A/N: Thank you for everyone who's reviewed, and -because this has come up several times -I'd like to explain something about pairings, at least in my stories. I don't write stories based around the pairings. I don't focus the stories around pairings. Pairings will come up, obviously, but they're tertiary to plot and characters. Will there be Maiko? Yes. Will it be the focus? No. Will every chapter involve it? Hell no. This isn't a romance story, it's a story about a group of slaves trying to survive. So. That being said, if you're looking for a romance Maiko fic, or Kataang fic, or whatever, you might want to look elsewhere. This will definitely be a slow burn, and even then, y'all have to remember: even if they were suddenly free, in this story, we're talking about a group of children who have been forced to kill for sport, among horrible other things that will eventually come up in this story. They live in constant fear of being tortured, or killed by their owners. Even if they were all magically free, they'd be incapable of having a normal, functioning relationship. I mean, yeah, this story will have it's sweet, tender moments here and there (be warned, they will be sporadic, my muse hates being forced away from angst), and there will be some romance thrown in eventually. But this isn't going to be Titanic story, or Twilight, or whatever other romances people are reading and watching these days.

Anyways, sorry for the long spiel, I just figured since it'd been mentioned by several reviewers, and in PM's, I'd make one big statement, and reassure people that this isn't going to get mushy gushy or anythings. As always, thank you for reading, thank you to everyone who's reviewed, and feel free to either review, or PM me with questions, comments, concerns, or even things you'd like to see happen.

P.S. Upon reading this chapter over in editing, I realized it gives off a creepy Zutara vibe. I don't view it as Zutara, I view it as Zuko being his normal, intense, overly-dramatic self. See above if you need more on this. : )

Toph stopped, turning her feet in the direction of the house, catching a glimpse of a tall, skinny girl hiding behind the archway.

"Who's the girl watching you?" She asked, moving again to catch up to the Scarred Dragon and the Water Bender girl.

Zuko turned his head towards the house, before continuing on. "That's Mai. Probably keeping an eye for Ozai. She's his personal go-between slave. She watches, and reports back to him. So when she's around, make it good. Otherwise, it won't go well for you." By the time he'd finished, he'd come to a stop in the center of a large, sand-filled square. Toph couldn't help but wrinkle her nose as she stepped out onto the shifting grains, her vision going fuzzy.

"Are all your arenas sand-based?" She asked, trying to dig her foot further down, trying to find solid ground.

She could sense the suspicion in his voice as he turned towards her. "A good many are. Why?"

" 'Cause I see with my feet. And fighting on sand for me would be like you fighting with a veil over your eyes."

"You see with your… feet?"

"Yeah. I'm blind. But I can see –or at least how I guess you guys see –with my feet."

She wasn't surprised when he began cursing loudly.

"They give me a blind girl to work with, and expect me to turn her into an Arena Master. Agni be damned!"

"Hey, hey, hey! On solid ground, I'd take you on any day of the week, Sparky!" She said indignantly. "I'm the best Earth Bender in the world!"

He scoffed. "Really? Fine. Your rules then. There's a courtyard we can practice in. We'll see how good you are. And you," He snapped, turning towards the still sniffling Water Bender. "Stop that before one of the House Family sees you. They spot you crying, and they'll give you a reason to cry."

The girl nodded slowly, wiping her face with her hands as she followed Toph and Zuko towards another open area. As soon as she was off the sand, Toph couldn't help her sigh of contentment as her vision righted itself, everything coming into focus again. It got even better when she stepped on the solid rock of the courtyard.

"Alright. Training and practice rules are simple: no permanent damage done ever, and nothing broken against anyone who has a match in the next six weeks. For Earth Benders, that means Bending things at half power; you throw at half power, you don't raise anything more than a foot off the ground. Breaking the rules would be… unhealthy for you," Zuko said darkly, stepping into starting position, before turning his head towards the other girl. "For Water Benders, it's a lot easier. Your style lends itself to be less lethal; more about knocking an enemy out of a fight, as opposed to killing him. More support based than offense based."

Toph stepped into position herself, smiling as she got a good feel for the Earth around her.

Time to impress.

Katara watched in horror, wanting to look away but unable to, as the boy –everyone had called him Champion Zuko –stepped forward, his feet as light as air as he hurled five large balls of fire at the little blind girl, one after another.

Boom boom boom boom boom.

The girl –Toph, she'd said her name was on the trip, the one time she'd deigned to talk to Katara and Sokka –grinned like she was having the time of her life, a split second before a large stone wall exploded out of the ground around her. Katara lost sight of her, but she could see the large hunks of rock that rose up around the Champion's feet, trying to encase him in stone.

But the boy jumped, his feet landing lightly on top of the rock, shooting four more blasts, but this time aiming at the ground around the outside of Toph's little fortress.

It continued on like that for maybe another minute or so, before finally, from inside the stone, she heard Toph yelp in pain, before yelling, "I give! I give!"

Instantly, the boy stopped, leaping back a few feet, sliding a bit, a grim smile on his face as the stone walls dropped, and the girl leaped out, bouncing lightly on her toes, trying to keep her soles off the bottom.

"I'm going to take a guess, and say you've only fought other Earth Benders. You've got some skill –" Katara would have sworn he almost sounded grudging about it "–but you need to learn how to fight other types of Benders. Hey! Water girl!"

It took Katara a moment to realize he was talking to her, but when she did, she stepped forward so fast she nearly fell over her own feet trying to move to where he pointed as quickly as she could.

"You have any practice at healing?"

She bit her lip, dropping her head to stare at the stone below her. She'd had lots of experience; almost everyone in her small village had known what she was, and had come to her. She'd started small, little cuts and tiny bruises, before moving on to broken bones, and further up the injury scale. By the time a passing trader had passed through, and reported her, she'd healed everyone in the village at least four times, and had saved the lives of at least half of them once.

But she didn't want to tell him that. As it was, Sokka had shared in her punishment; how many more would share their fate if others found out that her little village had rebelled, and accepted her as one of their own? As an equal?

So she said nothing, keeping her head down.

She forced herself not to step away as the boy –Zuko –stepped in close, getting behind her, and whispering into her ear.

"I am not the enemy here, Katara," He said, his voice barely discernable, the warm breath tickling against her ear. "We're all of us –you, me, her –in the exact same situation. My job is to keep you safe, and make sure you don't get slaughtered in the arena. I don't care if everybody in the entire Water Nation knew what you were; that was before, and this is now. All I need to know is if you have any skill at all."

She couldn't help the shiver down her back at the intensity of his words, nodding almost without thought as she stepped forward towards Toph, who had sat on a bench off to the side during their exchange. Taking a deep breath, she summoned some water from a nearby fountain. A few seconds later, Toph stood up, bouncing lightly on the soles of her feet, smiling.

"Hey, that feels pretty good. Thanks!"

"Of course," She said quietly, standing back up, and moving aside as Zuko leaned down to inspect her work.

"Not bad. Actually, it's pretty good. Not bad on the timing, either. Do you have any practice fighting with your Bending?"

She shrugged. "Not against people. Um, a few leopard seals, and wolf-bears. But only to scare them off," She hastily added. "Not to kill."

She would have sworn later that she could hear him grind his teeth, and he actually slapped his open palm against his forehead.

"Don't tell me… You avoid violence unless there's no other choice," He said through gritted teeth.

"Well –"

"Listen, Water girl: there is no other choice here. You understand? You fight, and you fight to win; if you don't fight, Ozai will make you wish you were dead. Try to fight without hurting someone, and the other Benders will make you dead." He paused for a moment, glancing back over his shoulder at Toph. "Toph, what's the first rule of the arena?"

"It's you or them," The little girl responded quickly. "And 'them' is usually a painful way to go."

Zuko nodded, turning his gaze back to Katara. "Not quite how we say it here, but close enough. It's kill or be killed in there. Sometimes the crowd, or magistrate or mayor will call a blow. Will let a loser live. But you'd better be one hell of a crowd favorite for that. And that's assuming that you get a chance to ask for mercy; you take a fist full of fire to the chest? You won't even have time to scream. You won't have time to ask for mercy. Intense, agonizing pain… and then you're nothing more than a burning lump of cooked meat."

She wondered if he realized that his left eye –his burnt eye –twitched a bit when he talked about burning meat. Found herself wondering how he'd gotten his scar. But she dragged her attention back to what he was saying.

"I just… I don't understand," she said finally. "I… The others in the caravan kept talking about the games, but… Why?"

His face scrunched up a bit, his gaze turning quizzical. "Why what?"

"Why do they make us fight?"

"Are you… Seriously? You've never seen a Bender fight?"

She shook her head. "No. I mean, I know that we're… we're supposed to be dangerous, and we're supposed to be kept as… as…" She swallowed, unable to force the word out of her mouth, but continued on, "but all the ones I'd ever seen were just workers. They didn't have to fight. I mean, I just… You said people die in the arena?" At the obvious look on his face, she quickly continued, "How can people watch other people kill each other for sport?"

"Because they don't consider us people, Katara. We're animals –especially dangerous animals, but still animals. To them, we're something less than human," He spat angrily. "It's no different than watching two chicken-ferrets fight in a ring."

"But that's not right!" She said angrily, stomping her foot.

It took her a moment to realize why Zuko had raised one eyebrow, or why Toph was suddenly grinning.

The water in the fountain behind her stood almost ten foot high, with a very angry looking face in the middle.

"You might just survive this yet, Water girl."