Chapter Eleven
The first thing she noticed was pain. Most striking was the pain in her upper arms. Then she noticed the twinge in her side and that her feet were dragging along uneven stone. The soreness seemed all consuming but once she had each ache and throb accounted for, she noticed other things without opening her eyes. It was cold and dank; the air smelled musty. This all happened in a matter of seconds before she summoned the strength to open her eyes. Her vision was bleary and it took quite a bit of effort to move her head to look around. They were in some roughly hewn tunnel with torches in the wall and two burly men were dragging her along, following a third.
Now she realized why her arms hurt as they gripped her tightly and from where her whole body weight was being supported. A slight pained noise escaped her as one adjusted his grip, jostling her painfully. The leading man stopped and turned.
"You're awake." He sneered.
The men holding her halted and she took the opportunity to find her feet and stand as straight as she could, side protesting. "Who are you?" She demanded coldly.
"This one's feisty." He commented with a smug expression. One of the men holding her grunted.
"Where am I? Who do you work for? Where's Zuko?" She narrowed her eyes at him in challenge.
"I don't like it when prisoners talk back. You best learn your place and shut up." He warned, leaning toward her, foul breath washing over her.
"What are you planning?" She asked slowly, venom dripping from her words in challenge.
The man straightened to his full height, shook his head while clicking his tongue in reprimand and launched a foot into her stomach. Katara immediately crumpled, still supported by the men holding her aloft as she coughed and choked for air. "That's enough questions from you." He turned and continued to walk.
The guards at her side moved on. She tried to plant her feet and provide some resistance, but they jerked her forward, feet dragging until she decided she might as well move under her own power and relieve some of the pressure from her arms though she stayed stooped from the blow. Anytime she stumbled or slowed she was jerked forward once more. She hadn't been paying attention as they dragged her along the dank tunnels, but when the right side of the passageway started to give way to the barred walls of prison cells, she noticed.
The lead man halted once more before one of the cell doors. He took on a mocking tone. "Fire lord Zuko. We have a surprise for you."
Katara squinted into the cell, her view blocked by the men around her.
"If you're going to kill me, just get it over with." A dry, gruff voice emerged from the very back and it sounded to have come from the ground.
"Oh no, we're not here to kill you. The boss doesn't want that." He sounded so gleeful that Katara felt sick. "I've brought you a little friend.
She heard shuffling, presumably Zuko getting to his feet, and then the guards turned to face her towards the cell.
"Katara!" That one word seemed to breathe life into him. He started to charge the door in a rage, but the lead man unlocked the gate and Katara was thrown at him. He stopped short and caught her, arms wrapping about and using their momentum to lower them to the floor. He clutched her close and turned his head to the guards and roared. "How dare you!" She could feel the heat from his rage roiling off him. He made to charge them again, show the extent of his fury, but Katara clutched him closely, afraid of his anger and the men outside the bars. She leaned her face against his chest and winced as the men laughed cruelly at them.
The main man smacked the bars. "There's a good boy. Stay down." He sneered and she felt Zuko's hands tighten on her before they sidled off, still chuckling. Zuko remained tense until they and their voices had disappeared. As soon as his grip slackened, Katara slid off him.
"Zuko." Her voice came out more strangled than she would have liked. "Are you okay? What happened?" He was hidden in her shadow and she couldn't tell what state he was in. He had been down here over a week after all.
"I'm fine, are you alright?"
"Fine. Just a little bruised."
His stare was intense and angry. "They didn't do anything to you, did they?"
His tone inflected so strongly that she instantly knew what he meant. "No! No, I'm okay, they didn't… I'm okay." She soothed and she could see his shoulders loosen a bit. "Zuko, what's been going on?" She scooted to the side to let the flickering light from the torches illuminate his features. "Oh Zuko…" She gasped. His good eye was swollen and dark, he was wearing a tattered shirt that the guards must have found and given him to cover his bare torso, but that and his pants where singed and full of burned holes where angry red flesh peered through. Tentatively she placed her finger tips on the edge of the swollen eye. "What happened?"
He sighed and took her hand and placed it gently over the side of his face, murmuring to himself about cold hands. "You don't want to know."
She surged to her feet. "They did this, didn't they?!" She was angry now. Zuko looked up at her wearily from the ground. "You're not going to get away with this!" She screamed down the empty hallway. She turned on him. "Where's some water? I need to heal you."
He exhaled slowly and motioned for her to sit again. When she stood unmoving, trembling in anger he continued anyways. "There is no water. They only bring it with the food."
"There has to be water." She insisted, rubbing her bare arms.
"Katara…" Zuko took a moment to get to his feet, trying to conceal how painful it was from her. "I'm okay. Everything is going to be okay." He was the one who had been here, presumably tortured, beaten and burned and he was comforting her.
She took a breath to calm herself and nodded. "Okay."
"Okay?" His voice, though haggard, was quiet and coaxing.
"Okay." She repeated.
"Let's sit down and you can tell me what's been happening while I've been gone." He turned stiffly and leaned heavily on the wall, sliding down it to a seated position.
"We've all been worried sick about you." She said, sliding down next to him.
Zuko gave a quick mirthless laugh. "What else?"
"Iroh took over, we're trying to keep it quiet, Aang's been trying to find you with help from the spirit world, and Toph was coming to try tracking you through the tunnels."
Zuko gave her a long assessing look as he absorbed everyone's efforts. "How'd they get you?"
"Same way they got you."
Zuko nodded his head slowly before leaning his head back against the wall and closing his eyes.
Katara sat huddled, trying to preserve heat and fretting with a loose thread on her shirt. "Why are we here?" She whispered.
Warm amber eyes turned to her and softened at the look on her face. "I don't know."
"They haven't told you anything?"
He shook his head.
"Not even when they're doing…" She swallowed and gestured to him. "This?"
"No. They won't tell me anything except that they're supposed to keep me alive. Although they don't always seem so determined to do so." He added bitterly.
She examined the burns all over his body and asked in a small voice. "What do they do?"
He started to protest but she cut him off. "I want to know what I'll be facing Zuko." He tensed beside her.
"I won't let them do that to you."
She gave him a sympathetic smile. "You won't be able to stop them."
"I can try." The animosity was back.
She knew he wasn't going to relent, but he also wasn't going to be able to do anything so she just nodded. "What do they do?"
"They have a chi blocker. Not as good as Ty Lee, but still effective. He takes away your bending, and then they take me to a different area where there are other fire benders. They shoot fire balls at me, usually I can dodge them, but they do it for hours. I get so tired and they start to actually land. Once they figure I've been burned enough they drag me back here. Happens every day."
"What about the bruises?"
"I don't always cooperate." He said with a derisive smile.
She nodded mutely and continued to try to rub some heat back into herself and yawned from exhaustion.
"You should sleep."
"I don't think I can."
"Trust me; you'll want it while you can get it. I'll keep an eye out."
She doubted that sleep would find her in this cold, scary place where inevitable torture would find her, but she lay on her side with her back to the frigid wall and tried to make herself mildly comfortable. She closed her eyes and listened to Zuko's breathing. She never slept, but she did manage to relax a bit, despite shivering the entire time. Zuko wasn't too affected by the cold. His internal fires kept him warm.
She heard the footsteps even before Zuko lightly shook her shoulder. She sat up and huddled against the wall once more and heavy footfalls neared. A guard appeared; the malicious one who enjoyed tormenting them.
"Food." He snarled and spat on the floor as he pushed a small tray in under the bars "Where's the water?" Katara asked boldly.
"Water benders don't get water." He growled. "Not unless they're restrained." He said with a malicious look and a flash of teeth.
Zuko let out a growl of sound. The man just chuckled. "He can have all he wants to drink though."
Zuko continued with the aggressive posturing. Katara patted his hand. "Go ahead. I'm not thirsty. Don't hold back on account of me."
"Come on now, thirsty boy?" He sneered.
Zuko stood and glared at the man and took a step closer.
"Bring the water!" The man groused. Another man trundled into view toting a sloshing bucket. "Restrain her." He ordered lazily.
"Hey!" She cried.
"What?!" Zuko roared and the water man made a few flicks of his wrists and stone caught her wrists and ankles and held them fast to the back wall.
"You bastard!" Zuko hollered punching towards the bars, sending a ball of flame at him.
"He's bending!" The man shouted from his crouched position and a sleek figure in the black uniform and hood seemed to just materialize beside the angry man screaming orders. He snaked his arm between the bars, caught Zuko's wrist and pulled him against the gate, striking him quickly and rendering him less dangerous.
Zuko struggled but the chi blocker held his wrist at an incredibly awkward and painful angle so he couldn't put up much of a fight. The leader turned to the earth bender who still had the bucket. "When was the last time he was given water?"
"Yesterday sir."
"Damn, that means I can't with hold it. He needs to be in good condition." He said leering at Zuko. "Go ahead and give it to him."
"Sir." He said nodding. He took a deep ladle and held it to Zuko's lips. Zuko just glared at him, making threatening sounds.
"Zuko, drink it!" Katara called. "Really, I'm okay."
Zuko made one last growl before accepting the water. The man with the ladle turned to his superior. "What about her?"
He made a disgusted sound. "I guess we should give her some too. Bring her closer."
The earth bender made some gestures and the stone shackles brought her flush with the bars.
"Open up my pretty." The main man hissed.
"You disgust me." She replied coldly.
He elbowed the chi blocker out of the way and took his hold on Zuko's wrist, turning it even further until a hiss escaped Zuko. "Take her bending just in case." He commanded. The chi blocker struck her swiftly and she could no longer feel the pull of power the bucket had offered her. "If you would just do as you're told, you would get what you want." He hissed.
"What I want is to leave this place." She spat.
"Oh, but we're not finished with you yet." He smiled malevolently at her and she had no ready response so she finally drank from the ladle. "Very good. Release her." The earth bender removed the stone shackles and she slumped against the bars and quickly backed away.
"You still have a thing or two to learn." He spat at Zuko before kicking him hard in the chest back into the cell through the bars.
Katara rushed to him, helping him sit up as he gasped for air. The man left laughing once more, followed by the water bearing earth bender and chi blocker.
"Are you alright?" She asked worriedly hovering over him.
"I hate that guy." He mumbled as he sat up wincing slightly. She retrieved the tray of scraps that was supposed to consist of their meal.
"Here, eat." She said proffering it to him.
"You eat too."
"There isn't enough for both of us. You should have it all. You need your strength and up until last night, I've been eating palace food." He sat there obstinately. "You're not going to win this one. Just eat it."
Any fight washed out of him with her gentle worrying. He accepted the food graciously. "Thank you Katara. Tomorrow, we'll both eat." She nodded her agreement.
When he was done eating Katara saw him shiver. "It's cold in here." She observed.
"It's not that bad until they take my bending away." He sat for a moment contemplating. "You must be freezing. I didn't even realize."
She tried to reassure him. "I'll be okay. I used to live in the South Pole, remember?" She teased with a small smile.
"We should get some sleep. If you stay near me, you'll be warmer." He offered, but it came out kind of embarrassed.
"I'll keep that in mind." She assured him awkwardly. She lay back down against the wall where she had been earlier and he lay beside her, a comfortable gap between them as they attempted to sleep.
Sarahplainntall here! Hope you liked it! Sorry this story started off so slowly, but from her on, it's pretty exciting! Who-dunnit? :D Review! I'll update next week.