AN: Thanks to all you great readers and reviewers, who make this so much fun! Thanks to well-wishers and general kind people - the world needs more kindness. Thanks, everybody!

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They marched through the day and set up camp at dusk in a hollow between two knobby hills. Katara found Zuko pitching the tent off from the others again and offered him some tips on how to set it up properly this time.

"I know how to do it," he said, hammering a stake into the ground with way more force than was necessary. His two-handed grip on the mallet was dedicated, pushing overkill. It made Katara want to either huff and roll her eyes or smile a little secret smile.

"I just don't want to wake up buried in canvas again like this morning," she said instead as she sat nearby peeling the leathery skin off of one of the pocketful of lychee nuts she'd gathered from the side of the trail through the day. They were cold camping and there would be no soup tonight, but there were a lot of edible plants that Jet had pointed out. "I thought I was going to suffocate. Not a great way to start the day."

Zuko shot her a scathing look over his shoulder, but it turned into something more startled and heated as he watched her bite into the peeled fruit. "I'll just have to wake you more gently tomorrow," he said.

Katara's eyes bulged and, blushing, she glanced at Tyno where he sat tight-lipped and blindfolded nearby, probably close enough to hear that tone. She turned a glare back on Zuko, who only frowned at her for an instant before going back to his work. He apparently didn't care what their prisoner thought. Personally, Katara felt like the guy had been through enough and she would rather not make him uncomfortable with weird, complicated tension.

With a huff, she went to sit by him and untied his hands and blindfold, then gave him a couple of lychee nuts. Tyno peered over at her, frowning as he watched her peel one of hers before finally starting on his own.

"How did you know my brother's name?" Katara asked. The question had been nagging at the back of her mind for a day. She wasn't sure she wanted to hear the answer, but she had to ask.

Tyno shrugged. "Sokka, Southern Water Tribe. It was the only thing he would tell us. Except jokes. Sokka's got some pretty good jokes." He looked at her and his smile faded.

Katara, relieved by the mental picture of Sokka joking with his captors - because that meant probably not being tortured - rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Funnyness isn't a family trait. I get that a lot."

"You're… a girl, right?"

Katara straightened up at once, and assumed a glare a second later. "Are you asking for a drink, Tyno? Because I'd love to get you one."

He held up his hands before him, shaking his head rapidly. "No! I just don't understand!" When she didn't yell at him immediately, Tyno relaxed a degree and went on. "Why are you trying to hide it?"

Katara thought about pushing the lie, but what did it matter? He was one Fire Nation soldier, one guy who, as soon as they let him go, she would never see again. He couldn't give her away to Jet and the others because they already knew - for all that they agreeably played along with her alias and pronouns. The way they took it so seriously made the whole illusion feel so… silly.

Katara shrugged. "The Northern Water Tribe won't allow women to fight, or even learn martial bending. And I had to come after Sokka - because of course the first thing my brother would do is get captured by the Fire Nation." She shook her head and finished peeling a lychee nut. "Do you have siblings, Tyno?"

He shook his head and shoved one of his own fruits into his mouth. "Just me and my mom. I don't want to offend you or anything, but that's pretty barbaric about the waterbending. I can't imagine if things were like that in the Fire Nation." His eyes popped a little wider. "Princess Azula would make them change the law. She'd probably banish anyone who got in her way."

"I hear she's a prodigy," Katara said with studied disinterest before too-smoothly eating the lychee nut.

"She's crazy."

Tyno clapped both hands over his mouth and stared at Katara like she'd made him say that.

"Please don't tell Prin- Li, that I said that," he said through his fingers. "The Princess is not crazy, she's just under a lot of pressure because this is the year of her majority and she'll become crown princess this summer if Prince Zuko doesn't return. And she only banished one nobleman's son and it was for a very good reason since he was apparently cheating on her with a serving girl… Well, I guess she's banished two people, since she banished the serving girl, too."

Katara had pulled a face, lychee nuts forgotten.

"My mom keeps me up to date. Letters. Gossip about the royal family is this huge deal to her." Tyno gave a nervous chuckle. "She's a funny lady."

"Wait." Katara glanced over at where Zuko was tying the canvas over the tent poles - correctly now. She looked back at Tyno. "So, if the prince doesn't capture the Avatar and return to the Fire Nation by Azula's birthday, he'll lose his place in line for the throne?"

Tyno nodded. "By royal mandate. And, it's Princess Azula."

"You… You mean Zuko's father ordered that?"

Tyno nodded again, more slowly. "The Fire Lord. And, it's Prince Zuko..."

Katara ignored the last bit and sat back, appalled. "And you think my people are barbaric." She crossed her arms stiffly and looked at Zuko, the shuttered pride on his face as he stood back to admire the tent he'd assembled. "He deserves better."

Zuko glanced at her at that moment, unsubtly checking to see if she was looking, and Katara unconsciously gave him the same mildly impressed nod she gave Sokka when he did something helpful. She didn't notice how Tyno watched her, how his eyes widened slowly as he took in her expression, and then Zuko's, and then hers again. He might have asked a rudely personal question but Zuko was approaching, frown firmly back in place.

"Is that all we have to eat?" he demanded.

"There's jerky in the pack still. And some nuts, but not a lot."

Zuko scowled. "Didn't your thieving new friends take supplies from that camp they raided yesterday?"

Katara peeled a lychee nut and held it up to him as she tersely explained that, yes, there were rations stored back at the freedom fighters' hideout, but they were traveling light and fast, and that meant eating what they could gather when they could. Zuko took the fruit from her fingers and, not looking away from her, bit it in half. Katara glanced down at his mouth, the juice on his lips and the work of his jaw, then back up at his steady stare. Waiting.

"They're tart," he said.

"They aren't quite ripe yet," Katara agreed. "But we can't exactly wait around for that."

Zuko ate the other half of the fruit and Katara, feeling weirdly breathless, met his stare until Tyno started to squirm. Then she cleared her throat and gave the prisoner more lychee nuts and went to dig in the pack for the jerky. When she straightened, she found that Zuko had followed her. He stood very close, watching her. The look on his face wasn't exactly angry - but it was tense, like it hadn't decided yet what it wanted to be.

Katara was pretty sure she knew what he was thinking about, and it made her anxious, like she was on the spot suddenly, like she might be forced to think about things she wasn't ready to work through just yet. Like last night had changed whatever was between them and Zuko expected… to talk? To do it again? Katara couldn't deal with his expectations, whatever they might be. Not now.

He opened his mouth to say something and she held out the bag to him. "Do you want some jerky?"

"Uh…" he looked down at the bag, momentarily derailed, and then dug a hand inside as if he had no choice. He held a stick of dried meat in one hand and frowned at her. "Thanks."

"You're welcome." Katara started to dodge around him, but he caught her around the waist and stopped her at his side. She would have snapped at him, but he locked his eyes on her and spoke quietly before she could.

"I'm sorry I hurt you last night. I…" She watched him scowl at a point just past her and then turn a look on her that was equal parts pleading and annoyed. "I can do better. For you."

Katara blinked up at him and felt her face heat as she grasped what he was saying. Gran-gran had warned her about this, about men and their pride, their delicate egos when it came to their prowess at what husbands and wives did between the skins…

But Katara couldn't think about husbands or wives or Gran-gran or any of that right now, because it was all tied into the future she had tossed away on a whim. Looking up at Zuko, she didn't see a husband at all - she saw a boy who was always struggling to be worthy. And despite the lingering soreness, and despite the hovering threat of all the other things she wasn't ready to think about, Katara looked up at Zuko's unhappy face and she wanted him again.

Last night, he had actually laughed. And it had been so arresting, hearing that soft, relaxed sound come out of the dark… but she couldn't think about that, either.

There was only one thing she could think about right now, the thing she had to think about now that her head was cleared of its traumatized ringing, and thinking of that one thing made her desire seem hollow and selfish and it made Zuko's fretting over his performance seem entirely inappropriate. "We're close to the Fire Nation base," she managed, looking at their small camp, at Tyno pretending not to watch them as he peeled lychee nuts on the far side of the tent. "We should get there tomorrow. And tomorrow night we'll rescue Sokka."

Zuko stood stiff against her. She didn't see the red spot growing on his unscarred cheek, or the way he ripped his gaze from her to glare into the woods, but she felt his hand loosen from her side, the heat that had pressed through the cloth of her shirt suddenly receding. "Yes," he said. "We will."

Katara swallowed and haltingly raised her arm to loop around his waist in the same way that he held her. He frowned down at her, confused. Katara struggled to find the right words. "I can't… I'm not…" She frowned and took a deep breath. "Until my brother is safe, I can't think about this."

Zuko's eyes widened fractionally and his chin tilted up, away from her. "I see," he said quietly, viciously. He began to pull away but Katara held him tight. He frowned harder at her.

"So," she pressed on, "you can't… die. Okay? Because, after tomorrow night…" She shut her eyes and shook the thought away, then looked back up at him, urging and frustrated. "I don't even know, but just… promise me."

He stared down at her with an incredulous twist to his face. "That I won't die?"

"Yeah," Katara said, starting to realize how dumb this sounded, "because, when I can think again, I want to do it with you. Thinking! I mean… and talking about it."

Zuko's frown didn't ease, but it changed slightly. "Fine. But you have to do something for me, too."

Katara hesitated, then gave a jerky nod.

Zuko watched her steadily. "Once we get Sokka back and… you start thinking again, this is going to get a lot more complicated. So I want to share your bedroll tonight."

"But!" Katara's face blazed and she shot a glance at the prisoner, who had finished with the lychee nuts and was twiddling his thumbs and peering up at the treetops as darkness set in. She whispered, scandalized. "Tyno will be right there…"

"I don't care," Zuko said. "He won't even notice. And if he does, he'll get over it."

"Zuko!"

He seemed perplexed by her shock - and then, suddenly, his eyes widened and he jolted against her. "I don't mean-!" His cheek was getting red but he managed a scowl anyway. "I just mean to sleep. Nothing else." Some of the irritation eased from his expression and his eyes took on a searching quality. "But… if you want to… we could go somewhere."

With her arm around him the way it was, Katara could feel his tension, the way his breathing changed. She could feel the way his hand, on her side, twitched, subtly tightening. She knew he could feel her breath come harder against his arm, too, and she thought it had to be obvious how she wanted him.

"I'm still pretty sore," she managed after a moment.

Zuko only nodded and suddenly looked away. "I still want to sleep in your bed tonight," he said. He did not say with you, but Katara knew that was what he meant.

Even with sex off the table, sharing her bed with him still felt like a big deal to Katara. And even after weeks of sharing a room, sleeping just feet apart, and even after what they had done last night, giving him this thing he was demanding still felt significant and dangerous in a way she couldn't quite nail down.

She was not thinking about it, but Katara had slept close that way with her family when she was small, and she and her grandmother had slept back-to-back on many nights, and on some especially cold nights, Sokka would shiver enough to get over his manly pride and sleep with them, too. (He had a strict 'but no snuggling!' rule and had extracted agreement from all parties that no one outside their hut ever needed to know.) To share her bed with Zuko was to allow him another level of intimacy, not so much that shared between husbands and wives (though it was that, too) but between family.

And why would he want that, anyway? Wasn't he just after…?

But delving into that question, and all the other questions it provoked, was more than Katara wanted to deal with right now. This was all just a silly distraction from her real problems, anyway. When Sokka was safe, she could work it out. Until then, what did it matter if she permitted Zuko this when she had already done something so much more permanent with him? Something… irreparable.

Katara shut her eyes and shook the thoughts away. She would think of those things later. "Fine," she said, leveling a firm look on him. "Just to sleep."

Zuko nodded and peered back at her, jaw clenched tight with something that wasn't exactly anger, wasn't exactly pain.

But Katara couldn't face that right now, either. She tugged away and went to give Tyno some jerky. The prisoner met her eye with what he seemed to think was a casual smile, but she could see how his eyebrows arched with too much enthusiasm for dried seal.

It didn't get any less awkward in the tent. There was no light, so Katara knew Tyno couldn't possibly see how Zuko pulled her sleeping bag open and slid into it behind her. Or how Zuko's knees nested inside the bend of hers, or how his arm came around her waist, or how his nose and breath nudged the back of her bare head, hardly touching. And he certainly couldn't have known about the hard lump that brushed just once against her bottom before Zuko inched his hips carefully back.

Tyno just lay on the other side of the tent, sprawled over his own sleeping bag - the one Zuko had settled him on last night without comment - and slowly worked up to a gusty snore. But Katara was sure that he knew, and even if he was just a soldier who she would never see again, it made her nervous.

It was only when she felt Zuko's breathing deepen behind her as he drifted off that she allowed her hands to unfreeze from where she had curled then together under her chin. Only then did she trace her fingers over his thick forearm, his broad wrist, the hard tendons trailing up to his knuckles. He drew a big breath and sleepily caught her fingers where she had laced them between his, pulling her tighter against him, pulling himself tighter against her. The lump was not so hard when he pressed it against her again in his sleep - and this time held it there - but Katara knew what it was.

She clutched his hand to the bindings between her breasts and tried to let the thoughts flow away as easily as they came, but the feeling in her chest was more of a stone than a leaf. It dragged at her until she lulled herself off with measured breathing.

Zuko woke her gently as he had said he would, nuzzling the back of her neck. For the blissful moment before true awakening, Katara stretched against the length of his body and sighed in the nearly-uncomfortable warmth inside her sleeping bag. Her voice caught in her throat when his hot mouth opened against the hollow behind her ear.

On the other side of the tent, a throat cleared.

Katara's eyes popped open - much as Zuko's did - to the sight of Tyno staring fixedly up at the open vent flap, tapping his fingers together over his stomach. "Sun's up," he said, and swallowed.

Behind her, Katara could feel Zuko seething. "It sure is," she said with false cheer, sitting up hurriedly. "We'd better get going, huh?"

.


Jet's scouts - a pair of skinny, nearly-invisible kids dressed in mud and leaves - rejoined the group late in the afternoon to report the base's location and layout. Zuko hovered on the edge of the gathered freedom fighters as they drew maps in the dirt and planned attacks on pointy seed pods that represented tents. Katara crouched with Jet, a stubborn turn to her mouth as she made her demands.

It was nice to watch her frown like that at someone else. Especially when that someone else was Jet. And especially when she was insisting that she and Zuko would rescue Sokka on their own while the others created diversions around the base. It almost made up for the way she had ignored him all day.

But it did nothing to soothe the sick ache in his gut. Her promise about thinking and talking later was more a source of anxiety for Zuko than any kind of reassurance. Katara clearly believed that what they'd done in the valley wasn't just foolish and dishonorable, but a mistake, an error she'd made because she wasn't thinking properly. As if she had never intended to take him as a lover at all and, now that it was done, she meant to use Sokka to scrape him off like mud from her boot.

Zuko wasn't going to let that happen. He wasn't going to just meekly let this go. Katara had wanted him, had needed him that night. And last night she hadn't been exactly enthusiastic about being in his arms, but she had relaxed in her sleep and Zuko was fairly sure he could win her over with a little time. If he was persistent, she would eventually need him again. If he proved himself, then she would want him. So he would wait, and when the time came, he would be ready. And once Sokka was out of danger, and once they were back in their barracks under that stupid mountain - Zuko couldn't believe he was actually looking forward to that - Katara would have no choice but to deal with him.

"We'll need to split up when we retreat anyway," she was saying to the freedom fighters. "It's the best way to throw off pursuit."

Jet said something about making sure that they got away alright but Katara only reminded him of the safety of his own people and insisted that it was a rescue, not an attack - they couldn't hope to win against so many, so the best course was a swift strike and quick dispersal into the woods.

When the plan had been settled on - or near enough to satisfy Zuko - he returned to where he had tied Tyno to a tree out of hearing range and began loosening the knots. The private had been blissfully silent today, rightfully afraid of saying something that would provoke Zuko's temper.

They had shared a look that morning as Katara rose and hustled out of the tent. Zuko, his legs still tucked into her sleeping bag, had glared. Tyno had cringed and shrugged his shoulders up to his ears, and hadn't met Zuko's eye since.

Zuko, in large part, saw Tyno as a common man, just another soldier over whom he held authority and such elevated status that speaking to him, apart from giving orders, was beneath his royal dignity - a long-upheld system to which Tyno largely adhered. Saving Tyno's life and acknowledging his presence at an inconvenient moment were two different things. Better if Tyno had just kept his poorly timed throat-clearing to himself and not startled Katara right out of Zuko's hands when she had seemed to be warming to him again. Better if Tyno had just shut his stupid eyes and thought of the Fire Nation.

Another part of Zuko was embarrassed at being caught, and at having been distracted enough in the first place to forget that Tyno wasn't some Water Tribe guy who would sleep right through sunrise. Maybe Sokka would sleep in more… but that line of thinking only led to more frustrating problems.

Zuko jerked Tyno to his feet and began retrying his wrists. The private was hanging his head when he spoke, so it was difficult to hear, really. But Zuko heard.

"May I speak now, er, Li?"

Zuko gritted his teeth and yanked a knot tight. "If it isn't information about the base, I don't want to hear it. In fact," he said, suddenly adjusting Tyno's blindfold down and tightening it in the private's mouth. "We're about to return you to the army and all your talking could cause a lot of trouble. So keep it to yourself."

Tyno heaved a breath and was silent as Zuko drove him with a hard hand on his shoulder toward where Katara waited. Her expression as she took in the gag seemed a little concerned, but she made no comment on it, just leading the way through the trees.

They skirted the base wide to the north and hid in some deep bushes between two of the posted sentries. A soft rain picked up, concealing the sounds of their movements and seeping through their layers as they crawled to the edge of the clearing. From that vantage point, they could see several tidy rows of tents pitched in a flat area that had apparently been the edge of the forest before it was cleared of trees. Over the tops of the smaller tents, a few of the larger command pavilions could be seen, their red and black flags fluttering in the wind coming off the ocean. And beyond the flags, Zuko could just make out the light of the setting sun as it cut under the clouds and glazed a great steel arm - some kind of crane - that apparently leaned out over the cliff.

"What is that thing?" Katara asked in a whisper. She was lying on her belly beside him, her shoulder nearly touching his. But not.

Leaning a little closer than he probably needed to, Zuko spoke without looking away from a returning patrol as it marched between the nearest tents and into the base beyond. "It's a motorized winch. That must be how they're getting supplies up the cliffs."

Katara shot him a narrow-eyed look but didn't say whatever it was she was thinking. Instead, she looked back at the rows upon rows of tents. "There are so many. Even with the freedom fighters' distraction, how are we going to find Sokka in time?"

"They'll be keeping prisoners in one of those big walled pavilions," Zuko said. "We'll have to sneak through the soldiers' camp first, but there are only a few places Sokka could be." He turned to look at Katara, at the hard worry on her face. From the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of Tyno watching him with a thoughtful expression. Zuko ignored him, but looked away from Katara anyway, and back at the long shadows of the camp.

When darkness had fallen, torches lit the centermost part of the base but the outer reaches were left in darkness - or nearly, as the moon began its slow climb behind the thick clouds. The sentries traded out at dusk and soldiers began filtering into the tents. It was only when the moon was high over the breaking clouds and the sentries traded out a second time that Jet's nightbird call came trilling from across the clearing. Zuko tensed but it was Katara who surged into motion at the first blast from the west.

The sentries, turned toward the disturbance, didn't see her scurry through the blackened tree stumps. Zuko yanked Tyno along by the wrists - retied in front for just this reason - and hurried after her.

The private wasn't as quiet as Zuko might have wished, but they made it unnoticed to the outskirts of the soldiers' camp and dodged between tents before men began bursting out to answer the call to arms. Katara was already hopping ropes down the narrow aisle between the backs of tents, staying low and relying on the half-darkness to cover her. But the sky was clearing and she did not seem to notice that the occasional light of the fat moon made her as visible as any of the soldiers running along just feet away.

Zuko scowled at her recklessness, but he was angrier at the fact that she'd left him behind. He pulled Tyno along, rushing, and barely closed the distance between them in time to crouch with her behind one of the pavilions where she hid from a passing squadron of spearmen.

Wordlessly, Zuko indicated a spot in the pavilion wall where two sheets met and Katara bent to tug them apart and peer inside. From the faint glow on her face, Zuko knew there had to be some light burning within but, whatever Katara saw, it wasn't what she was looking for. She turned away and led them to the next pavilion.

Off in the distance, another round of blasting sounds came - but from their rhythm, Zuko knew they were the sounds of firebending, not explosive jelly. Of course Zhao's forces would be organized to respond quickly to any threat. For all that Zuko hated him, he had to admit to the man's competence as a commander.

The freedom fighters had their own ways of coping with Fire Nation order, though. There was another uncontrolled blast from some other part of the camp as they launched their second attack, then a third from nearer to the cliff. Soldiers were running in all directions now but the chaos wouldn't last. There wasn't much time.

Katara peered into another pavilion but that wasn't the one, either. She was about to dart to the next in the row, but Zuko grabbed her shoulder to stop her. Katara turned back, glaring, but he only shook his head, holding up a finger. There was a lot of shouting going on in the clamor of the attacks, but Zuko could pick out one voice, an unpleasantly familiar voice.

He gestured for Katara to follow him and pulled his prisoner along a different way, toward where Zhao was bellowing orders into the night.

.


Katara wasn't sure what she was supposed to be seeing, but Zuko was tense behind her, peering around her and the tent she hid behind at some well-guarded man in ornate armor. Soldiers ran reports about the damage and attacks to the north and west, and then hurried off again with orders ringing in their ears. The man himself was middle aged, with big sideburns and, she quickly observed, a knack for punishing messengers.

"Corporal Pakai, return to your commanding officer and tell him that fire had better be out when I get to his quadrant or I will throw him - and you - in it!" The corporal bolted but the man in charge hardly seemed to notice. He spun to another soldier and even from a stone's throw away, Katara could see the vein popping on his temple. "Take a brigade and burn out the forest! That perimeter should be fifty yards wide, not twenty! I want those rebels in chains or cinders and I want them now!"

The soldier saluted, and even though his face plate concealed his expression, Katara could see the fear in his jerky movements. The shouting man dismissed him and then whirled on a slim fellow who had been waiting beside him all the while. He stood poised with a coal stick for taking notes and leaned away, eyes glued to his clipboard, while the other man clenched his teeth and rigidly gripped his hands behind his back.

"Setting aside the Fire Lord's report for the moment, open out a new missive to Chief Hahn."

Katara almost fell. It was only Zuko's hand, suddenly gripping her arm, that kept her from staggering out of their hiding place. The man went on, puffing his chest out and glaring at the scurrying soldiers as he spoke.

"Keep it to the point. Remind that ungrateful traitor that I spared his life so that he could perform a very simple function and, since his pitiful machinations have failed to deliver more than a handful of ships thus far, express my growing doubts vis-a-vis his usefulness." He turned his head slightly to sneer at his scribbling assistant. "When you thank him for the one recruit he delivered in that debacle of a training accident and this-" He bared his teeth and gestured sharply just as another explosion sounded from the north. "-joke of an attack on the station that I explicitly ordered him to rearrange patrols to keep secret, be sure to mention his father's tenuous - no, failing - health."

"Yes, Admiral," the assistant said, still writing. "Shall I get this in the air now, sir, or…" He watched a squad of soldiers jog past. "…maybe later?"

The admiral spun on him, furious. "If I wanted it done later, I wouldn't be telling you to do it now. Get out of my sight!"

The assistant gave a squeaky final 'yes sir' and hastened for one of the pavilions. The admiral, snarling, marched toward the north side of the base, followed closely by his personal guard.

Katara had to take a moment to let what she had heard really sink in. Hahn was working for the Fire Nation. The chief of the Northern Water Tribe himself was a turncoat. Even having met Hahn, and knowing his dubious strategies, the enormity of this discovery was still mind-blowing. But here was proof; he had sabotaged the field training with the intent of handing over at least two squads of the strongest recruits to the Fire Nation. It was no accident that she and Sokka were in those groups, the only Southerners, the only recruits who didn't answer to Hahn as their chief. Hahn had planned to get rid of his biggest potential challengers - including Palluk, who was nephew to former-chief Arnook and had the family connections to make a legitimate move against him once he turned seventeen.

"It would have been a crippling blow to all the recruits still in training," she said quietly.

"What?"

Katara turned to frown up at Zuko. He looked a little wide-eyed, but mostly just grim. "If most of the best fighters were captured on a field training exercise, the other recruits would have lost hope. That was Hahn's plan. That's why he drugged us with the mushrooms. He didn't mean to just feed the Fire Nation information with us as captives - he could do that by himself. He's trying to take down the resistance from the inside."

Zuko was nodding. "By striking at the morale of all the warriors in training."

"We have to warn them. We've got to find Sokka and get out of here."

"Mmf."

Katara looked over Zuko's shoulder at Tyno, who was peering forlornly at her. "Do you know where they're keeping prisoners?"

His expression was one of great strain. Zuko huffed, but Katara just pushed past him to untie Tyno's gag.

He worked his jaw for a second and peered down at Katara, uncertain. "I don't know where they're keeping Sokka, but there was another prisoner that came in before my unit left last week. They kept her on the damaged warship anchored below for repairs."

Katara's stomach sank. If they went all the way down the cliff, they might not be able to come back up again. And if Sokka wasn't down there, they would lose their chance to get him out of the base. "Why would you tell us this? How can we be sure you aren't lying to us to waste our time and get us caught?"

Tyno blinked and shot a sideways glance at Zuko. Zuko crossed his arms. "Well," Tyno said, swallowing hard. "Ah, Li, saved my life, so I'm honor-bound to him… not to mention… I'm a loyal…" He seemed to be straining really hard and then, suddenly, something broke. He held up his bound hands to Katara, pleading. "You're good-hearted, Katto, I know you are. She needs help. I don't know if anything has actually happened to her or I'm just overly sympathetic to my enemies like you-"

Katara jerked back. "Hey!" Tyno didn't even pause.

"-but a pretty girl like her doesn't need to be a prisoner of war. It's…" He fixed her with another uncertain look but then pressed on. "It's a temptation to the wrong sort of men… and there are rumors about Admiral Zhao's old divisions from when he was a commander."

There was a pause, the space of a long breath, in which Katara realized that she really would have to save this other prisoner too. Even if she was a stranger, this girl was in trouble with the Fire Nation. How could Katara not do everything in her power to help her? Saving Sokka still came first, but after that…

Then, she remembered that name. "Admiral Zhao?" she demanded, pointing back where the man had just stood. "That was Admiral Zhao? As in the invader of the North? Zhao the Conqueror?"

"Don't call him that," Zuko said, disgusted.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Katara said, turning to glare up at him. She was standing very close and there wasn't much space between his crossed arms and her bound chest, but she glared up anyway. "I didn't realize you felt so strongly about your favorite admiral's nicknames. What do you prefer? Moonslayer?"

"I'd prefer," Zuko forced through clenched teeth, "that people just let his stupid nicknames fizzle out already. He made them up himself, you know. He's the most pompous, ruthless ash-hole I've ever met."

Katara opened her mouth to deliver some snide quip about pots and kettles but found herself suddenly transfixed as his eyes flicked down to her lips, then back up to meet her stare. It was the tiniest movement, but she saw it in the moonlight, clearer than by day, and suddenly other things became horribly clear as well.

Katara backed up a step. It rattled her, being reminded of the reality of Zuko's position. He was a prince - of course he would know his nation's admirals. And yet it still came as a shock to realize that Zuko was personally acquainted with the man who had so cruelly subjugated the Northern Water Tribe.

But to be reminded at the same time that he was also the boy who had held her through the night, who she had guided into her body in that dark valley. To think that she had allowed this same prince to roll her on her back and have his pleasure with her. That she had even wanted him to, that she wanted him still.

To think of the price…

Katara had been trying so hard not to think of any of this but now it had happened. The impact was an arrow punching through her chest. Everything else faded into the background.

But only for a moment. There was still an undeniable force tugging her forward. There were still people who needed her. She could focus on that. She didn't have to deal with this now. Not yet.

Zuko must have seen some indication of her feelings on her face. A cloud covered the moon and he reached out to lay his hand on her shoulder. "Are you al-?"

Katara knocked his hand away and bared her teeth. "Don't touch me. I'm not some spoiled prince's property, you have no right to touch me."

Even in shadow, she could see the whites of his eyes, the backward jerk of his posture. "I never said you were."

He sounded shocked, angry, hurt. Katara was glad. He deserved it. Maybe if she hurt him, he would stop looking at her the way that he did, like he knew her, and wanted her, and cared for her, even. Maybe he would stop making his weird demands and gestures, quit feeding her and following her and… and trying so hard and…

In her chest, there was a horrible ache, but she wasn't sure exactly what part of this situation was causing the pain.

So she swallowed and clenched her jaw and reminded herself of what she did know. This was the prince of her enemies, and he would try to capture the Avatar and eliminate all hope of peace, because if he didn't he would risk losing his crown forever.

And the rest didn't matter because, right now, only one thing mattered.

"We'll finish searching the tents, then we'll find a way down to the ship," Katara said. The clouds swept off the moon and she could see how Zuko scowled at her, how his face twisted with it.

"Going down to that ship is a waste of time. Sokka will be in one of these pavilions." He stabbed an arm out, pointing. "You just said we need to get back and warn your people about Hahn."

"I'm not abandoning someone who needs help," Katara said, glaring right back at him.

"This is crazy, Katara! You're going to get us killed or captured over what a prisoner is telling you?"

Katara shook her head and turned away. "We don't have time for this."

She didn't see Zuko pinch his eyes shut and then, glaring at Tyno as he dragged him along, hurry to catch up. She did hear, faintly, Zuko snarling something and Tyno making a quiet but heartfelt apology.

Katara wasn't paying much attention, though. She was peeking out into a wide walkway between pavilions, carefully checking for oncoming soldiers, but she saw none. Most of the commotion now was on the north and west sides of the camp. Katara led the way across and then dodged around the corner of a tent to where she knew the meeting of sheets would be. She spread them just wide enough to see, and froze.

Sokka knelt in the middle of the large space within, facing the open tent flap. Despite the shadows, Katara knew him at once by his wolf-tail and the sound of his voice, even though it was muffled by a cloth tied over his mouth. She barely hesitated. She didn't hear Zuko's protests as he rounded the corner with Tyno and saw her slicing through the ties and ducking through the opening, scrambling to reach her brother.

It was only when Sokka snapped his head around to look at her and she registered his wide, worried eyes that she realized something was wrong. He was trying to say something through the gag, but all she understood was the last word.

Trap.

Then, torches flared all around the inside of the tent and Katara saw the soldiers lining the formerly shadowy walls. Admiral Zhao himself stepped in front of the tent flap, a picture of smirking victory.

"Well well," he said. "If it isn't the favorite new hero of the resistance. Welcome to my supply station..." His smirk deepened and took on a cruel edge. "…Katto of the Southern Tribe."