WARNING: non-con and violence

The door swung open with more force than usual as Sherik and two other guards walked in.

Without preamble, the largest guard reached for Katara, grabbing her by her clothing and pulling her with such force she nearly tripped as her feet moved from beneath her.

Zuko made to intercept, but the other guard was prepared for this, and caught the boy's wrists in an iron grip, pulled tightly against the guard's chest.

"Put him on the wall," Sherik ordered the second guard. "Let him watch."

As Zuko was roughly locked into the manacles, Katara continued her violent struggle, kicking and squirming as she was dragged across the room. Her fist completely missed its mark on the man's nose as she was pushed downward. Hitting the mattress with a surprised huff, she immediately kicked out towards her attacker, only to be stopped by large hands wrapping around her ankles, restraining her legs.

The other guard had finished with Zuko and now gripped her wrists, effectively immobilizing her and preventing any farther successful struggle.

That didn't stop her from trying, though.

They let her struggle for a few minutes. Probably just to laugh at her, she realized as she caught the smirk on Sherik's face as he leaned against the wall, arms crossed, next to Zuko.

Katara watched as the older guard leaned in to say something in his ear.

She met Zuko's eye for a brief second, letting the reality of the situation sink in as her energy began to fade, her struggles becoming weaker. He kept his eyes on hers just long enough for her to see his face pale before he turned his glare to the ground.

Fear sunk in even deeper as the two men holding her seemed to grow tired of waiting, the one at her arms reaching to pull at the fabric at her shirt, releasing one of her hands in the process.

Her punch to the guard's chin was met with a harder hit to her face, knocking her head to the side and making her spit up blood.

The other man pulled himself onto her legs, using his weight to hold her lower body down, preventing her hips and legs from being used. Rough hands tugged at her shirt, lifting it up to her neck, exposing the dirty white sarashi.

She could do nothing as her arms were now being held tighter than before, her wrists digging into the rough stone ground.

The guard smirked at her before lighting a flame on the tip of his finger and bringing it down to her chest.

The fabric protecting her breasts from their eyes was burned through and fell to the sides of her body before she could even register.

Desperately trying to free her arms to cover herself, the other guard went to work removing her loose pants, burning through the belt in a way similar to her bindings.

Katara's now frantic struggles were enough to throw the larger man off of her for a moment, and she used that advantage to roll over and headbutt the other guard. She felt a surge of pride as she heard the telltale pop of his nose breaking.

Just as she was struggling to stand up with her pants falling down, she felt a sudden heat blazing into the skin on the back of her thigh.

She could barely process the sound of Zuko's strained "No!"- he's still here?- as she fell back in pain. While they had burned her with the metal rods before, nothing could prepare her for the direct contact of flame on her flesh.

She couldn't prevent the scream that escaped her.

In her sudden shock and pain, the guard that had burned her pushed her onto her back, the other one taking a step back to nurse his now broken nose. The man on top of her was able to draw her pants down to her ankles, ripping away her remaining underclothes, and then drawing himself from a flap in his pants.

Just as she was certain she would black out from the pain of the fire, the man reached down with one hand to guide himself into her struggling body.

Katara couldn't help but cry out as he roughly pushed his hips against hers. He wasted no time at all before his thrusts started up, sometimes slow and deep, while other times frantic and shallow.

Either way, it still hurt.

Once she'd gotten over the shock of the initial pain, Katara began to fight again. She opted to cease trying to buck him off with her hips, but her free hands were able to score long red scratches down his back. After slapping her hard across the face, he gathered both of her hands in one of his while she was stunned, leaving her with no way to fight back. Her burn prevented her from using her legs, as it was.

A few agonizing minutes later, she heard a grunt from above her, and felt something warm and sticky seep into her, mixing with the blood. She remembered Sokka giving her the "ferretbirds and stingerbees" talk, and cringed internally when she realized what had just happened.

Pushing himself heavily off of her chest (she could swear she felt a rib break), he stood up as the other guard took his place on top of her, the blood from his nose dripping onto her chest.

She could hear the clanging as Zuko resisted, spitting fire from his mouth. Sherik murmured something, effectively preventing the boy from threatening him and his guards.

There was less resistance this time, but the pain was even more unbearable than before. She couldn't help but think it was due to her injuring him earlier, but couldn't find it in herself to regret it.

Every few strokes was accompanied by an almost pleading whimper.

She just wanted it to stop.

Eventually (it seemed to last forever), she was able to focus enough to retreat into herself, trying to drown out some of the pain and embarrassment from being so exposed.

She flinched in pain when he bit down hard on her nipple. It was unlike any pain she'd ever felt before. The past few days had gotten her somewhat used to it, of course, but this was something else. It felt as if her entire body was seizing up in pain.

She refused to look, but could tell he had drawn blood.

He continued to do… something to it that made the inner agony even worse. Her back arched from the pain, and she let out a guttural moan resembling some kind of animal. When the pain persisted, she risked a small "please" in hopes that he'd stop and just get on with it.

To her relief, he looked up from her breast, smiling at her sickeningly. There was blood around his lips, making him look like a polar leopard after a kill.

Katara went back to making her mind blank. She was unable to drown out all of the pain, but it helped.

His movements began speeding up, and she eventually felt him finish in the way the last guard had, grateful that it would finally be over.

Before leaving her, though, the man reached for her injured breast, giving it a rough squeeze before wiping the blood across her face, painting her like some disgusting work of art.

She didn't risk moving when the two guards headed over to the door, exiting without sparing her a glance. She summoned the energy to lift her head enough to see Sherik unlocking Zuko's manacles.

Struggling to curl in on herself to somewhat shield her body from the remaining men, she was relieved and scared to hear Sherik open the door and speak.

"I"ll see you tomorrow."

The door closed, leaving her alone with Zuko and the heavy silence.

.

A thousand thoughts were running through Zuko's mind. He desperately wished he could stop them, but Sherik had threatened to make it even worse if he interfered. It's not like he could do much anyways, from his place on the wall, but he did take pleasure in the way the guards looked fearful when he had blown fire at them.

He could tell Katara was in pain. Even if she held tears at bay and only broke into noises a few times, her face, clearly visible to him, told him all he needed to know.

He knew Sherik had intentionally positioned his men so that Zuko had a clear view of everything that was happening to her. This was as much his punishment as hers.

He suspected it was because he had been helping her. They had to realize by now that Katara couldn't tell Zogen where her father was, and he knew Sherik was the best, and smartest, interrogator there was. Or maybe it was because of her attack on the guards? But that was also Zuko's fault. He could have, should have stopped her. Or maybe if he had just brought her food and water as he'd been told, she could have been spared.

Either way, he knew he could do nothing without risking her safety, or life. And that hurt him more than any wounds they could inflict on him.

As it was, the metal chains that had surrounded his wrists had rubbed the skin raw from his struggles and attempts at being closer to her, trying and wishing desperately that there was something he could do.

And even now, with Sherik gone, he couldn't do anything. The damage was done. And he couldn't even do something as simple as get her water or bandages. The helplessness ripped him apart, and caused him to hit the wall with all of his strength, breaking off rock and causing his knuckles to bleed.

He wanted to lash out again, but the flinch he caught from the girl curled up on the now-bloodied mattress stopped him.

She was bleeding and trembling, whether from the coldness of the cell hitting her bare skin, or from the trauma, he wasn't sure. Her burn was bad- he could recognize the heat from it even from where he was chained to the wall.

He could tell from the bruise already forming on her side that they had broken a rib or two, and he knew she may not be able to heal something internal like that.

What was worse, she hadn't moved since the second guard had got off of her. She hadn't made a move to get up, and hadn't even lashed out when the guards released her.

It seemed that all her fight had gone out of her ever since the second guard…

But he would have to put aside the pain raging inside of him for her. His anger would do nothing to help her, right now, and may even make matters worse.

He vowed to do better, next time. And to help her in any way possible.

This was, after all, his fault.

.

She refused to look at Zuko, but could feel his eyes on her. Instead, she just lay there. For how long, she wasn't sure, but she knew that he was there, and knew that he was probably disgusted with what he saw. At her. She couldn't handle seeing the look in his eyes at seeing how weak she was.

Not to mention that she was in too much pain to move at the moment.

Her burn was by far the worse, but her side was hurting from where the large guard had put all of his weight on it. Curling in on herself hurt it even more, but it was better than leaving herself exposed.

Eventually, she took a few deep breaths to collect herself before gathering the discarded shirt from the ground. She had to hold back a groan as she slid her arms through the sleeves, her shoulder pulling painfully at the movement.

She had to pause and take a few more breaths before reaching for her pants, struggling to get them on while trying to keep herself as covered as possible.

Not that it really matters, she thought bitterly. He's already seen it all.

As the fabric grazed the burn on her thigh, she couldn't hold back the whimper of pain. She was never going to get used to the feeling of skin scorched off of her body.

At her noise of pain, she finally caught movement to her left. Zuko had taken a step towards her, no doubt intending to help her finish dressing in any way that could cause her less pain.

Katara tensed. "Don't," she said quietly. She was ashamed when her voice shook, even from just one word.

She heard his steps stop, and slowly turned her leg to look at the burn there. A quick glance up told her that Zuko had turned his head away, and he stood a good ten feet from her, head bowed.

She couldn't get a good view, but she could see where her skin had rubbed raw from moving against the mattress, instead of the usual bubbles that accompanied her other burns.

What also surprised her was the black tint around the wound. Huh.

Knowing there wasn't much to do until she should get water to rinse it out, she carefully pulled the leg of the pants up over it, trying her best not to damage it farther.

As she finished covering herself. She caught sight of her underclothes lying in piles, but knew they'd do nothing now, damaged as they were. They'd probably make her wounds hurt even more, anyways.

It was then that she risked a look at Zuko. He was still standing where he was a few moments ago, but was now turned to look straight at her, now that she was covered. He seemed to be searching here eyes for the answer to a question, but she didn't know what it was.

Katara sighed and just shook her head. She opted to lay back onto the bloody mattress on her side, avoiding letting her injured leg and ribs take more pressure than they needed to. All she wanted to do was sleep so she could stop the thoughts swirling around in her mind.

She didn't notice Zuko's movement until he was kneeling beside her, facing her back. She forced herself to remain still, hoping he'd think she was asleep.

"Katara…" he started, but broke off.

She sighed shakily. "You don't have to say anything," she mumbled. "Maybe Red'll let you out and you can sleep in your own room tonight. I don't think you'd want to…" She left the implication hanging, hoping he'd get it.

Zuko said nothing, knowing she didn't want to hear it. He looked at her for a long moment before getting up and knocking on the door as quietly as possible.

Red answered almost immediately, letting Zuko out. He couldn't help but peek inside to check in on the girl as the door closed. It had been unusually quiet, with only a few screams by Zuko piercing the halls. He couldn't help but admire her strength, but shook his head sadly as the door closed, leaving her in the room alone.

.

Katara was just drifting off to sleep when she heard the door creak open. She tensed, thinking the guards had come back for more. She couldn't help the small trembles as footsteps came closer and closer. She squeezed her eyes shut as tight as she could, hoping to just drown it all out this time.

It was the soft sound of a bowl being set down that made her open her eyes slowly. She hesitantly turned around to see a bowl of broth placed on the ground, with a pair of familiar hands unwrapping a roll of bandages.

She struggled to sit up, but shrugged Zuko off when he reached forward to help her. She went for the bucket of water first, desperate for some relief on her leg. She pulled up the leg of her pants as far as they would go, freeing the wound. It took all of her remaining strength just to pull water and rinse off the wound. Healing it would have to wait, but the cool liquid gave her enough relief for now.

Zuko wordlessly held out the bandages along with a small container of yellowy ointment. Katara dipped her fingers in the ointment, spreading it as gently as she could over her burn.

Wrapping it was a little more difficult, and she begrudgingly let Zuko help her, without meeting his eyes. She was careful to not let him touch her.

After that, she drank her broth, the warm liquid seeming to sooth the heavy and uncomfortable feeling that had settled into her stomach.

Zuko silently picked at a few rolls he had brought along, offering her one when she dared to look at him again. Their fingers grazed when she reached out to accept it, and she quickly pulled back like she had been burned. He looked at her with sad, regretful eyes as he set the bread next to her bowl instead.

Once they finished eating, in silence, Zuko moved the pail of water and remaining bandages over next to a wall. He took the bowl, knocking and leaving without saying anything.

He returned before Katara could even lay back down. He was carrying an armful of blankets, along with a large grey sheet.

Wordlessly, he began laying the sheet over the part of the mattress that was unoccupied, then finished covering the bloodied mess when Katara moved off to let him finish. He then piled most of the blankets (all a bit worn out and thin) onto the ground next to the mattress, handing one to the girl to his left.

Katara was confused until she saw him lay down on the pile of blankets, facing towards her.

"You don't have to-"

"I know," he said. "But I won't leave you alone."

His voice was certain, but gentle.

Katara sighed. "Where did you get these?" she asked, holding up a corner of her blanket.

Zuko smiled a bit. "Red."

Katara seemed surprised, but chose to accept it without comment, and settled down onto her bed.

They just lay there, watching each other without talking until Zuko closed his eyes.

"You should try to sleep," he said softly, eyes still closed.

Katara said nothing, just watching his face in the dim light. After awhile, though, she spoke, more to herself than to the boy who she was sure had fallen asleep.

"Thank you." It was barely more than a whisper.

Zuko surprised her by letting the corners of his mouth tilt up just slightly.

She spent the time it took for her to drift off convincing herself that he smiled in his sleep.

Yoooo sorry for the late update. I've been distracted reading "The Black Games" series by Mrs Pettyfer. If you haven't read it, I would highly recommend it. It is most definitely the most amazing work/group of works I have ever read, fics from any fandom and novels alike. I could gush about it for hours, honestly. Anyways, I'm taking a break between the second and final part to focus on this story. Trying to buy more time because it's a WIP, and I can't bear the thought of reading it unfinished.

Anyways, I apologize for this chapter. It was draining to write. But I want readers to understand the pain Katara will be going through. It's not a happy story, but necessary. The hurt/comfort aspect will be worth it, I promise.