Author's Note: This one's a bit darker than the others, and I'm sorry for that. Warning for non-graphic rape (not Zuko).
Trust
Katara wasn't thinking. She didn't bother to tell anyone that she was going out, she just did it. Now, she's regretting it. She shouldn't have left the house at all, but she did, and now she's paying the price. She is getting so tired of fighting, and she just wants to stop. She can't think. Thinking is detraction; you can't think when you fight. She's tired though, and she can't help but think.
They keep advancing on her. Two guys she can handle, but three she can't. Not on her own. Not now. Not on this dark night. There is no moon tonight, and her bending is weak. This isn't working, fighting isn't working; she just has to run.
Katara knocks them all down with as powerful a water whip as she can do and makes a run for it. She doesn't think about where she's going; she just knows she has to get as far away as she can get. A dark alley is as far as she gets, though, before she is pushed to the ground.
There's no getting away. The thought registers in Katara's mind as soon as her hands are pinned down. "No!" she screams. She won't let them do it. She's got to fight; she's got to get away. She kicks and thrashes and screams. She won't let him do it. She won't let it happen to her. She doesn't want to be a victim; she can't be a victim.
The one above her slaps her, and she screams out. "Shut up!" the man hisses at her, "Just shut the hell up."
"No," Katara shouts. "No!" She's not going to let this happen. She's not going to let them hurt her like this. She keeps moving around so he can't actually do what he wants.
He apparently understands what she's doing and slaps her again. "Hold her tighter, you idiots." He commands the other two men.
Instantly, she feels the hands around wrists tighten, and the hands holding her legs wide apart also won't relent. Then the tears start to fall down Katara's face. The only thing she can do now is to scream. Someone will hear her…right? So she screams as loud as she can make herself scream. She screams over and over again. And every time the man above her hits her, she screams louder.
The one holding her feet, the man she can't see, says something to the one above her. She can't hear it all, because she keeps screaming, but she makes out some of it. "You've got to shut her up…found and arrested…all for nothing."
Katara tilts her head way back to see the person holding her wrists. His face is completely emotionless, even his eyes are cold. His eyes are on her, but he doesn't actually seem to be looking at her, but rather looking through her. She straightens her head and looks at the man above her again. Mistake. Big, big mistake. Knowing it's just some stranger only makes everything worse. She screams again, and again, and again.
He puts his hand over her mouth. "If you scream one more time, you're not getting out of this alive. You will shut the hell up or I won't hesitate to fucking kill you when we're done." The threat does exactly what it's supposed to do. She closes her mouth and her eyes. He's not done threatening her though. He smirks evilly at her. "Don't try my patience…and you can be sure we won't gentle either."
Tears are falling fast down her face now. She knows what's going to happen to her here. She has no way out. She can't stop this from happening. No one knows she's here. No one knows that this is happening to her. No one's going to save her. She doesn't want to feel it. She doesn't want to know what they're going to do to her body. She doesn't want to know what's going on.
The tears start to slow, and she closes her eyes to stop them completely. She's lying in a puddle of mud, and there's blood all over her. She's scared. The man above her starts to rip off her clothes.
She forces herself inside her mind. She makes herself drift off to a place; another kind of life. She takes away the pain and creates a place where she's okay; a place where this isn't happening to her. Far away, she sees her clothing hit the wall, and she feels her braid being undone. Focus, she commands herself, don't think about it. She makes herself go back to the place. She has to get away from the pain and the crime being committed against her.
She looks up at the sky and imagines herself up there with the stars. She imagines herself jumping from star to star. There is no moon, but there are many stars. She makes pictures in the stars. Shapes at first, then simple things like hands and feet, and soon she starts looking for people. She spells in the stars. She tries to count them all. Slowly, she counts them. She doesn't want to go fast; she wants to take her time. Who knows how long this will last. Who knows how long she's going to be lying here.
One, two, three, four, five…
Distantly, Katara hears voices. They get louder and softer, but she refuses to concentrate on them because she knows whom they belong to. She doesn't want to feel the pain. She doesn't want it to hurt anymore.
Six, seven, eight, nine, ten…
She wants to forget that this is happening. Just go back to the other night. She wants to be curled up in her warm, soft blankets. She wants to watch a fire dance through the night. She wants to be able to sleep peacefully. She knows she's going to have nightmares.
Eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen…
The pain is gone. Completely gone. She doesn't feel anything anymore. It scares her. Did they kill her while she was in her mind? Is she dead? Dead…the word doesn't sound right in her mind. She can't be dead then, can she? She definitely should just know it if she were dead. She would know it. She would.
She forces herself to come out of her mind and back to reality. First it's the smells. She smells salty tears, blood, and an odor she can't identify. Next it's the tastes. She tastes the blood from her split lip from when the man hit her. She can also taste the tears. Now it's sounds. She hears the breaking of wood, as if someone's been thrown into a wooden crate. She hears clanking as if people are fighting with metal swords. And she hears the steady breathing of someone next to her.
She concentrates more and she can feel. She hurts all over. Her arms and legs, and face and stomach. Mostly in her lower region, though. She's scared to see it, but she knows it's going to happen soon.
And her fears are answered. Soon her vision begins to clear up and she can see herself. The first thing she notices is that she's naked, but that thought is soon overlooked as she realizes what's been done to her body. She has cuts all over and she has bruises on her wrists and ankles and…everywhere. She then looks next to her, and she can see the man who was holding her wrists. He's unconscious, but steadily breathing.
She blinks a few times and sees the guy who was over her before lying in a pile of broken pieces of wood. He's bleeding steadily from the head, but instinctively, Katara knows that he'll live. And then she's able to see moving things like the two people fighting. The first one she doesn't recognize. She assumes he was her third assailant; the one who held her ankles. The other person, she did recognize.
The Blue Spirit. All Aang told her and Sokka was that he saved him from Zhao. She also knows that he's an enemy of the Fire Nation, but that's it. It doesn't make him a good guy, but it doesn't make him a bad guy either.
He saved her, didn't he?
She watches silently as the Blue Spirit finish off the last assailant. And when he's lying on the ground, he stops. His swords at his sides, he walks over to the man that had been over her. The swords, she notices, he positions right over the man's neck.
"No," she whispers. "Don't kill him."
At first it appears as if the Blue Spirit didn't hear her. He just keeps the swords over the man's body. The man's breathing is even, Katara can see that much, but he's alert. He's afraid of what the man above him might do. He should be scared. Katara wants him scared.
The Blue Spirit turns to Katara, finally. He doesn't say anything, just looks at her and she knows why. He's asking for a reason not to kill the man.
Katara sighs. "Death is too good for him." She doesn't explain her answer, but the Blue Spirit nods.
Suddenly, she can't concentrate on the elusive Blue Spirit anymore. Suddenly she feels an overwhelming sense of anxiety. She knows she's going to faint. She knows the men who did this to her will probably never be put in prison. She knows she's never going to see the face of the man who saved her. She'll never be able to thank him. She'll never be able to tell him how…how grateful…
And blackness overwhelms her.
She wakes up on a bed way softer than the one she's been using in Ba Sing Se, and she hurts all over. She wants to cry out, to scream, to break out into tears, but she can't. She doesn't know where she is, and she's afraid that maybe…maybe she didn't get away. She grimaces in pain as she pushes herself up into a sitting position, determined to remain quiet. She can't be discovered until she's absolutely sure she's in no danger. She has to be able to make a hasty exit if the situation calls for it.
But no one's there. She's alone, in a room fit for a prince. Where is she? As she's contemplating this, voices start to drift closer. She strains to listen.
"Where were you last night, brother? I was going to invite you to listen in on a meeting."
"I was busy…. There was something I had to take care of before everything goes down."
A pause, then: "Well, it better not interfere with my plans."
"It won't." She hers the door handle being turned, and quickly, painfully, forces herself back into her previous position. She doesn't want to be discovered yet. The door opens.
"The next meeting is in four hours, brother. I expect you to be there."
"I will." The door closes.
She's not alone anymore. She's scared, and her heart is beating a million times a second. Slowly, she opens her eyes, knowing that it has to be done eventually. What she sees almost makes her faint again. His back is to her, but she knows who it is.
Zuko. He saved her. He's the Blue Spirit. Why didn't Aang tell them?
She licks her lips—once, twice, a third time—swallows slowly, then says, "Thank you."
He jumps visibly, but doesn't turn to look at her. He acts like he didn't hear her.
"Why, Zuko?"
He doesn't want to answer her, doesn't want to make this encounter any more personal than it is already going to be. But he has to. "Because you needed to be saved." The answer is hardly an answer, but he won't say anything more. Katara watches him move around his room, gathering items into a nondescript bag. He doesn't pay any attention to her, and she can't understand why. And then he turns to her, guilt and regret in his golden eyes. "I'm sorry I didn't get there sooner," he whispers.
That's when it hits her. He wasn't fast enough. The disgusting men actually got farther than she allowed her mind to believe.
She tries not to puke, resists the urge to cry, and breathes in deeply. "It's not your fault, Zuko. You couldn't have even known I was there."
He doesn't say anything, but he knows she's right. He wasn't looking for her; he was looking for his uncle. He wanted to warn him…but he didn't get the chance….
"I know this is very inhospitable of me, Katara," Zuko begins, "but you can't stay her much longer. My sister doesn't trust me—as she shouldn't—and is constantly having people check up on me." He walks up to her, putting the bag in her hands. "What's in there should help you and the Avatar. Also, you can't stay in Ba Sing Se any longer. My sister is planning to take the place over soon."
"What are you talking—" Katara tries to interrupt, but Zuko just continues.
"My uncle is running a tea shop around here somewhere. Find him, and tell him what I've just told you. Tell him that I said he should go with you. He can teach Aang firebending in time to defeat my father."
"What about you?" Katara asks, biting her lower lip.
"I'm staying here to keep an eye on my sister. Infiltrate from the inside."
"What if she finds out? Zuko, you could be killed." Katara ignores the pain as she gets up. "You shouldn't do this."
"It's the only choice we have," Zuko replies, resigned to his plan. "You have to go now. I don't know when Azula's going to enact her plan, but it's soon. You don't have much time." He pulls away a rug, revealing a secret door. He opens it, motioning for Katara to go into it. She obeys, seeing no other option. "I'll see you soon, Katara," he vows.
She looks into his eyes in the moments before he shuts the trap door. Their eyes meet, and they both see something they never have before. Trust.
In this time of war, two enemies have finally learned to trust each other.
And she knows he'll be there to keep his promise.
