You can't feel the heat

Until you hold your hand over the flame

~Satellite, Rise Against


Arc II: Ashes on Our Tongues


-back as a stranger-


On the exact morning that Katara is seventeen and three months old, the same messenger boy that announced the Avatar's capture now announces (Prince?) Zuko's.

"A traitor of the Fire Nation," the boy reads, still wearing the same muddled red tunic from six months ago, "Zuko handed himself in in exchange for the release of a young orphaned earthbender." The messenger pauses as laughter-infused cheers break out. "The ship containing Zuko, lead by Admiral Oran, will arrive tomorrow."


"I trust that the Avatar has mastered waterbending by now?" Azula asks, looking first at Aon and then at Katara. The Fire Lord's voice sounds as bored as ever since Katara last saw her when she healed the Fire Lord's blistered cut.

Katara watches the fire behind Azula's throne cast flickering shadows over the Fire Lord's face. It's been nearly eight months since Aang first started training.

"Yes," Aon says finally. A few months ago, Katara would've given herself whiplash with how fast she would've looked sideways at Aon, but she has learned to control her body language now and instead she tilts her head the slightest bit in alarm.

"The Avatar has mastered most of the advanced sets," Katara continues calmly, going along with whatever Aon's doing. "Any training we're doing right now is just perfecting what he already knows."

Azula smiles. "Then our Avatar will be starting his firebending training soon. You are dismissed, Katara. Master Aon, I will be sending a guard for you later. There are some things we need to discuss."

Katara gets down on her hands and knees as a parting bow to Azula while Aon is only required to bend at the waist.

They leave the throne room and once they're a fair distance away, Katara says lowly, "What are you doing?" When she's met by silence she hisses, "I thought we were going to make his training last as long as possible!"

"We can't stall his training anymore," Aon sighs. "They've captured the banished prince-"

"What does the prince being captured have to do with anything?" Katara asks. More silence, so she continues, "What's going to happen to Aang? To me? The Fire Lord and Phoenix King won't need a waterbending master anymore."

"I'll pull some strings, get you sent into the kitchens-"

"General Zhao said they'd originally planned to sell me," Katara whispers. "And you know that. What makes you think he's changed his mind or the Fire Lord's compassionate enough to spare me from that? What do you think will happen to Aang once you and I are gone?" There's no way in hell that Aon will be Aang's teacher when Aon's style is held in distaste by all of the other firebending masters on good terms with the Royal Family.

Aon goes quiet and they soon arrive at the hallway with Katara's room. Aon inclines his head at the guard standing at the beginning of the hall and Katara is left to walk herself the rest of the way, feeling the guard's eyes on her back.


On homecoming day, Katara is given the choice to stay in either the training chamber (locked up) or in her room (locked up). After the incident with Zhao, all of the kitchen servants are either wary of or simply dislike Katara, and the Fire Lord has forbidden Katara to help out with any of the others because Katara's appearance had, despite the red wine and darkness, caught unwanted attention. Aon had been told by the Fire Lord that several people had either made offers to buy Katara or questioned her place at the palace.

"Can I at least have a pot of water here?" Katara says to the two guards, just as they start to lock up the doors. She doesn't know how she can be expected to stay sane if she's to stay here for five-plus hours with only two silent guards for company.

"We are not authorized-" one of them starts, but Katara cuts him off.

"It wouldn't make a difference," she says firmly. "I obviously can't break out of the chamber."

"You could ambush-"

"Two guards? And then what? Run through a densely occupied palace and knock all of the other hundred-something guards out of the way?"

This gives the guard pause, and after a few moments, he says something quietly into the ear of his partner, who leaves down the hallway.

Ten minutes later, four servants carry in a five-foot wide pot of water. The guards mumble something to each other and start to close the chamber's doors as soon as the last servant has scurried out. Katara smirks when, this time, the guards lock themselves out of the room, leaving Katara completely alone. There's a noisy minute as they put the lock in place and then Katara pulls some of the water from the pot, slipping into one of her warm-up forms. Katara can faintly hear the noise from the celebration, even from here.

She takes breaks from her bending every once in a while to sit down on the floor and idly play with water. Her thoughts drift from the celebration to the young Avatar, to her brother, to the South Pole. She'd spoken to Aon a while back to try and get a message to the South Pole by hawk. It would probably make it, he had said, but there was no telling if the message would just be confiscated, or if it fell into the wrong hands on the way back, or any of the other hundred things that could go wrong. She knows that he had only been humoring her, but she still holds out hope that she can somehow get word back to Sokka. Even if (when, she scolds herself half-heartedly) she makes it out of here, she probably won't be able to return to the South Pole, and it would be nice to have a few words from her tribe in the very likely possibility that she never sees them again.

When Katara gets back up, she aims all of her attacks at a single panel of wood, interchangeably pretending that it's Ozai or Azula.

On her next self-appointed break, she thinks of ways she could break out of the palace, right now. The ambush the guards had mentioned could probably work. She'd knock out both the guards or freeze them to the wall, although with the latter she'd have to be insanely fast, and then go into the kitchens or the nearest bathroom and get enough water for a wave. Then she could ride out the wave outside and probably knock out a good amount of nobility; made easier since they're all probably half drunk-

Someday, she promises herself, with the Avatar.

Katara tries to keep her mind blank as she melts from one form into another, and when she runs out of forms to practice, gives herself little challenges, feeling like a kid. She twists water around herself in a waterspout to try and touch the ceiling, races around the edges of the chamber on a wave, and tries to creep up the walls using ice.

She's created a pentapus-like ring of arms and is trying to see how many tentacles she can add before losing control when Aon bursts into the training chamber. Startled, Katara flings two of nine tentacles at him as one monster tentacle, which Aon, wide-eyed, dissipates with a few bursts of flame.

"I've been deployed by the Fire Lord," Aon says before Katara can ask anything. "I'll be in one of the small Fire Colonies by tomorrow. Azula was serious about starting the Avatar's firebending training and the best firebending teacher four hours from Caldera is being called to the palace."

The water in Katara's control falls with a loud splash and the only thing she manages to say is, "He's supposed to learn earthbending before firebending."

Aon ignores her. "The Fire Lord insists that the palace already has a surplus of servants and that you won't be needed as one. I don't know what's going to happen to you for now."

"So I'm left to whatever the Fire Lord's mood decides is okay for me." She knows she sounds childish but she's afraid.

"I couldn't push the matter too much."

"What are you doing here anyway?" Katara asks suddenly.

Aon's eyebrows crease. "I needed to tell you-"

"No, at the palace. In general." Aon's already made it clear that he doesn't agree with most of the Phoenix Empire's policies, or the Fire Lord's policies, but he's also made it clear enough that he's not putting in much effort to oppose any of the policies or change them.

Aon glances back at the entrance, where the guards are waiting. "That's what I- look, Katara, " - he slips something out of his pocket and puts it in Katara's hand- "I will probably never see you again. Find- "

Katara glances down at the object in her palm, frowning. "This is a white -"

"-there's a guard named Ivyn stationed somewhere in the palace, if you ever see her-"

"Captain Jun gave me one of these," Katara says, still looking down at the tile Aon put into her hand, hardly paying attention. "Why-"

"Jun?" Aon looks confused, and then something registers, and he mutters about the general Azula had mentioned before, Iroh.

An organization? A crazy cross-nation game of Pai Sho? Katara thinks dully. Aon's saying something else but she's not really listening.

"-not time; Katara, look," and Katara looks up from the tile at him, "the most important thing is that you find the prince and he-"

Katara laughs out loud then, shoving the tile back at Aon. Her mind whirls. Maybe Aon is just a crazy waterbending firebender; how in the hell does any of this make sense-

There's a creak as the doors to the chamber start to open. Aon takes Katara by the shoulders and shakes her slightly to get her attention. "You're smart. You'll figure it out. Try to keep an eye on the Avatar. It was a pleasure meeting you, Katara."

Then he pulls her into a hug and Katara hugs him back and then he's walking out the double doors and is gone.

The guards lead Katara to her room after a few minutes, saying that most of the other guards had returned to their normal posts as the celebration has started to die down. Katara goes straight to her bed, reasoning that there'll be plenty of processing time in the morning. After all, she doesn't have a little airbender to teach anymore.


Katara opens her door the next morning, remnants of sleep still in her eyes, but is jolted fully awake when the two guards standing on the opposite side of the door roughly pull her forward.

"What's happening?"

"Fire Lord Azula has called for you."

Katara is half-dragged through the hallways, tangled hair in her eyes because the guards won't let go of her arms, her clothes probably completely disheveled.

When they finally arrive at the Throne Room's doors - now familiar to Katara, but her heart rate still jumps as she realizes Aon won't be here with her- the guards finally drop her arms. Katara shoots them both stony glares and tucks her ratty hair behind her ear and quickly pulls her tunic into place.

"Hello, Katara."

Azula's voice travels down the room to meet her at the entrance. The doors close behind Katara and she leisurely makes her way down towards Azula, looking straight ahead into the Fire Lord's rather impatient expression.

"So, it appears that we funnily enough don't really have a purposefor you to stay here anymore, waterbender. Do you have any suggestions as to what I should do with you now?"

"I'm willing to take on any job within reason, my Lord," Katara says coolly. She can't quite tear her eyes away from those flames.

"And what is within reason for you?"

By the sound of her voice, it seems like Azula already has something in mind (doesn't she always?), but Katara says anyway, "The kitchens, the stables, cleaning around the palace; anything like that, really."

Something seems to click and Azula sort of nods and waves her hand lazily, dismissing Katara. Katara thinks of Aang and prays to Tui and La that whatever her assignment is, it's close to the boy.


"Second time in 24 hours," Katara mutters under her breath. Her arms are again gripped tightly by two guards, and this time, she's blindfolded. She guesses that it's around two in the morning and wonders what could've possessed the Fire Lord to call for her in the middle of the night. Katara is led down several flights of stairs into hallways made of metal that echo with each footstep.

"Take her blindfold off."

The black cloth falls away and Katara is in a prison cell.

The cell is one in a row of at least ten, but all of the other cells are completely empty. The whole room seems to be forged of solid metal. The only people in the whole of this particular prison wing (Aon had mentioned that there are at least twenty like this, all underground) are the Fire Lord, the two guards breathing down Katara's neck, and the person in the corner of the cell, lying face down with a bloodied back and tattered clothes.

"There's water behind you. Heal him," Azula says snappily, sounding impatient and offering zero explanation of what the hell is happening. Katara's eyebrows crease and she feels more than a little bit of repulsion towards the Fire Lord but she doesn't ask any questions.

"I'll need him to be laid out straight," Katara says, turning to the two pots of water in the cell. Azula barks out at the guards and they pick up the man, who doesn't react at all. Out cold.

When he's being lifted, the man's head lolls to the side and Katara inhales sharply when she sees the pink scar marring the side of his face.

"Yes, yes, Zuzu's not held in esteem for his looks." Azula's eyeroll can practically be heard.

Katara's eye widen. Somehow she doesn't think that the gashes on the prince's back are from before his arrival in the palace. Only a day in the Fire Nation and Azula's already had her brother knocked unconscious?

Katara kneels by his side and touches the water to his back. There's no reaction from the prince. She runs the water gently over his flesh once, just to clear off all of the blood, and bends the pinkish water into one of the pots before taking a quick second to assess the extent of the damage.

"I don't think I can heal him fully," she says, wincing inwardly as she takes in the deep cuts and blistered and charred skin, not unlike that cut of Azula's she'd healed so long ago.

"As long as he doesn't die."

Katara takes the water from the other pot and lets it form a glove around each of her hands. She starts at the biggest cut, stretching from the nape of his neck to the small of his back, and prods the water to glow blue. Azula looks on intently for a few minutes before starting to pace in the cell and the guards watch, silent as ever. The cut slowly closes up and then Katara moves onto the next, then the next, then the next, until the water is too soiled to do any more good.

"I need more water."

Azula walks back over. She quickly runs her eyes over his back and says, dismissively, "That's good enough." She then gestures for the guards to take Katara away.


She returns to the prince's cell again the next day, and the next, with him knocked out cold each time with new cuts to heal. There's the same amount of water for Katara to use each time, and although she tries her best, she can never quite fully stitch and sooth the skin, which seems to be Azula's goal. The bruises and gashes build on each other and mottle the prince's flesh in pinks and purples.

The third time she is called down (twice in the same day), Katara is healing a particularly bad cut and the prince cries out as she pulls the water out of the gash, his back arcing up even in his unconsciousness. Katara knows it's stupid to say anything, but she still looks up at the admiral who has replaced Azula in these healing seasons and says, "I need more water. His injuries are too-"

"Did the Fire Lord not make it clear that you are only to use the water you are given?" he asks sharply.

"Yes, however-"

"Is it clear?"

"Yes, sir." Katara grits her teeth and ducks her head again.

It's been easy enough to find the prince, Aon, Katara thinks bitterly, too bad his sister is hellbent on keeping him half-dead.

Katara soothes as much of the skin as she can and bends the dirtied water back into the pots. The admiral looks down at the prince's back, surprise momentarily flitting in his eyes.

"Maybe I should've kept some of those waterbenders after all," he says with a chuckle. Katara stands up slowly. "Healing is rather useful; too bad I only got to see their fighting."

Katara glares at the man. He smiles back, the limp body of the prince the only space between them. "Oh, I seem to have forgotten to introduce myself," he says, a sickly sweet smile on his face. He holds out a hand mockingly that Katara has to fight to not slap away. "I'm Admiral Kain, I'm sure you've heard of me?"

Katara has and her blood starts to boil upon the realization but instead she says a firm, "No, I don't believe I have."

The admiral sees through her and chuckles. "The head of the Northern Raids? Of course you've heard of those."

Silence.

"I'm finished with the prince."

The admiral slowly smiles again. "He's not the prince anymore, waterbender, or has that also escaped you?"

"I'm finished with Zuko," she amends bitingly, the name foreign on her tongue.

"Very well," Admiral Kain says, and mumbles something to the two guards, who then step forward to blindfold Katara. "We have another project for you."

Katara is led a short distance into another prison cell wing. This one is even smaller than the one with the prince, and two of the cells are occupied. In one of them is a young woman with raggedly cut, shoulder-length brown hair, who is fully conscious with no apparent injuries, and in the other lies a young man, who can't be more than a year older than Katara.

As they edge closer to the cells, Katara realizes that the girl's eyes are red and puffy and there are dried trails of tears on her cheeks. The girl watches with hollow amber eyes the little group of guards, admiral, and waterbender approach. The admiral looks down at the girl in disgust.

"Damn earth rebels kids," he spits, and then turns to Katara, "Heal the boy."

The guards open the boy's cell. There's already a pot of water waiting for her and she kneels by the young man, stitching skin back together and lightening bruises. The girl watches Katara with parts suspicion, disgust and relief in her eyes.

"You're with them," she says hoarsely. Katara doesn't acknowledge her and continues to move the water over the boy's gashes. The girl continues,"They destroyed your home and you-"

"Quiet," Kain barks at the girl. She opens her mouth to say something more but then decides against it and clenches her teeth, setting her mouth into an angry grimace. Five, ten silent minutes pass.

"I'm done," Katara says quietly. All of the cuts are at least halfway healed and the bruises are gone, but she feels too light-headed to do anything more.

The angry amber-eyed girl mumbles, "Thank you," as Katara gets up, soft so that the sound only reaches the waterbender's ears. It sounds like someone is forcing her to utter the words. Amber. A Fire Nation feature on an earth girl.

Katara shoots a thin smile at the girl. They'll only tear the skin back open.

Admiral Kain gestures at the guards and Katara is blindfolded again.

Another quick walk later they're in another prison cell wing, this one with six cells occupied, but only one man needing healing. Katara's stomach sinks. Is this what she is now? A torture device? Combined with the headache she feels coming on she's hit with a wave of nausea, but forces herself forward into the man's cell. He seems to be middle-aged, and he's curled up on his side in the fetal position, his back relentlessly burned. No cuts.

By the time Katara has made the swelling and blisters go down enough that healthy skin peeks through, she can barely stay up on her feet. Admiral Kain mutters something and Katara's eyes are covered. When she can see again, they're at the door to her room. Katara pushes open the door and stumbles towards the bathroom. She turns the knobs on the sink, needing some water to splash on her face and wash out the images of the prisoners' wounds.

Nothing comes out.

Katara curses and tries twisting them the other way, and then back again, and then gives up and dizzily makes her way back into the room. She looks around with bleary eyes. There's a single glass of water on the low table. She sits down unsteadily on the floor and takes small sips until half the glass is gone. With the rest, she coats the tips of her fingers in water and presses them to her temples, managing to get the water to glow the faintest bit with healing.


Katara knows there's something wrong when a smiling Aang and smiling Azula greet her in the morning.


XxX


(A/N)

Hope you guys enjoyed! Sorry for the long wait compared to the other chapters; this was one of those chapters that had to be rewritten about a million times before it sounded right.

I'm always, always looking to improve my writing, so if you guys see anything I could do better (characterization, description, sentence structure, anything) please don't hesitate to criticize.