AN: Thanks reviewers! You make this funner every time!
Katara quickly found herself marched into an office off the hallway that she had run through before and forcibly seated in front of a wide desk. On the other side sat a skinny man with a tattoo on his neck, counting money. He didn't look at her until he had finished with the coins in his hand and scribbled a number in a ledger before him. Then he folded his hands and looked up at her.
"So you think you can come running into my joint and see my fights for free, huh?"
"Oh no! This has all just been a big misunderstanding." The crowd roared behind her.
"A what?"
"A misunderstanding!"
"A misunderstanding?"
Katara nodded.
"Yeah, see, that still don't fix the situation I've got here now, which is that I got two spectators in my audience and two coins missing from my pocket. You get me?"
"Um, yes." There was another surge of cheering. "Yes!"
"Good. Now what do you want to do to rectify my situation, kid?"
Katara leaned forward, clasping her hands before her. "I'd like to begin with a heart-felt apology…"
The skinny man rubbed his fingers together. "That's real sweet but it's got no jingle. Try again."
"Uh, my friend and I would be happy to, uh, wash dishes for you or something…"
"Wash dishes? What do you think this is, your granny's tea shop?"
Katara crossed her arms. "Well what do you want us to do? We don't have any money. We can't even afford food."
"Oh, poor little refugees got no money. Save that sad tune for somebody who ain't heard it five times a night for the past thirty years." He leaned forward on his desk and pointed a hard finger at her. "You and your hoppy little chum are gonna work off your admission in the ring."
"What?" Katara sat back hard.
"I said-"
"I heard what you said! We're not earthbenders! We don't even like fighting!"
"I can imagine why that might be true," the man said dryly as he gazed at her bruised face. "But a debt's a debt, and you two ain't leaving this stadium until you've paid your admission, one way or another."
"Surely we can work something else out. You seem like a… reasonable enough sort of person," Katara said, raising her voice to be heard over a surge of screaming from the crowd outside. "See, I came here looking for a man named Wan Ma. Do you know the mushroom man?"
"The mushroom man?"
"The mushroom man!"
"Yeah, I know the mushroom man! Real fun guy."
Katara blinked. "Well, he sent us here to find Wan Ma, who has some information we need."
"Is that so?" the man said, sitting back and steepling his fingers before him. "And what makes you think Wan Ma would help you for free? I mean, uh, he's a reasonable guy, but…" He shrugged, brushing his lapel.
Katara was getting a weird, nervous feeling in her gut. "Uh, it's for the good of a free Earth Kingdom?"
The man smirked. "Right. Let's talk seriously for a moment, now," he said, arching an eyebrow. "I'm Wan Ma. You look Water Tribe. You a bender?"
Katara gave a weak nod. "Katto."
"Katto of the Water Tribe. I like that. I can work with that. So here's my offer, Katto of the Water Tribe." He turned his steepled fingers to point at her. "You fight a round. I'll forgive you that little misunderstanding and tell you whatever you want to know."
Katara swallowed. "I'm not a very good bender," she said. "I won't win."
"That's alright," Wan Ma said, nodding toward the door. "This mob loves a lost cause."
When Zuko finally found the clearing north of the village, there were only a few signs that his quarry had ever been there. The grass was still a little bent from where a huge animal had lain and there were a few long white hairs snagged in a bramble. But there was no sign of where they might have gone from that point. The bison had taken off and the trail simply ended.
After some deep breathing and a long look at his map, Zuko led his uncle back to the coast to the south-east and then followed it toward the distant mountains as the sun set at their backs.
Iroh had not been helpful since they left the village. "Honestly," he was saying. "I think it looks good on you!"
"It looks ridiculous." Zuko scratched at the green hat. It actually did keep his ears pleasantly warm, but it was hideous. "The only reason I'm still wearing it is to make my face harder to recognize. If we come upon the Avatar suddenly, the element of surprise could make all the difference."
"I am sure that, when the Avatar sees you again, she will find you cool, yet sensitive."
"She'll find me ready," he said, scowling at the mountains. He did not notice Iroh's rising brows and sideways glance. "No more surprise attacks or little airbender friends popping up out of legend to save her this time."
Iroh tugged at his beard for a moment, watching Zuko watch the mountains, but said nothing.
Katara didn't see them prepare the ring for her. All she saw was a series of corridors and tunnels and a steamy locker room where a bunch of naked earthbenders were showering and slapping each others' backs. And butts. Apparently men did that here. Katara turned red to the roots of her hair and followed the guy with a clipboard straight through the room.
"Are you certain you won't take your shirt off?" he asked before they moved on. "The crowd really loves that."
"Um, no. I'm good."
He cast a disparaging eye over her shoulders and muttered something like 'no big loss' before turning away. Katara glowered but didn't press the issue.
In the last tunnel, she crossed paths with Wanjo Naru, who was even taller and brawnier and handsomer than he had seemed from afar. He also had a bruise covering about half his face and was walking with the help of two medics. That didn't actually do as much to diminish his attractiveness as Katara might have expected. She experienced the sudden urge to run and help him along, to lay her hand on his big, wide chest and soothe his hurts.
Katara shook her head roughly. That was a weird thought. Was that an affect of the mushrooms, too? This was no time for fantasies. She had a job to do.
This would be just like having Suki beat the crap out of her, only afterwards she would get the information she needed to find the rebels. She was so close. All she had to do was put on a show. And get pummeled with rocks.
Katara set her teeth against the fear and raised her chin.
The guy with the clipboard led her to a blocked off tunnel and gave her some last-minute instructions. Then, he hustled away and Katara was alone, breathing deeply and listening to the muffled roar of the crowd, the shouts of the announcer.
"For the final fight of the night, Wan Ma presents a special treat. From the frigid icy plains of the North Pole, for the first time ever, a bender has come to challenge the bare-knuckle earthbending master herself!"
Katara felt a little sick. None of this was true. And now she had to fight that vicious blind girl? The girl who knew she was a girl and could expose her to everyone? Why had she ever agreed to this? She drew some more deep breaths.
"You all know your champion," the announcer was saying to the wild screams of the crowd. "Now, I give you the challenger, Katto of the Water Tribe!"
The stone door ground open and Katara strode out into the light. There was a lot of booing and a little laughter from the crowd. As her eyes adjusted, she could see the ring had been altered into a wide strip of stone flanked on either side with deep water. She had emerged on one end of the stone strip. On the other end stood the Blind Bandit, smirking.
"Katto of the Water Tribe?" the girl laughed. "I've never even heard of you!"
Katara struggled for a comeback. "Are- you sure you shouldn't be named the Deaf Bandit, then? Since you haven't heard of me?"
The crowd was silent. The Blind Bandit slashed an am through the air to point at her. "Not cool. I'm gonna give you a real pounding for that one, Katto."
Katara tried not to look as nervous as she felt. The announcer began the countdown. A creepy smile spread across the Blind Bandit's face. Sweat prickled the back of Katara's neck.
"Begin!"
The Blind Bandit struck first with a pillar of rock that slammed hard into Katara's gut and sent her hurtling back against the wall. She slid down to the ground and then dodged sideways, managing to miss the next blow by diving into the water. Before she hit the surface, she heard the eathbender shout.
"Lucky!"
Katara surfaced quickly, forming a big disk of ice that she could stand on and turning to face her opponent again. Only, the Blind Bandit wasn't looking at her. She was staring straight ahead as if listening very closely.
"Hey Katto," she said. "Is your voice always this squeaky and girly or are you nervous about fighting a real bender?"
"I'll show you a real bender!"
Katara froze the water all around her and broke off a huge chunk of ice like she used to do at home. She was about to launch it at the blind girl when a head-sized rock caught her in the belly and sent her sailing across her own ice to fall hard, completely flipped over onto her face.
She leapt up snarling. With both arms she raised jagged walls of ice one after another to block the next couple of flying rocks, then sent a powerful stream swirling around the ring at the earthbender. It hit her like she didn't even see it coming.
"Waugh!"
She went flying into the water on the far side of the rock strip and came up with one hand on the far wall. Her black hair clung to her face.
"Alright, that's it!"
A column of rock shot up out of the water and the Blind Bandit stood on it to hurl huge chunks of rock at Katara. Katara raised more shields but the stones quickly blasted through, leaving her exposed to the last rock, coming straight for her head.
Until a gust of air blasted it down into the ice and Aang landed in the middle of the ring.
"Enough!" he shouted. "We didn't come here to fight in your stupid competition. We're looking for Wan Ma."
There were mutters around the audience. Katara came to stand beside Aang, peering up at all the stunned faces. In an undertone, she said, "What part of staying out of sight are you finding so difficult exactly?"
"All of it," Aang said. "The world needs to know I've returned. The rest will work itself out."
Katara clenched her jaw. That was definitely the mushrooms talking.
Aang raised his arms, staff in one hand. "I'm the Avatar, and I'm looking for Wan Ma!"
"He's over here," someone said. A bunch of people were pointing to the skinny guy with the neck tattoo, who stood stunned by the exit.
"The Avatar?" he said, disbelieving.
"That's right," Aang said, and flew up to talk with him.
Katara glanced around and tried to build a ramp of ice she could climb but ended up with an amorphous shape that just fell apart.
"Really?" the Blind Bandit said from behind her. "You hang out with the Avatar and you suck this bad at bending?"
Katara turned around and crossed her arms over her chest. "I was good enough to knock you around."
"That's only because I'm blind and I can't see your attacks coming, Katto!" She jabbed Katara in the shoulder with two fingers. "I want a rematch."
"Listen, I'd love to," Katara said, and then knocked her hand away, "but I kind of have an actual war to go fight instead of a make-believe one where I brutalize my own people!"
"All I hear is 'blah blah chicken blah blah excuse.'"
"You really should get your ears checked," Katara said sweetly, and stalked toward where an attendant was waiting to give her a ride up out of the pit.
She didn't see it, but behind her the blind girl narrowed her pale eyes.
After a jittery chat with the Avatar, Wan Ma was happy to take them to meet the leaders of the rebel forces. Flanked by a few earthbenders, he led Katara and Aang through tunnels under the town that seemed to go on forever. They rode a great stone block pushed by earthbenders through miles of tunnels, grinding fast through the clammy torchlit air.
At last, they emerged in a huge dome where shuttered lanterns marked wide walkways around the circumference that went up and down several levels, all visible from the edge. Katara could see nothing high above, where the ceiling vaulted away to darkness, but far below, she thought she could hear water.
"We're under the mountains," Aang said, amazed.
"Yeah," said Wan Ma. He spoke a few words to a man in a green uniform and sent him running off before shepherding them along. "Since the Fire Nation started moving in on the southern territories of the Earth Kingdom, refugees keep pouring into Gao Ling. The Earth Rumble Federation, and yours truly, took it upon ourselves to give something back to the people. So we built this place to serve as a base for the resistance."
"Uh huh," Katara said. "You sure struck me as a real champion of refugee wellbeing when you were coercing me into a pit fight."
Wan Ma shrugged. "Man's gotta eat, kid. You did great in there. I'll pay you next time."
"Right."
They took some open stairs up several flights until they reached what seemed to be the top tier of the facility, where Wan Ma led them into a meeting room with a huge map spread over a low table. A big Earth Kingdom man in nightclothes stepped away from the table as they entered. He stared unabashedly at Aang's arrow tattoo.
"Avatar Aang," Wan Ma said, "this… gentleman is General Fong. He leads the Earth Kingdom faction of the rebel forces. General, Avatar Aang and his friend, Katto of the Water Tribe."
"Avatar," Fong said, and the title emerged from his mouth the way a stale breath does from a swimmer too long underwater. He inhaled and bowed. "It is my honor to receive you."
"Thank you for your welcome," Aang said, and smiled. "Those are some nice pajamas."
Fong blinked and looked woefully down at himself, then back at Aang. Katara could see in his eyes the moment he truly realized Aang was just a kid. "Apologies for my state of dress," he said, slowly. "It is not every night that I'm awakened with the news that the Avatar has returned."
"Yeah, sorry about the hour." Aang rubbed the back of his neck.
"Not at all," Fong said. "Please, join me."
He gestured to the big table and Aang sat. Katara hesitated beside Wan Ma, clasping her hands together.
Fong noticed her. "You are from the Southern Tribe, are you not?"
"Yes," Katara said. She remembered what the Blind Bandit had said about her posture and straightened, letting her hands hang at her sides. "I came to join the resistance and met Aang along the way."
"You didn't come with the ship that recently returned from the South Pole?"
"Uh, no. See, my family doesn't really live with the rest of the village and, uh, I guess my, uh, uncle Hakoda kind of, forgot me." She shrugged, grinning hopefully.
Fong narrowed his eyes. They were weary but cunning. "I've never known Chief Hakoda to forget a man behind."
Katara swallowed. Her eyes darted to Aang, who looked really nervous. She hoped she didn't look that nervous.
Fong crossed his arms. "You look young for a recruit."
"Yes," she blurted. "I am, a bit. But, the way I see it, what's a few years when a war is going on?"
"But Chief Hakoda didn't see it that way, and he left you at home."
Katara raised her chin. "Yes."
Fong watched her a moment longer. "I don't get involved in the business of the Water Tribe, but I will say that you're starting your military career with a mark for disobedience."
Katara ducked her head at that.
"Excuse me," Aang said, and Fong immediately turned to face him. "If you're keeping a record, Katto deserves other marks too – for bravery, loyalty, and determination. He came almost all the way to the mainland alone in a canoe, and faced Fire Nation soldiers more than once. And he did all of that to get here, just so he could look out for his family." Aang smiled at her but she was watching the general, who was assessing her anew.
"Far be it from me to take the Avatar's recommendation lightly. I'll pass that information along to Chief Hahn," Fong said. "He'll be in charge of your training while Chief Hakoda is away."
"Chief Hakoda isn't here?" Katara asked.
"No," the general said, with a thoughtful look at her. "He's taken his crew on a mission. We don't expect him back for another month."
Katara wasn't sure whether to be dismayed because she'd missed her chance to go with him, or relieved that she would have time to train and establish herself before having to face him. She also desperately wanted to ask if Sokka had gone with him, but it didn't seem like the right time and Fong probably wouldn't know anyway.
"Private Tsing," he was saying, "escort Katto to the Water Tribe barracks. Make sure he has the basics. The rest can wait until morning."
Katara bowed to General Fong, then to Aang. He was looking at her a little uncertainly, as if he didn't want her to leave.
"See you later, Aang," she said.
He smiled then. "Seeya, Katto."
The green-uniformed man led Katara down far past the level where they had started. The air felt damper farther down, and they began passing many doorways blocked off with curtains that emitted snores from beyond. Finally, they stopped outside a door with a blue curtain, the private handed her an armful of folded blanket, and then he marched off. Katara watched him go for a moment, then turned back to the curtain, drew a deep breath, and pushed through.
There were bodies sprawled everywhere. Hammocks strung from the ceilings, stone shelves set into the walls, sleeping bags cluttered across the floor – the place was packed. And noisy. There were maybe a dozen different types of snores happening in that room simultaneously. It was impossible to tell if one of them might belong to Sokka.
Katara peered around for an empty spot and made for a corner where there was enough space to sit down. She stepped on a guy's hand and nearly tripped over another.
"Ooh – sorry!" she hissed. "Sorry…"
The snoring went on for the most part and, finally, she settled down in her corner and wrapped the blanket around her shoulders and, for hours, tried not to think about what Sokka would say when he saw her, or if he was even here, or how this wasn't the way it was supposed to be.
"Prince Zuko, are you sure you wouldn't rather make for the city?" Iroh asked again the next morning. "We could stay at an inn, sleep in real beds! All of this camping is hard on my old back."
Zuko kept marching onward. He refused to slow for his uncle's imagined maladies. He hardly slowed for rest – and not at all for food. "That city in too far inland. It would take most of a day to make the walk and the Avatar won't have gone there anyway. The rebel camp will be someplace where they can easily hide their ships. That means the coast."
"But what if the Avatar needed to stop for directions, too? Maybe someone in Gao Ling will know which way she headed? We could avoid days of fruitlessly searching the coast if we only take the time to visit the city first."
"Or we could completely avoid the city," Zuko said, turning to loom over the old man, "where, need I remind you, there are lots of people, some of whom may realize that we're not actually refugees."
Iroh smiled hopefully, "Or they might treat us with kindness because we are so downtrodden."
"I don't want any more charity from these people!" Zuko took off the hat and flung it over the cliff. It sailed a long way before vanishing into the sea far below. His ears immediately became cold again, but his head itched all over and it was driving him crazy, not scratching it.
Iroh peered woefully down at the roiling surf. "A shame to waste such delicate needlework."
"We're taking the coast," Zuko enunciated. He turned away and kept walking.
Katara was running through twisted tunnels of ice. All around her, there was rumbling. Sokka was lost somewhere here, maybe hurt. She had to find him before one of these tunnels collapsed, but she couldn't shout – the noise might bring it all down. She turned corner after corner and found herself running up a slippery slope, sliding back just as fast as she ran so she got nowhere.
Something made her turn her head to the side, some thread of intuition. The creepy prince was watching her through the ice. Was he trapped as well, or was he on the outside looking in?
Yellow eyes were locked on her, yellow eyes that wouldn't look away.
Katara jerked awake to the clang of numerous bells and shouting out in the hallway. "Get up! Get up, you lazy slugs! Morning workouts! Let's go!"
The men all around her were struggling into clothes and boots as they yawned and blinked bleary eyes. Katara, who hadn't even taken her boots off before sleeping last night, fell in with the crowd, following to wherever they were headed.
The men she had been sharing a room with turned out to be younger than she had expected – around her age, maybe a little older. They were all Northern Water Tribe.
And a few of them were really nice looking. Katara noticed this especially as they were pulling their shirts on over their muscled backs and chests. Most of them had a thicker build than her skinny brother – maybe a result of having enough to eat when they were growing up. Realizing she was staring, she folded up her blanket, noticed no one else was doing that, and then kicked it into a wad in the corner.
Apparently, they wore their hair longer in the North. Katara kind of wished she had known that before she had let Gran-gran shave the back of her head. On the way out of the barracks, she rubbed the bristly hairs that had grown in over the past week and wondered in passing whether she should shave it again or grow it out.
Those thoughts were quickly driven from her mind, though. It turned out the rebel complex was vast beyond Katara's expectations. In the mid-levels, they had huge training rooms, all lit by channels cut carefully through the rock that caught the daylight and magnified it off crystal growths to fill the rooms with light. On the way to wherever the Water Tribe recruits were going, they passed rooms full of Earth Kingdom recruits. Benders rolled boulders across the floor, guys with spears struck at dummies in red uniforms.
"Hey, are you new or something?"
Katara turned to find a couple of the guys walking ahead of her had turned back and were scrutinizing her as they walked. She gave her best first-day smile. "Yeah, I just got here last night. I'm Katto!"
"Jeeka," a guy with sad little mustache-hairs said, then nodded at the other guy, who had a bone piercing through his nose. "Attuk. You Southern Tribe?"
"That's right," Katara said. "How could you tell?"
"You kind of look like that Sokka guy. Only girlier." They laughed and Attuk slapped Jeeka's shoulder.
"Ha ha," Katara said, trying not to sound as nervous as she felt. She wanted them to like her, accept her into the group. That was what the Water Tribe was all about, the group, the community. This was all in good fun. "Yeah, well, Sokka is my cousin so we do share a certain family resemblance."
"Sokka didn't mention he had a cousin."
"Oh, he didn't? I guess he, uh, just doesn't talk about me much!"
Attuk only stared at her. Jeeka smirked. "He mostly just talks about how there's nobody decent to spar with in the whole South Pole."
They cast her pitying glances, laughed some more, and turned back around.
Katara blinked and frowned. That hadn't gone at all like she'd expected it to. She'd been nice. What was their problem?
They finally arrived at a big training room and mingled around racks of practice weapons with another group that had gotten there earlier. Katara spotted the back of Sokka's head from across the room. He was telling one of his jokes to a big crowd of uncertain faces.
She had to go talk to him before he spotted her and said the wrong thing. Katara wove through the group and waited behind Sokka for the end of the joke.
"…so the tiger-seal says to the sea-prune, 'Got any molar?' Get it? Teeth!"
Katara remembered that joke. It had never seemed funny to her, but she had missed hearing her brother tell it. In his audience, there were a few laughs, and some eye-rolling amusement. Sokka raised his hands in an open gesture and bowed his head. Katara tapped him on the shoulder and he craned his neck to peer back at her.
For an instant, he didn't recognize her. Then his jaw dropped and he spun around to face her, raising a finger to point. "Kat—"
Katara held out her hands and quickly spoke over him. "What, no hug for cousin Katto? Sokka, I'd almost think you aren't happy to see me."
"Katto?" Sokka stared at her and let his arm drop back to his side. He shut his mouth and glanced at the curious faces all around. "Katto! My cousin!" He flung his arm around her neck and began dragging her between the racks of weapons. Katara flailed an arm and went along. "My little cousin! It has been so long since we talked. Or met. In public." As soon as they were out of the crowd, he dropped his voice to a hiss. "What are you doing here?"
"Let go!" Katara shoved him until he released her from the headlock, then glared at him. "You know why I'm here."
Sokka glanced around again and put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close so that he could speak very quietly and rapidly in her ear. "Katara, you don't know what kind of trouble you're in here. These Northern guys are not fooling around. If they figure you out, they'll want to kill you."
Katara rolled her eyes and started shaking her head, but Sokka pulled back to lock gazes with her. "I'm serious. They have a law. I checked. If they catch you, they'll execute you."
AN: We're flying right along! I'm so excited! Help me get more excited with a little review!
Mushroom man, nyuk nyuk...
