Katara trains even harder over the next week. She won't let Azula's words get to her, she decides. She may not have much freedom here, but this will be her small act of rebellion. She demands from her trainers that they attack her with more ferocity, more realism, trying to improve as fast as she can.
Azula's next session is even more brutal. "You should just give up," Azula advises, her foot planted on Katara's back. "My brother may be able to find some use for you, but you're just a nobody from the bottom of the world. You will never amount to anything."
Two more weeks pass, and Azula becomes even more intrusive. She begins to show up to Katara's training sessions, forcing her to repeat basic movements because "almost perfect isn't good enough." It's just an excuse to hold back her training, Katara thinks. But her trainers would not dare to defy the princess.
In those two weeks, Azula leaves her lying on the ground twice more. After the second time, Azula shares a theory that the men are only keeping her around for her looks. "They're just humoring you until you turn of age," Azula says. "With what they have planned, you'd be lucky if I accidentally killed you before that."
Katara takes the next day off. Even though her physical injuries have healed rather well, Azula's dealt a much more long-lasting blow to her confidence. She replays Azula's words over and over in her head- she recognizes what Azula's trying to do, but it's still working on her. For some reason that escapes Katara, the princess seems to have made it her personal goal to get into her head, to humiliate her. And if Katara's learned anything, it's that Azula always gets what she wants.
Katara takes the next day off. And the next. There's no point of training if Azula will just beat her anyways, she thinks. She might as well just take advantage of the palace's amenities for as long as she can before they inevitably dispose of her. Chang has to drag her to her session with the royal siblings after she doesn't leave her room for a week.
She puts up a decent fight for Zuko, but when it's Azula's turn to spar, Katara doesn't bother. The fight is over in seconds. This time, Azula doesn't have any words for her, just smirks and leaves. For once, Katara muses, she will be able to get back to her room without being carried on Chang's shoulder.
,,,
Chang has a panicked look in his eyes when he brings dinner that night. Katara is just looking out the window, as she has done so often over the past week, and doesn't even acknowledge Chang entering the room. He has to shake her just to get her attention.
"What?" Katara grumbles. "Just put the tray on the table and come pick it up in an hour."
Chang shakes his head. "No, there's something you need to know. Prince Ozai is seriously considering getting rid of you now."
"What else is new?" Katara asks. "I practice with Zuko, then I lose to Azula. Ozai thinks I'm useless. I've been living on borrowed time from the start."
"Is that what you really think?" Chang counters. "Katara, you were never living on borrowed time until you stopped trying! Prince Ozai may not show it, but he truly was impressed with your progress. Everyone was!"
"Not Azula," Katara snaps. "You don't hear what she says. How I'm terrible, how I'm only around because people think I'm pretty, how she's going to kill me one of these days."
"And when," Chang asks, dropping his voice to a whisper, "has Princess Azula ever represented what anyone else is thinking? Katara, you can't compare yourself to her when she's been bending for as long as she has. I was here when Prince Zuko first started bending lessons, and believe me, you show much more talent than he did."
"So what do suggest? If I try to practice, Azula will just beat me down even harder. There's no point!"
"You need to persevere," Chang says. "Do you know how much people in the Fire Nation would pay for their children to have the opportunity to practice with Princess Azula? So what if you lose? You can learn more from one loss than you do from one hundred victories. But you have to learn."
"How do I do that?" Katara asks. "Even if Azula didn't sabotage my training sessions, my trainers still don't care enough about helping me get better. You are the only one who cares, and forgive me for saying so, but there's no much you can do to help my bending."
Chang sighs. "How much do you know about Prince Zuko?"
"Uh, he's less of a jerk than Azula, and Azula makes fun of his bending all the time?"
Chang chuckles. "The important thing is that Prince Zuko today is much different from Prince Zuko even two years ago. The Prince Zuko of today is capable of winning rounds against his sister occasionally. But two years ago, Prince Ozai completely gave up on training his son. Most thought he would never amount to anything close to what was expected from the firstborn son of a royal."
"So what changed?" Katara asks.
"It's a bit of an open secret among the servants here," Chang begins. "We think Princess Azula also knows, but we haven't been able to confirm."
"Prince Zuko started practicing by himself. He would go out at night and practice for hours. Just basic forms and basic movements at first, then more advanced forms. There was no one around to pressure him except for himself, and the prince thrived from that."
"I believe you," Chang finishes, "could benefit from the same thing."
…
Chang sneaks her into a secluded courtyard. It takes a while for her eyes to adjust to the darkness, but the first thing she notices is that there's no fountain, no spring, no water. "How do I practice without water?" she asks.
Chang gestures around to the trees and plants surrounding them. "Do you think Prince Zuko practiced with fire? He didn't want anyone to know what he was doing. Practice the forms, and trust in your connection to your element when you need it. I must be going now, good luck Katara."
Katara listens to the soft padding of footsteps as Chang disappears from earshot, then takes a deep breath. Here, surrounded by darkness, she feels a certain sense of calm that contrasts heavily with Azula's meddling. Maybe Zuko was onto something after all.
Having had minimal practice over the past week, Katara decides to warm up with the basics. She closes her eyes, picturing Azula opposing her. Block. Attack. Dodge. Attack. Dodge. Block. Attack.
Katara can feel the rust going away, which means it's time to move on to the intermediate forms. She raises her hands-
"Again."
Katara's eyes shoot open and she swings around, fists raised in front of her defensively. She frantically darts her head around, looking for Azula.
"Almost perfect isn't good enough."
Oh great, Katara thinks, as she realizes what's going on. Even at night, when the real princess is sleeping, the one in her head won't let her train. Ignoring the voice, she prepares the motion for her intermediate forms.
"Almost perfect isn't good enough."
"Almost perfect isn't good enough."
"Almost perfect isn't good enough."
Katara kicks out at a tree in frustration. Even though she detests the idea of listening to even an imaginary princess, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to perfect her basic forms. Katara guesses that Azula has done so for her's. Hours later, when Katara begins to feel fatigue settling in, the voice that tells her to keep going again starts to fade.
…
Azula checks up on the waterbender several times the next day. The servants tell her that she has not left the room all day, seemingly asleep. Azula smirks- it had taken longer than expected, but she has successfully broken the waterbender.
Now to find something else to do.
...
Katara spends the next night on intermediate forms, and the night after that on advanced forms. With nothing left to practice, Katara begins to replay her defeats in her head. Azula thrusts. Katara blocks. Azula kicks out. Katara dodges.
Katara is sparing against an imaginary princess when she hears a voice behind her. "What are you doing here?"
Katara turns around to see Prince Zuko, a small flame in his hand. "What are you doing here?" Katara hisses back.
"I am the prince," Zuko snaps back, "and you are a servant. You are not supposed to be here. Shall I call for the guards, or will you tell me what you are doing here?"
Katara mulls through her options, and decides that she can't afford to have the guards called on her. "I was practicing," she explains, "Azula comes to my training sessions so I wanted some place quieter."
A small smile makes its way to Zuko's face. "Now that is something I totally get," he agrees.
"So," he continues, moving to take imaginary Azula's place, "how about sparing against someone real?"
…
Katara and Zuko meet up for the next two nights, and they go through the motions of sparing with all of the intensity and none of the noise and none of the bending. During the day, Katara lies on her bed, wondering what the prince's deal is. Azula has talked about how Zuko seems to fancy her, but Katara isn't ready to take the princess' word for it just yet. The darkness hides Zuko's expressions, so Katara can't really read into how Zuko looks at her.
Her thoughts are interrupted as Chang comes in bearing dinner. The man sets the tray out on the table, then takes a seat next to Katara on the bed. "How was practice?" Chang asks.
Katara bites her lip, wondering whether to spill, before finally blurting out, "I've been practicing with Zuko."
"Ahhh," Chang intones, before adding, "and how was it?"
Katara shrugs. "It's okay, I guess. Imagination is good and all, but you can't beat having someone physically there."
Chang chuckles. "So I take it your new practice regiment is useful?"
"It was extremely helpful," Katara replies. "How did you know it would work?"
"I suppose I've picked up a lot of wisdom in my time," Chang responds. "I used to be a soldier, and I fought alongside Prince Iroh during his campaign. We talked at length about philosophy and politics and other things, and met other similarly wise people during our travels. He actually asked me to look out for you before he left."
"I didn't know you were a soldier! But why are you a servant then?"
"Oh! Umm," Chang said, scratching his head, "well, it when I was on leave. I met this beautiful woman-"
"Ooooo, I think I know where this is going!" Katara teases.
"Well, then I don't have to finish the story!" Chang counters. Katara playfully jabs him with her elbow, pouting.
"Very well then, but only because you asked so nicely. We talked, we dated, we fell in love. I didn't want to leave the nation after that, so Iroh got me this job. One year later I had a son on the way."
"He's the cutest boy," Chang gushes. "He's right about your age, actually. Maybe one day, I can introduce you to him! I'm sure you two would hit it right off."
"That sounds great!" Katara exclaims, a wide smile on her face. "But if only they would ever let me leave the palace."
"All in good time," Chang says. "I don't have any more responsibilities for the rest of the night. Would you like to hear some war stories?"
…
So the sneaky little peasant has been training with Zuko, Azula muses, her ear pressed to Katara's door. A surprising development. If it were still her goal to humiliate the waterbender, then this would be a rather large setback.
But now Azula has a new goal in mind, and the waterbender has just presented her with a perfect opportunity to accomplish it.
…
Chang regales her with tales about his time in the Earth Kingdom long into the night before finally taking his leave. "You have an important day tomorrow," he says. "You need to give Ozai a reason to keep you around. I fully trust that you can."
Katara's confidence in herself matches Chang's, and it shows as she strides into the training area the next morning. Zuko shoots her a small smile, Azula is examining her nails disinterestedly, and Ozai is scowling.
Zuko takes his turn, and the two repeat the same dance they have done for the past few nights. At the end Zuko gives a small bow, and Katara returns it. Now, Katara thinks, it's time to really put what she's learned to the test.
Azula hops off the bench and casually strolls to take her position across Katara. "I'll let you decide this time," the princess says, "do you want me to go easy on you?"
Katara grins, shouting back, "do your worst!"
Azula immediately leaps into action, a quick jet of blue fire streaming from her fingertips. Katara dodges with practiced ease, then dodges the next two strikes too. As the fight goes on, the world disappears from view and all she sees is Azula. She's in the courtyard again and it's just the two of them, and Katara is holding strong as Azula tries to break her defense but is stopped at every turn.
Eventually the attacks stop coming. Katara takes a moment to catch her breath and glares across the arena at Azula, who looks as if she had just come from taking a leisurely stroll. The princess crosses her hands behind her back and starts walking towards Katara, her guard completely down. Katara looks at the situation in confusion- is the bout over? What's going on?
As if reading her mind, Azula shouts out, "keep going!"
Well, it's not like Katara would ever ask permission to attack the smug princess. Katara gathers her water and lashes out at the firebender with all the force she can muster behind it.
A wide grin crosses Azula's face.
Uh-oh.
The princess slips under the whip with ease and closes the remaining distance, grabbing Katara's extended arm and tossing Katara over her shoulder. Katara hits the ground with a thud, groaning and bracing for Azula's next strike.
It doesn't come.
Azula bends down and extends her open hand to Katara, who regards it with suspicion. A long moment passes between the two, before Katara takes Azula's hand and the princess pulls her up. "Not bad," the princess compliments, "but we'll need to work on your offense."
Katara is rendered speechless by Azula's words, gazing dumbly as the princess saunters off towards the palace. Ozai wordlessly leaves after his daughter, with everyone else following suit. Katara doesn't notice Chang's approach until he's wrapped her in a big hug. "You did it!" he says enthusiastically. "Do you know what you've done? You've trained for less than a month and can fight toe to toe with the princess!"
Katara, for her part, can only smile as the two head to lunch. With the princess off her back. Katara thinks, maybe things will finally start to look up for her.
…
Katara strolls back to her room after lunch, humming a cheery Water Tribe tune. Chang has hinted that her outstanding success might get her the opportunity to leave the palace. She'd be able to visit Chang's home and meet his family. It's also the first step, he adds with hushed tones, in her being able to escape the Fire Nation. The thought of being able to get back home puts her in an extremely good mood.
Katara lets out of a yelp of surprise as Azula reaches out from the shadows to grab her arm.
"I have a proposition for you."
A/N:
If something goes right in the Fire Nation, something bad is inevitably going to follow...