Closer to the Edge

By Lucawindmover

Chapter Six:

Closer to the Edge

Fifteen years previously, on Price Zuko's Fire Navy ship…

Katara groaned as she tried for a third time to tie the drawstring on her pants. She couldn't seem to get her fingers to bend the way she needed them to. Finally she sighed and gave up, letting her shirt fall over the top of her pants. No one was going to be able to see anyway. Her pants were tight enough to stay up on their own. She would just tie them back once she had better use of her hands.

She jumped at the sound of a fist banging on the door. "What are you doing in there? Hurry up!"

Katara glared at the door, trying to think of some kind of good comeback. She would love to say something fiery and scathing, something angry, but she couldn't think of anything that matched how she felt. Nothing she was willing to say out loud anyway.

"I'm done. Open the door for me, if you're in such a hurry then. I can't do it myself," she grumbled, not entirely sure he could hear her.

She figured he must have when the door swung open, revealing an impatient Fire Prince. He reached in and grabbed her by the upper arm, pulling her into the hallway and back toward her cell. She pulled her arm away and stalked past him. She might be his prisoner, but she wasn't going to be man-handled by him.

"Hey! Where are you going?" he shouted, following her.

Katara threw her hands up in the air in frustration. "I'm going back to my cell. Did you think I'd try to escape before you fixed my hands? How stupid do you think I am?" She didn't even turn around as she continued forward, turning a corner and seeing the door of her cell ahead.

Zuko followed her back to her cell. By the time he overcame his surprise and caught up with her, she was already back to her cell and sitting on her pallet. He knelt in front of her, unrolling his bundle of healing supplies. "I don't think you're stupid," he said without looking at her.

"Don't you?" she accused, narrowing her eyes at him. "I thought everyone in the Fire Nation sees me as a stupid Water Tribe peasant."

Zuko rolled his eyes. "And you seem to lump everyone from the Fire Nation into the same category, don't you?"

Katara pursed her lips together and didn't respond. She held her hands out to him, waiting for him to wrap them. She was surprised at how gently he handled her burned appendages, lighting smoothing some sort of cream over them before wrapping them in linen bandages.

Zuko tried to focus on what he was doing, and not the sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. So she thought the worst of him, that wasn't surprising really. Not considering what she had been through. Not considering what she had watched him do. Not after what he had allowed to happen.

Katara also tried to focus on what he was doing, and not the rising anxiety she felt when she thought about what might have happened to her brother and Toph. She hadn't been able to ask Old Chan if he knew anything, and she sincerely doubted that the Fire Prince would tell her anything. She was a prisoner now, she should be thankful they were even tending her wounds.

But she couldn't help herself and as he turned away and started cleaning up his supplies, she found herself asking, "Where are Sokka and Toph?"

Zuko took a deep breath and sighed. He had hoped she wouldn't ask this. He didn't have to answer her. In fact, be probably shouldn't tell her anything. But as he turned and looked at her, seeing the vulnerable look on her face as she worried about her brother and friend, he couldn't help but tell her what he knew.

"Sokka was taken to the Boiling Rock Prison, as a prisoner of war. The earthbender was bound, as you are, and is on my sister's ship. As far as I know, she's in a cell much like yours," he said, looking away when he saw tears in her eyes.

It was as bad as she had expected. She had hoped upon hope that since they weren't on the ship with her that maybe, just maybe, they had been able to escape. They'd had Appa, after all.

"What happened to Appa?" she found herself asking.

"You mean the bison?"

Katara nodded.

"It was very strange," Zuko answered. "When the Avatar died, the bison died too. Your brother and the earthbender probably would have escaped otherwise."

Katara felt as if the air had been knocked out of her. It all came back to Azula. She had killed the hope for the world, sentenced her brother to a lifetime in prison, burned her hands beyond recognition, and spirits only knew what the horrible girl was doing to Toph, even as she sat here in her cell. She rotated on her pallet, turning her back to Zuko so he couldn't see how upset she was. She hated feeling so weak in front of him.

Zuko stood. He didn't really want to leave her while she was so upset at him. He didn't know why he cared, and not knowing that made him angry. "Did you need anything else?" he snapped.

"Why do you even care?" she asked without turning around.

"Fine. Be that way. I don't care," Zuko grumbled, leaving the cell and slamming the door behind him. Katara listened as he stomped off down the hallway. Katara slumped over and began to sob, once she was sure he couldn't hear her.

Katara wasn't sure when she fell asleep, but when she woke, she felt disoriented. She wasn't sure what it was that woke her at first and laid still for a moment as she listened to her surroundings.

There was someone coming down the hallway. Someone was trying to move quietly. Katara could hear the footsteps, however, and pretended to sleep. Whoever it was unlocked her door and came into her cell. She heard the door shut again, and heard the key in the lock as the person locked the door again as well.

Katara sighed. There was no real point in pretending at this point. "Zuko, just leave me alone. My hands don't even hurt right now."

"It's a tragedy that Prince Zuko allows you to address him in such a manner. But then again, what more should be expected from a peasant such as yourself?"

Katara jumped at the sound of the unfamiliar voice. She sat up as quickly as her sore hands would allow her to and turned to look at the intruder.

She recognized the man as the guard who had been with Old Chan, though she had no idea what he was doing in her cell. She scooted back against the wall warily. "Who are you?"

The man smirked. He wasn't entirely unattractive, by Fire Nation standards. He was tall and slender, with broad shoulders underneath his Fire Navy uniform. His black hair was pulled back in a top knot.

It was his eyes that struck Katara the most. He had the most unkind eyes she had ever seen in a person.

"That's one thing you don't need to know," the guard said. He reached down and grabbed her by the ankle and jerked her forward, causing her to fall on her back. "You're the reason I just spent the entire day scrubbing the deck. You need to learn your lesson."

Katara's heart leapt into her throat. She had no idea what this man was talking about. She tried to push herself back to a sitting position, but her hands were too sore for her to lean on them.

The guard further countered her attempts by straddling her waist and pinning her arms above her head with one hand. She squirmed like a madwoman trying to get out from underneath him, but it was no use. She was a hundred pounds smaller than him and helpless without the use of her hands or bending.

"Get off of me! Get off!" she growled, trying everything in her power to get loose.

But the man just leaned his face down next to hers. She could smell his breath and it was terrible. She turned her head to the side and clamped her eyes shut as she heard him whisper, "I intend to get off, water peasant."

Prince Zuko was in his cabin, looking over a series of maps. He wasn't sure what he wanted to do after he got back home, but he was fairly sure he wasn't going to want to stay there long. He didn't want to be anywhere near Azula right now. Everything about her bothered him more than he understood.

It was from there that he heard the screaming. It was muffled, faint, and he wasn't sure where exactly it was coming from. At first he thought that it was coming from someone being tortured on his sister's ship. When they sailed next to each other it wasn't an uncommon sound. But then it occurred to him that they had let Azula's ship move farther ahead of them earlier that morning.

He listened for a moment, trying to determine where the sound was coming from.

It sounded female. But he didn't have any females on the ship.

He jumped immediately to his feet the second he realized that he did indeed have one female on his ship.

Zuko dashed out of his room, down hallways and through passages, down stairs and through doorways until he at last came to the brig, where his prisoner was being kept. The screaming had died down quite a bit and he feared the worst because of this.

Just as he came around the last corner, he saw a guard leaving the waterbender's cell. He had his back toward Zuko, trying to quickly lock the door. Zuko could tell the man was trying to get away without being caught.

"You there!" Zuko called out. The guard froze in his tracks, unsure of whether to make a run for it or turn and face what was coming to him. Once he realized there was no escape, he turned toward his prince and bowed.

"What were you doing in there?" Zuko demanded, advancing upon the guard.

The man didn't look up. "I was checking on the prisoner, sir. I heard yelling."

Zuko glared at the guard. From the disarray of the man's clothes, he was pretty sure he had been the cause of all the commotion. "Who are you? I thought I knew all the men on my ship."

The guard looked up and Zuko immediately recognized him as the guard who had offered to help him earlier. This was his sister's spy.

"Wait, don't bother. I know who you are. You stand right there," he said. Zuko turned and called for over his shoulder for the other guards to come.

Two men the Prince knew and trusted came around the corner in almost an instant.

"Guards, arrest this man."

"What?" the man protested, showing the first real emotion Zuko had seen since happening upon him. "What have I done?"

Zuko didn't answer him but instead turned and addressed his other soldiers. "I believe this man is a traitor and a spy. Lock him up in the farthest cell from the waterbender."

The man struggled and argued as he was dragged around the corner and to another cell. Zuko watched until he was out of sight and then moved anxiously to the cell where the waterbender was being held. He looked through the bars on the door and was ashamed at what he found.

Katara was lying curled in a ball on her blood-stained pallet, sobbing. Her hair was a mess and her clothes were in shreds. He knew immediately what had happened. He had known of soldiers bragging of raping Earth Kingdom women when the Fire Navy began settling in new towns. Zuko found this to be an atrocious and vile act and anyone on his ship found guilty of such action had always been dropped off at first land and left to fend for himself.

At the sound of a key in the lock of her cell, Katara's sobbing increased. She tried to curl herself into a smaller ball and scooted as close to the wall as she could get.

Zuko knelt beside her pallet. "Are you alright?" he asked, knowing very well that she wasn't anything close to alright.

She started at his voice, but didn't answer him. He reached forward and touched her shoulder.

She jumped and moved farther away from him. "Don't touch me!" she shrieked.

Zuko stumbled backward and fell on his rear. He watched as she shook with quiet sobs, pulling her hair over her face so that he couldn't see her tears. He sat quietly for a moment before getting up and leaving. He marched down the hall until he came across a guard dozing in an alcove. He roused the man and instructed him to find blankets and clothing, telling him to bring them to the waterbender's cell.

The Fire Prince went back to the cell where the girl was being held. He wasn't going to leave her alone again. He was responsible for her. He was responsible for anything and everything that befell her.

Including the theft of her innocence.

A/N: Thank you for reading. This is a short chapter I realize, but I think that's because it was one that was hard for me to write. I truly feel for what has happened in this chapter, and I hope I haven't offended anyone. Please don't leave flames. PM me if you feel you have something flame-like to say. It's important to the plot of my story that this happen or else it wouldn't have happened. That's all I'm going to say to defend myself and my decision to include this. Please review. And thank you so much for reading this far. The next pause between chapters shouldn't be this long. I was sick for a bit, yuck.

Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender and I make no money from my stories. I just really enjoy tormenting the wonderful characters that have been provided for us. I also don't own the lyrics to "Closer to the Edge" by 30 Seconds to Mars, but it is a great song.