Chapter 7: The Only Way I Can Destroy You
(Edited version)
Zuko's team headed for the woods, their heavy footsteps pounding against the hard earth and creating echoes enough to be heard throughout the whole forest. But stealth was not on Zuko's mind as he neglected to yell at his group to not create too much noise lest the Avatar hear them and be forewarned. His mind was too preoccupied with the fact that Katara could be here somewhere. Yes, the distinguished—yet ironically, shamed—prince of the Fire Kingdom wasting his time thinking about a slave when his concentration should be on the Avatar.
The thought brought a sardonic smile to Zuko's lips. What was happening to him? He wondered briefly before a noise made him stop in his tracks.
"I sense something," he muttered to his troops and they immediately stilled, years of training in various martial arts immediately tensing their hard bodies for action.
Zuko crouched low behind some tall bushes and the others followed his stance. Slowly and silently, they made their way to where the noise was. With the utmost caution, they reached a small clearing several yards away. Zuko immediately signaled to his troops to scatter around the area while he did the reconnaissance.
He peeked from behind a thicket, his unscarred eye observing the area. His eyes widened as he took in the scene before him: the Avatar, the annoying Water Tribe idiot—and Katara.
As a (former) slave of the Fire Nation who has shown her loyalty to him during countless of times, Katara looked pretty cosy with his worst enemies. She sat near the Water Tribe boy and was touching his arm gently in a familiar way that it made Zuko's blood boil yet he ignored the nuance that it could possibly be jealousy. She was laughing with them happily while sharing a pot of some kind of food. A flying lemur—Zuko thought that they were already extinct ever since the Fire Army wiped out the Air Nomads—scrambled on the lap of the Avatar before perching itself on Katara's shoulder where she fed him small nuts.
They looked like a sickeningly happy family.
Unable to contain his rage any longer, Zuko stood up, a fireball in his palms. This was the signal his men were waiting for and as one they emerged from behind bushes, atop the tall trees, almost everywhere—and surrounded the Avatar and his camp.
The Avatar and the other two stood up immediately and were in their fighting stances, the boy pulling out a boomerang and Katara summoning some water from a cloth canteen.
"What do we have here," Zuko sneered with all the calm he could muster, "the Avatar and his cronies. Oh, what a happy little gathering…but unfortunately, the last you will have."
He heard the Avatar say something but he didn't listen and fixed Katara a hateful glare that intensified when he saw her step nearer to the filthy plebian.
He threw the fireball in his hands at the Avatar while simultaneously aiming a fire dagger straight to Katara….
…
Katara thought that her heart stopped as soon as she saw Fire Army soldiers suddenly spring up from nowhere it seemed. If these soldiers were here then that would mean that he was here as well. She swallowed past the lump in her throat and managed to shoot to her feet despite the queasy feeling in her stomach. She had only one decision to make: she had to fight her former master. Summoning water from her canteen, she focused it into a small ball, ready to use it as a water whip to defend herself.
When Zuko appeared from the shadows, a fireball in his palm and eerily lighting up the planes of his face contorted in rage, Katara felt her pulses quickening and her breath becoming ragged and shallow. He looked no different since the night that she left him more than a week ago. He did look paler than usual but other than that, he was still the formidable Prince she had fallen so helplessly in love with.
Katara mentally slapped herself. She never did love him, she told herself repeatedly. It was just an infatuation.
She knew that if she went on with it, she would believe in it herself but the heart can never lie to itself.
The look Zuko shot her was full of menace and the promise of fates worst than death; if possible, it had even more venom than the sweeping glare he gave Aang and her brother. On instinct, she stood closer to Sokka as if merely touching his clothes would give her the extra strength she needed and strangely enough she felt it had.
"Since it's futile to ask you what you want as we all know that from the beginning," said Aang in higher pitched tones than his normal speaking voice, "let's say we skip the niceties and get this over with."
Zuko didn't reply as he threw a fireball at him and a fire dagger at her. Reacting quickly, Katara whipped the dagger away with her water and as such was distracted enough not to notice the soldier behind her aim another one at her back. Fortunately, Momo, who was still perched on her shoulder, squeaked loudly in warning and she crouched down, sweeping the legs of the soldier with her feet and he tumbled down. Katara bent down and applied pressure to his jugular with the use of her fingertips and he was immediately unconscious.
Another soldier came after her and this time, used her water whip to hit him in the eye, the cheek, the groin, and the legs. The masked soldier was down in a second, wincing in pain. Grabbing a couple of knives from the inside of her tunic, Katara threw them at one of Zuko's men who was attacking Sokka and killing the man as she got him in the throat and chest. Sokka stared at her incredulously but she ignored it and threw a few more knives at the other soldiers. Those she didn't manage to kill were rendered unconscious or were slowly bleeding to death.
In the frenzy of the battle, she forgot the first principle Aang had told her when they first met: Never kill anyone. When he fought, he made them unconscious but made sure that nobody was really killed in the fray. That was also Sokka's principle, and Katara who was trained to kill found doing battle without bloodshed more than strange but she shrugged it off and admired the morals of the two men.
"Katara what are you doing?" yelled Aang as he brought down three soldiers with a sweep of his staff and neatly avoided the fire blast Zuko shot him.
Katara barely heard him as she delivered a chopping blow to the neck of her enemy. Sokka quickly disposed of his assailant and went over to Katara. He slapped her.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he demanded as he shook her sister like a doll. "You're killing them!"
"This is a battle," answered Katara stonily. "Battles are meant to have blood spilled one way or another."
"You've never said truer words, pet," drawled Zuko pleased that his slave still had not lost her edge during fighting.
"Shut up!" Aang delivered a mighty blow to Zuko that sent him crashing to a tree and crumpling to the ground.
Aang went over to Katara; she refused to look at both boys in the eyes. She was ashamed of herself. On her feet was a small pool of blood from the soldier she had so mercilessly slaughtered.
"Come back to me," a voice rasped behind them. They all turned around and saw Zuko slowly going towards them. "Katara, my faithful slave, my constant companion…." A smirk graced his bleeding lips. "Remember those cold nights in the sea? Who was there to warm you? Don't deny that you need me." The leer in his voice made Aang and Sokka sick as they realized the hidden meanings in his words.
He was Katara's lover.
Katara covered her ears with her hands, yelling: "Stop it; I am no longer your plaything! You cast me out of your life. Leave me alone! I don't need you! I have Sokka and Aang and they are all I need!"
Zuko's face contorted more as blinding rage enveloped his senses. Suddenly, he felt as if he was no longer capable of coherent thinking. Katara was rejecting him in favor of the two boys in front of her.
"They could never satisfy you the way I do," Zuko spat out contemptuously, finding a sadistic glee in the way the Avatar and the Water Tribe boy's faces changed color in disgust and anger. He was past caring of the damage his words brought forth. "You are mine. You were mine the minute I set eyes on you. You swore yourself to me, you whore. I saved you from all those who wanted you. Never tell me that you never wanted me during all those times because you did and now you're ashamed of all of it because of what? These two—boys?"
Katara hesitantly opened her eyes to gaze into his. Pools of molten gold glared back at her, the smoldering gaze he gave her made her week in the knees as it always did. Desire was a ridiculous thing to be feeling at this time and place but she saw it in his eyes and she feared that it was reflected in her own too so she shut her eyes and hid behind Sokka.
By now, the fury Aang and Sokka felt were beyond words. The air seemed to crackle with electric energy as Aang and Sokka could no longer contain their antagonism for the teenager in front of them who was positively spitting in his rage and jealousy. Katara collapsed to the ground in her misery, fat tears cascading down her flushed cheeks.
"Just this once, Aang, let me kill him," Sokka said through gritted teeth.
Aang didn't reply, his grip on his staff tightening until his knuckles turned white.
"At this point Aang, I could never forgive this monster for what he's doing to Katara. He's destroying her!"
"I did more to her than you could ever imagine," Zuko mocked.
The arrow tattoo on Aang's forehead glowed as he said, "Sokka, take Katara and run. I'll be the one to kill him."
Seeing the look in his face, Sokka decided not to argue. With great difficulty, he pulled Katara to her feet and carried her unresisting form in his arms as Momo went for his shoulder. The Prince of the Fire Nation hissed in outrage.
"Don't you dare touch her!" Zuko growled.
"Go and die you motherfucker," Sokka roared back. He told Aang to give the arrogant asshole a kick in the groin for him and he made his way through the trees to where they had hidden Appa.
Sokka stared down at his distraught sister and thought that she would be slowly going insane if this keeps up. She was babbling incoherently and crying so hard he thought she'd dehydrate soon.
What really happened to you during all those years, Katara?
---
I realize that I made Zuko a complete bastard in this chapter and it seems far from the pining!Zuko in the last chapters. Remember that Zuko is a volatile character and I like to think that his rage and jealousy drove him to the point that he sought to destroy Katara not only physically but mentally as well. I'm studying as a Psychiatric Nurse so I know that mental damage can be far more serious than physical damage.
In all honesty, I hate this chapter and wished it could be more but my muse abandoned me in the middle and I was forced to work with whatever dredges of coherent sentence construction she has left me. Oh, how cruel she is. Anyway, I edited this a bit and I still feel as if this chapter is lacking something. I hope you like the (scant) improvements.
Please REVIEW! I was sorely disappointed at the lack of reviews that I got for last chapter. But in any case, I already reached 95 reviews, which is 85 more than I thought this story will have…until the end. So a million thanks to all of you readers and reviewers:D
Rienne :P
