AN: NINJA SNEAK-ATTACK UPDATE!

(Thanks reviewers for being awesome like you are!)

"So the guy lit a pipe!" Kola held his hands out to either side and looked to the sky as if for reason, then back at Zuko and went on. "We were halfway down the hill! Are you telling me your eyesight is so good you're sure that he wasn't using a twig or something?"

"Yes," Zuko snapped. This was a lie - Zuko's eyesight was pretty average - but he knew the gesture well enough from watching the few men aboard his ship who would smoke a pipe in the evenings. The particular turn of the thumb and fingers that made that bright little flame. It didn't matter how he knew, though. "We can't attack that camp."

"But if those are really Water Tribe prisoners in the tents," Katara said, "we can't just run back to the base. We have to help them."

"It won't help them if a bunch of raw, drugged teenagers blunder into that camp and get themselves killed." Zuko leveled a hard look on her. She knew that he knew the relative strengths better than anyone here. Five soldiers against eight recruits would be a slaughter. But she just wouldn't give it up. It must have been a result of the mushrooms. Personally, Zuko did not feel invincible, not exactly. He knew those soldiers would stomp this little squad without a doubt.

Unless he broke out his firebending, and then they would definitely win. In fact, in a fire fight, Zuko could probably beat those soldiers all on his own. He could probably take all the other recruits, too. And Katara.

Oh, he could definitely take her.

Zuko couldn't help but look in her fierce eyes and think of that morning, when he woke up with her in his arms and she had pushed back against him, had so clearly wanted as he wanted. Looking at her now, when her passion was high and she was rising back against him, he was pretty sure that, if he could just get her alone, she would want to do more than kiss him.

And suddenly, that seemed laughably unproblematic.

But the mushrooms were a big complication. Zuko wanted Katara - feverishly, desperately - but he didn't want to take advantage of her in an altered state. In fact, the moment she had told him about the mushrooms, he had started rethinking the events of that morning. He had started to wonder whether her passion was just a result of her drugged mind. (And whether, maybe, when she came down from this high, she was going to be really, really mad at him.) However he might struggle with moral subjectivity, there was no arguing that getting Katara alone while she wasn't in her right mind with the intent to… do more than kiss, was wrong. Even if he was in an altered state, too.

So now they were having this fight about what to do about the captives instead, and it wasn't as good as what they had done this morning, and it wasn't as good as actually fighting with her, but it helped Zuko burn off a little of the intense energy that buzzed through him. "It would be better," he said, trying and failing to use a moderate tone, "to go back and send a rescue party after them."

"But it might be too late then!" Katara said, flinging her arms out to either side. "Those people need help and they need it now!"

"I'm with Li," one of the other guys said. "Better to be safe than sorry. There were just five that we saw, but what if there are more in the woods? What if they're waiting for a bigger force? We should just get word to the resistance and let the real warriors handle it."

Katara whirled on him. "Oh," she sneered loudly. "And I guess you're one of those fake warriors who carries a sword to look cool, right? We are real warriors and it's our responsibility to help those captives."

"We have a mission," Palluk said, quietly, thoughtfully. Everyone looked at him when he spoke that way. He twisted his jaw. "Maybe Li's right, and those are real Fire Nation soldiers. That means the stakes just got raised - but it doesn't mean we can just run away from the mission."

Zuko couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You're out of your mind! Your judgement is compromised! And even if it wasn't, you can't fight five firebenders with seven half-trained recruits and a waterbender-" He turned his furious look on Katara, who was glaring right back at him and opening her mouth to argue already. "-when there's no water on that hill. Those men are career soldiers! They were probably special picked for whatever mission they've been assigned - which might just be to capture a bunch of dumb kids and make them talk about the base!"

There was a moment of silence as they all stared at him.

"How would they know where to find us?" Kola asked. His eyes were a little frightened, fixed on Zuko in a way that suggested that he already had one idea.

Zuko scowled back at him. "How should I know?"

"You seem to know a lot, is all. That's all I'm saying."

"Shut up, Kola," Palluk said, rubbing his temple. "No one wants to hear the latest conspiracy theory right now." He straightened up and locked his eyes on Katara. "Katto, how long did you say the effects of these mushrooms last?"

"It was half a day for us - but we ate them earlier, too, so this could go on until sunset."

"Right." Palluk looked around the group, frowning. "Li is right. Our judgement is compromised. All of us. But whatever we decide to do, we have until sunset to think it over anyway, since we can't fight firebenders under the sun." He crossed his arms. "Li's also right that, if those are firebenders out there, we're outmatched. But Dekka is right, too. It would be prudent to make sure that the resistance finds out that the Fire Nation is already here. And Katto is right," he said, his eyes falling on Katara again. "It's our duty to help those captives."

Zuko could tell, even before the end of Palluk's little speech, that he wasn't going to like whatever scheme the skinny kid was cooking up. He crossed his arms and braced himself for it.

"So," Palluk said, "here's what we'll do…"

.

The first step of the plan was to assume positions around the enemy camp and wait until dark. Katara crouched behind some bushes with Kola for most of the afternoon and evening. It rained early, but only lightly, and then the clouds whisked off by evening. Katara bent the water out of their clothes and then off the ground under a tree so she and Kola could each get a nap in.

The whole experience wouldn't have been so bad if Kola had been able to keep his mouth shut like he was supposed to, but the guy just would not quit whispering about whatever stupid thing popped into his head. Katara just gritted her teeth and waited. The effects of the mushrooms were starting to wear off, and her mind was buzzing with all the things she had so easily let go this morning. The knots were back in her stomach, fiercely twisting as she remembered all the reasons she shouldn't-

-but it was nothing next to the prickling ache that started where Zuko had rubbed his… parts against her, an ache that blazed the length of her spine and stomach and thighs, that tickled always at the back of her mind. She tried to let thoughts of that morning drift away, but they dropped anchors and lingered.

Kissing wasn't enough.

"…know he's your boyfriend and all, but he might be a spy. Just saying…"

Katara shot Kola a scowl. It was dusk and he was sweating profusely - she could see it dotting his neck and temple and hairline in sparkly drops. One trickled down into the crossing of his shirt. Katara huffed, glanced at the sleepy Fire Nation camp, and then looked back at Kola. She smirked.

Letting out a puff of breath and sweeping a hand, she turned all the beads of sweat to ice. Kola jerked and rubbed at his face, then stared at her, wide-eyed. "Did you just… bend my sweat?"

"Yeah," Katara said, staring him down. "You seem nervous, Kola. Why don't you take a few breaths, get centered, and quit working yourself up over nothing?"

"Right. Okay, Katto." He was quiet for a long time after that, but it was a loud quiet - Katara was so aware of him trying not to say anything that she was just as tense as she had been when he was talking. Finally, he cracked. "I didn't know waterbenders could bend sweat."

Katara rolled her eyes, even though she hadn't known either until she did it. "Water is everywhere," she said.

"That's pretty neat," Kola said. "I remember this one time when this buddy of mine set up an aquarium…"

Katara sighed and resigned herself to ignoring him again. She watched one of the Fire Nation soldiers stand up and, stretching, duck into one of the tents. The time was close. The tent reminded her of that morning, of Zuko's lips and hand and… parts. So she tried to think of other things.

Noodles, wet ropes, and sweat - but water was everywhere. Clothing after a rain...

Sea prunes. Katara blinked when it came to her that she had been bending the water out of sea prunes to preserve them. And they were just vegetables. Hardly able to see in the growing dark, she frowned down at the short spring grass tufting up at the base of the bush they hid behind and, idly, trailed a hand over it. It was lush from recent rain. Full of water.

Katara had pulled the water from enough sea prunes to know what would happen to the grass. It would turn dry and dead at once. It would be changed forever, even if she tried to put the water back. She ran her hand over it again and marveled at its softness as the darkness deepened around them.

The night grew quiet, studded with croaks and chirrs from the treetops that winked out of the silence like stars, and the time came.

Katara opened her water-skin against her palm, muffling the squeak of the cork. The sound couldn't quite be hidden against the sparse night chorus of spring, which concealed little. They would have to be cautious. Katara led the way around the bush and up the gentle slope, light and quiet without her pack. They wove between the trees and came at last to the edge of the clearing. In the camp, the fire burned low. Only one man sat as a sentry, his back to one of the two tents that were supposed to contain the captives.

Katara bit her lip and watched as two shadowy recruits crept up the open ground of the hill to the rear of the other tent. She tried to guess which was Zuko and which was Palluk, but in the darkness and the distance, it was difficult to distinguish them. One knelt and a knife flashed as he began cutting the seams that connected sheets of canvas. The other crouched low and peeked around the tent at the sentry, then made a waving gesture.

That was Katara's signal. She led Kola up the slope, stepping high to keep from rustling last year's laid-over grass. He was blissfully quiet now, when it counted, and they reached the second prisoner tent silently. Katara crouched low and very slowly leaned past the edge of the tent to spy on the sentry while Kola worked the knife.

The sentry sat very still, his expression - from Katara's angle - bored as he listened to the night sounds. He was neither young nor old, and had sharp little mustachios at the corners of his mouth. Katara looked at him and tried to think 'enemy'. A career soldier, Zuko had said. A man who had made war his life's work. She tried to hate him, the way she'd been told a warrior had to hate his enemy.

The sentry started picking his teeth idly in that gross way Sokka often did. Pulling a face, Katara carefully withdrew and checked on Kola's progress. He had opened a flap in the corner of the tent and was ready to creep inside on Katara's signal. She nodded and he ducked down and crawled through.

But his boots rustled the flap. Katara heard the sentry stir and darted around to the other side of the tent just an instant before he would have spotted her. She heard him pause at the back of the tent and knew he would notice the cut seams unless she did something - anything.

Katara reached for the water in the grass - the spring rain that had damped everything that afternoon. She made it twitch and rustle in a little spot. The sentry tensed - she could hear his boots grind as he set his feet. Katara drew a careful breath and sent the rustling disturbance scurrying down toward the woods, like a frightened animal, something small enough to hide in the grass.

After a long, tense moment, the sentry returned to his post. Katara crept back around to the rear of the tent and waited.

It wasn't long after that. A shaggy head emerged, quickly followed by a big, stealthy body. The warrior was dressed in red - the underlayers of a reclaimed Fire Nation uniform - but the beads in his hair were obviously Water Tribe. He looked at Katara and his eyes widened. Katara gestured for silence and jerked her head toward the sentry. Quiet as a polar cat, he came to take her place as lookout. In the flicker of firelight that caught his face, Katara could see he was about her father's age. She lifted the cut flap to help the next man out.

There were five warriors, all dressed in red. Some still had ropes trailing from their wrists when they emerged. Some had cuts and bruises and burns that Katara could see, but none were grievously injured. Finally, Kola squeezed back out of the tent. Katara waited until he was ready before leading them down the slope the way they had come.

In the forest's leafy darkness, they returned slowly and quietly to the designated rendezvous point - the same hollow where they had plotted this rescue hours before. The walk took more than an hour, and there was no knowing whether the others had gotten away, except that the high chirping in the treetops continued to be the only noise. No shouts, no distant blast of firebending. Then, finally, they passed between the large stones that marked the edge of their temporary base.

Shadows rose up to meet them.

"Katto?" Palluk stepped forward. "You got them." Katara could practically feel his pride and relief. He quickly offered the escaped captives food and water. "We don't have much. Half our supplies are apparently drugged with some kind of mushrooms…"

Katara moved past him and off to a side of the hollow as the men accepted everything hungrily. As they settled to quiet munching and talking, she found herself counting shapes in the dark. Attuk. Danna. Three big men, the other warriors, who rose to join their comrades. For a second, she didn't see Zuko.

Then his warm hand fell on her shoulder and Katara turned to find him standing by the wide trunk of a tree. She had almost walked right past him. There was a feeling in her chest like she'd tripped and nearly fallen, but stumbled aright just in time. Her arms flew up as if to sweep around his chest and pull him to her.

Katara caught herself and redirected the motion, throwing her arms straight up in the air as if to stretch, like she had meant to do that. Not hug him. Certainly not hug him. What had she been thinking? It must be a lingering effect of the mushrooms.

Katara couldn't see much in the darkness, but she saw Zuko jerk back like he thought she was going to hit him.

"All this running," she said, faking a wince and twisting to stretch a different angle. "It, uh, really makes my back tight."

He relaxed, and she didn't need to see to know he was frowning. "Right."

The other men in the camp didn't seem to notice them. They had settled in a loose circle around the hollow, sitting back against rocks or trees. The first man Katara had seen emerge - apparently the captain of this crew - was talking.

"…larger force that hit us at dawn. Some kind of advance guard. They've apparently figured out some way to get troops and supplies up the cliffs south of here." There was a weary shrug in his voice. "Point is, they took us out and, when they asked what we were doing, I knew they already knew it was a training setup, so I just told them it was a combat exercise and fighting was the objective."

"I guess they bought it," Palluk said. "They only posted the one sentry."

"They underestimated you," the captain said. He was starting to smile. "They figured they could handle a squad of recruits even if the attack came at night. Fire Nation logic."

There were some chuckles around the circle. Katara thought she saw Zuko stiffen in the corner of her eye. She shuffled, uncomfortable.

"Honestly," Palluk said, "they probably could have. There are strong fighters in my squad but the battleground wasn't favorable for us - not enough cover and no water for our bender. And we're down men, too, because I sent runners back to the drop-off point this afternoon to make sure the resistance knows that the Fire Nation is here."

"That was good thinking," the captain said. "All our reports indicated that the enemy forces wouldn't be able to reach this area for at least a week. If things had gone wrong back there, your runners might have been the only warning Chief Hahn had before a flanking army came up out of the south."

Palluk was quiet and a few of the other warriors murmured their own praises. Katara saw one man - she wasn't sure who - lay a hand on their young leader's shoulder.

"Chief Arnook would be proud…"

Katara would have gone on listening, but Zuko tugged her sleeve and she turned to find him gesturing for her to follow him around the tree, away from the others. She glanced back at the huddled men, then went after him, careful not to break unseen sticks with her steps.

Shouldn't...

He did not lead her far, just far enough to dampen their voices from the others' ears, and then he stopped. There was a shuffle of fabric as if he was crossing his arms. It took him a moment to speak and, when he did, his tone was grudging. "I'm sorry about this morning."

Katara stared at his shadowy shape, unsure what to say.

"I didn't mean to… take advantage of you while you were sleeping. And drugged." He huffed and snapped his head to look away. "I wasn't exactly myself, either."

She wasn't sure what made her do it, whether it was the mushrooms or a day spent teased by thoughts of him or this, this awkward unnecessary apology, but Katara stepped into Zuko's space and balled her hands in the front of his tunic and, in his surprise, shoved him staggering back against the tree behind him.

"Kat-"

Whatever name he meant to say, it vanished into Katara's mouth as she kissed him. For a moment, he was hers - pliant and yielding to the demands of her lips and teeth. Then his hands settled on her waist, slid up her back to the ridges of her bindings, gripped her shirt and tightened into fists. His mouth remembered itself.

Zuko spun them around so easily, Katara hardly felt it happen. Then her back hit the tree hard, knocking her a little breathless, and he was pinning her with the length of his body, especially his hips, especially…

Katara gasped and tugged his shirt apart, opening it to expose his chest to her searching palms, her digging fingers. She raised her thigh against his hip and he gripped it enthusiastically, lifted her up against him, against the tree. His angle shifted and-

Oh. That's…

Katara's head dropped back and she tried not to breathe too loudly, she tried, but his mouth was hot and open against her neck and she could hear how his breaths came in sharp, desperate hitches.

And over how quiet they were trying so hard to be, she could hear the sounds of Palluk rousing the others to continue their flight. Zuko stilled and drew away an inch and just breathed against her shoulder for a long moment before letting her slide back to the ground. Katara pried her hands off of him so that he could right his shirt, but her fingers tingled all night long with the memory of his skin.

They marched until near dawn and rested through the final hours of darkness before rising again and hurrying onward. Katara sensed the tone of their expedition had altered. There was a lot less chatting and a lot more peering around. The warriors took on the supply packs and urged the recruits to march faster still. Scouting parties were sent ahead and behind and they made every effort to cover their trail. They even walked the rocky stream bed for the better part of an hour, soaking their boots. It had been an easy matter for Katara to dry everyone later, though, and the pace never slowed for anyone's blistering feet.

Zuko followed along behind her or walked beside her, and may have spoken three words the entire time. His silence was a relief. If he had had questions, Katara wouldn't have had answers to give him. And even the answers she did have, she couldn't just admit to him. It felt too much like giving him power.

And Zuko didn't need any power over her. Katara spent a lot of the march reminding herself exactly what he was. Firebender. Banished prince. Son of the Fire Lord, sent to capture Aang. None of that had ever changed.

It was just… in the context of her desires, none of it mattered.

They caught up with the two 'runners' Palluk had sent - who had apparently run so hard the day before that they slept long past dawn. Palluk hid his disgust well but Katara gave Dekka her most disparaging look.

It was well past midday when they arrived at the cave. One of the other groups had returned early and the guys all lay basking on the rocks, mostly naked in the sunshine despite the coolness of the air. They greeted the returning squad with grins and bragging until they realized something wasn't right. The warrior captain gathered them all together and explained the situation, then looked around at them, grim-faced.

"Alright, recruits. You've all passed your test, some of you above and beyond. Your job now is to wait here until sunset and make a full report to Chief Hahn when you return to the base. My men and I are going back out to scout the coast to see where the Fire Nation is scaling the cliffs."

"What about the last squadron?" Katara blinked as all eyes turned on her. She frowned around at them, then fixed her gaze on the captain. "The squadron that went west. What if they don't return by sunset?"

The captain shielded his eyes and checked the angle of the sun. "They've got a few hours yet. They'll probably come running in." He dropped his hand and faced Katara, and the set of his jaw was stern. "But if they don't, a rescue team will be sent. Under no circumstances are you - any of you - to leave the drop-off point unless it's to return to the base. Is that clear?"

Katara said yes along with everyone else, but her frown didn't ease. When she watched the warriors leave - loaded up now with all the recruits' viable provisions and about half of their weapons - her frown only deepened. She crouched on a slanted rock and glared down the slope to the west, down the bushy path she remembered Sokka taking.

Zuko came to stand beside her, though she didn't look at him. "Sokka's a smart guy," he said at length. "If his squad ran into trouble, he probably handled it."

"Yeah," Katara said, glaring at the trail and willing her brother to emerge. "Probably."

Most of the other recruits napped through the late hours of the day. Even Zuko lay down near Katara's rock. She didn't notice at all how he opened his shirt to the sun. She was weary, nearly exhausted, but she couldn't have slept if she had wanted to.

There was a terrible fear rooting itself in her gut.

The sun was near setting when the last squadron arrived, a straggling line of guys trudging up the hill. Katara leapt off her rock and ran to meet them. Even at a distance, she knew something was wrong. They all looked desperately weary. One guy sat down hard the second he reached the clearing. Some of the others had lost their packs. Their eyes were all shocked, all uncertain.

There were only seven of them.

Sokka wasn't there.

Katara passed by them all and looked down the trail after them, but it was empty as far as she could see. She marched back to where the others had stopped and grabbed the arm of the closest guy, wrenched him to face her. "Where's Sokka?"

The guy blinked. "He said he'd slow them down and catch up with us later. At the statue. But he didn't come." He kept blinking. Katara wanted to shake him.

But she only let go and took some steps back, turned away. She clutched her head, her face. Her knuckles went white, unfelt. Behind her, Zuko was talking to the rest of the squad, asking some questions she couldn't even understand right now, because how could anything matter right now when everything was teetering on the brink of falling apart.

It was like the last time she saw her mother. When Kya told her to find Hakoda and she went, not knowing that when she came back, the house would be full of smoke and a smell like meat - only Mom hadn't been cooking any meat.

Suddenly Katara was standing outside that door again. She didn't know what she would find beyond the door. She knew Sokka was inside, and something awful had gotten in there with him. It was the most frightening feeling she could imagine.

But she had to open that door.

Katara whirled to face the squadron. "Where's the map." Her voice was thick with fear or fury, but she spoke with her teeth.

They all looked at her, even Zuko, but she didn't really see him. It was the guy who had sat down, the guy with the pack, who shrugged off the straps and dug in the side pocket for a moment. He held up a poorly folded map, his arm heaving with each labored breath. "The camp… north of target…"

Katara snatched the paper away and opened it up, but she had never been good with maps. Sokka had always hogged the navigation duties. She stared at it until her vision blurred, not really seeing the lines on the paper, not really sure what they meant. Then she refolded it - properly this time.

Sokka never would have allowed this kind of treatment of a map.

A hand fell on her shoulder and Katara turned to look up at Palluk. His expression was compassionate but stern. "You can't be thinking of going, Katto. We have orders."

She blinked, not understanding.

"We have to return to the base."

Beyond him, Katara could see Attuk crossing his big arms over his chest. Kola stood not far behind him and gave a helpless shrug. "Don't worry about it, Katto. They'll send a rescue party after your cousin. It'll work out."

The sadness broke like a bubble and all the fury roared out. Katara shoved Palluk's hand away. "I'm not going back in that hole in the ground while Sokka's in trouble."

"Well you're not going after him," Palluk said with a little more force. He stood uphill from her, towering over her anyway. "Until this exercise is over, you're under my command. I won't let you go."

"Good luck stopping me!"

Katara turned on her heel and began marching back towards the path. Palluk grabbed her shoulder again and dragged her back. "You've got a canteen of water to bend up here, Katto. You're not going to win this."

She whirled out from under his hand and didn't bother with the cork in her water-skin. Katara took the water from the trees, from the bushes, she ripped it from the very ground around her. The stream came roaring out of nowhere and blasted Palluk in the chest, launching him up the hill to collide with Kola. They both went down in a drenched heap. Attuk looked on, frowning harder but unmoving. His eyes were tight. Palluk sat up and stared at her, horrified.

Katara scowled at the lot of them and took one threatening step forward.

All three flinched.

She turned to go and found herself face-to-face with Zuko. He was downhill from her, which meant she didn't even have to tilt her head up to glare at him. "Are you going to try and stop me, too?"

"No," he said, "but you dropped your map."

Katara blinked and looked back only to find that, yes, in the midst of her bending, she had dropped her map on the rocky ground. She leaned down and snatched it up, then whirled back to find Zuko still there, his thumbs tucked into the straps of the pack he was wearing. Watching her - Katara would have noticed the wariness if she hadn't been so furious - he stepped to one side, out of her way.

"Let's go."

Katara shot him a suspicious look and then stalked hurriedly down the trail. She hardly noticed the dead, dry leaves showering slowly from the tops of the trees she had killed, or the twigs that shattered as she brushed by them, or the shriveled blades of grass that crumbled as she stepped on them, crushed to dust.

All Katara knew, all Katara cared about, was opening that door. And this time - she swore it through her teeth, through the tears aching out of her eyes - she wouldn't be too late.

.

AN: Saving Private Sokka! Bet ya didn't see that coming, huh? Huh?