."

As if she forgot about her headache, she began to yell at me.

"Marry? I would never marry you! You kidnapped me!"

I rolled my eyes, ignored her outburst and laughed. "We get back to the Fire Nation in a week. Since you're my betrothed, you will sleep with me in my room and eat meals with me. I don't really care what you do in your down time, just stay away from the crew. They haven't seen a woman in a long time."

The bit of information about the crew calmed her down a bit and she nodded and then grimaced. "Do you have a warm cloth for my head?"

"I have herbs in my room. Come on."

We walked silently to my room and I turned to inspect the girl walking with me.

"How old are you?"

"I just turned fourteen."

"I'm sixteen."

Silence continued to follow us until I opened the door to my room. She moaned softly at the smell of the food that engulfed us. We began to eat and I gave her the ground herbs for her headache.

"I'm sorry for being such a jerk, I have a lot I must do and kidnapping you wasn't supposed to lead to us being married."

"Why did you kidnap me?"

"I originally needed you to lure the Avatar back to the Fire Nation but my father is dead and I'm the new Fire Lord. Marrying you will create an alliance with the Water Tribe that can end the war. The Fire Nation will be under new rule."

I watched her mix the herb powder in her water. "So… we have to get married to end the war." She said before she drank the water. Her face contorted at the bitter taste but quickly smoothed out.

"Yes."

"Don't I get a say in this? I'm only fourteen. I don't want to marry someone I don't love."

"You're the chief's daughter, there was going to be a time you had to do something you didn't like for political reasons."

"Okay, I guess I don't get a say in this," she replied with an attitude.

I rolled my eyes. "No one really gets a say in life."

She sighed and rolled her eyes. "Okay, I'll marry you but don't you dare think about touching me on our wedding night."

I made an awkward face and turned away from her. "That might be a problem."

She glared at me. "Let me guess, you're required to have sex?"

"The Fire Sages, which are like the high priests in the Fire Nation check the sheets in the morning and need to see blood. It's a really old tradition and I'm not sure why they do it."

"We'll figure it out, but I'm NOT losing my virginity to a man who kidnapped me – "

"To end a war!" I yelled as I cut her off. "You have absolutely no idea what this war has done to me and my family. You have no idea what the Fire Nation has done to me personally."

"The Fire Nation took my mother!" she screamed.

"You're not the only one." I said softly.

She stared at me with a shocked look on her face.

I continued in a louder tone, "You think the Fire Nation has only abused the rest of the world? You should've lived there while my father was in charge."

"You're still a prince. You don't know hardships."

"Yeah, because my father burning off half my face while I was 13 and sending me on a banishment disguised as a fool's errand isn't a hardship."

KATARA POV

I stared at him. It was all I could do.

"And the most frustrating part is that my father is dead now, I'll never prove myself to him."

How could a father do this to his son? Nothing he did could be so terrible that his father needed to burn him in the face.

"Yeah, it really happened. We fought, I lost."

"Is that it?" I asked softly.

"No, there is much more detail, but I don't want to talk about it." He said, looking down at his hands with an odd expression. For the first time since meeting him, I saw a sixteen-year-old instead of a man. I saw the fear in his eyes and while I was still extremely cautious of him, I began to let down some of my guard.

"Other than marrying you, what can I do to help end the war?"

He took a deep breath and the look of youth melded into the hard planes on the face of a bitter man. "You will need to learn as much as you can about all four nations. It is important that we create a Fire Nation that is respectful of the other nations. You will also need to learn to dance the traditional wedding dance and implement laws that benefits women and children. I want the Fire Lady to have more control than in the past."

I nodded and suddenly I understood the severity of the situation I was in. At fourteen, I would be a crucial part of closing a very deep divide in my broken world.

"I can tell that you're not an awful person, you were just raised by bad people and that isn't really something you had a choice in."

"Your family can stay with you in the Palace if it makes it easier on you."

"That isn't a good idea. I would much rather my brother assume I wanted to marry you. You see, a water tribe woman marrying outside the Water Tribe is not a taboo unless the man is of Fire Nation descent. It would honestly be much easier to pretend I wanted to marry you. Plus, it looks believable since the Fire Nation ships have been visiting the South Pole so much lately. The war ending is simply a plus to our relationship."

"Not everyone from the Fire Nation is terrible." He said in an offended tone.

"I know." I cooed. "Just more than the rest of the world cares for."

He stared at me awkwardly for a few short seconds and then stood up. "We should be arriving in the Fire Nation sooner than expected. The captain found a shortcut. Sleep well."

"Oh… thank you. You too."

" I won't get a good night sleep. My room is occupied." He said with a grumpy look.

"Oh, sorry about that." I said feeling a tad guilty.

"No, it's okay. I'd rather you in my room than in the cells. Remember what I told you about the crew? The men haven't seen a pretty girl in a while. They might not remember that they have morals and standards that need to be upheld. I'll just sleep on the couch over there." He said pointing to the corner. "But I need to go check on some stuff. I'll be back later."

As he left the room, I tucked myself into the blanket and snuggled deeper into the mattress. Despite him being who he is, I understood why he did what he did. Granted, I don't appreciate him kidnapping me, but I can understand how you can make dumb choices when you're stuck between a rock and a hard place.

I propped my head up on my hand and looked out the small window. The moon was almost full and shone brightly on the clear night. I laid on my side and then rolled over onto my back, confused as to why I couldn't fall asleep. I was exhausted, my body was sore and my head still hurt just enough to be annoying but sleep evaded me. Usually when it was a full moon, I would stay up all night, energized by the pull on the moon. This had never happened before a full moon though.

A noise came from the window and I jerked up. Suddenly, the window fogged up with a mist and the shape of a person began to appear.

A woman with long grey hair and piercing blue eyes stood before me.

"Hello Katara."

I simply stared at her, unable to talk.

"I am the original spirit of the moon, mother to all waterbenders and I have a message for you."

I continued to stare at her, curious yet frightened that a woman claiming to be the spirit of the moon just appeared in Zuko's room.

"You are making the right decision. There is much discontent in the spirit world over this war but a seer prophesied that two opposing tribes would join together to end the war. It is obvious that the opposing tribes are you and Zuko. It will not be easy, but you two will end the war and heal this broken world."

As I nodded, I felt more tired than I had in a while. I blinked forcefully to shake off the sleep but when I opened my eyes, she was gone. I laid back down, wrapped myself tightly in the blanket and shut my eyes.