AN: one...month...i am so sorry

this is a relatively short one, but hey - lots of stuff happening for our favorite waterbender!

and good news about the next chapter at the end :)

enjoy! (italicization is better on AO3, but hopefully nothing is lost from you guys not knowing which words are italicized)

She ran as fast as she could. Branches and twigs scraped at her ankles, trying to slow her down. Leaves and vines whipped against her legs and arms, but she brushed them out of her way wildly, cutting through the more persistent strands with sharp arcs of water.

Her vision tunneled to highlight only the figure running away from her. She wasn't sure why he was running, nor did she know why she was chasing him. She only knew that she had to get to him. She stretched her arm in front of her, reaching for the red fabric that clothed him. Still running, he looked back, a smile on his face.

"You'll have to try harder, my lady."

She studied the visible side of his face. Sharp features that felt familiar and novel at the same time. As she lunged for his sleeve once more, he dissipated into mist. Just as her mother had a few minutes ago.

What was going on? Why had she seen her mother? And who was the strange man?

"Katara! Katara!"

"Sokka! Sokka, I'm coming!" She followed the voice to her brother, and thankfully, not a single vine obstructed her path. She threw her arms around him, both of them speaking over each other.

"What happened? Where did you go?"

"Katara, I saw Yue! I don't know how, but-"

A shadow fell over the siblings and Sokka let out a shout. Fueled by instinct, Katara sent arcs of water flying at the huge monster that cut at its thick - were those arms? But for every appendage she cut off, three more grew in its place. Her brother hurled his boomerang at the creature, but it disappeared into the mass of green and never returned. Sokka jumped onto a boulder and hollered.

"Hey, stop trying to kill us! We didn't even do anything to you. It's your crazy swamp that's fighting us and making us hallucinate!"

The monster shifted to face Sokka, and the fear that raced through Katara made her create a wave out of all the moisture she could gather and push it at the green mass. When the water fell to the ground, there was no swamp creature; instead, she saw a man clad in nothing but leaves.

"The swamp is not fighting you. You are the one who was hacking at the swamp with your weapons."

"Well, the swamp also stole our air bison, and like my brother said, made us hallucinate," Katara said with a frown, hands still ready to command her surroundings.

The man shook his head. "Your air bison is safe, I can tell. I'll bring him here. As far as the visions, those are important. Pay attention to them."

"Who even are you? What is this place? And why are the visions important?"

Katara nodded along to all of her brother's questions.

"My name is Huu. This is the Swamp, a sacred place where the connections between everything in the world are stronger and more noticeable than anywhere else. Which is why you two had the visions. The Swamp will show you your most important relationships, the people you have loved and lost. It will remind you that they aren't truly lost and that they are forever connected to you." Sokka's boomerang flew back at him and as he jumped to catch it, Katara relaxed her posture.

"So what does it mean if I saw a vision of someone I've never met?" She ignored Sokka's curious look and focused on Huu who seemed to be studying her.

"Keep in mind that death is an illusion, as is time."

Katara's face twisted in confusion - couldn't she just get a straight answer?

"Psst. Katara!" She turned toward Sokka, who was bouncing on his feet, energized by whatever epiphany he had reached. "It means they're a loved one you will meet in the future."

Huu hummed in agreement and a scowl settled on Katara's face.

She did not want to meet any Fire Nation men, thank you very much, and what kind of fool would she have to be to fall in love with one?

Six years later, Katara jolted upward in her bed, panting as if she had just now been chasing the man from the swamp. She hugged her knees to her chest and tried to even out her breathing as she connected the dots.

A man, taller than her, dressed in red, with regal features and a crown in his topknot.

She had seen the Fire Lord all those years ago.

So that meant…

She staggered out of bed and barely made it to the sink in time to retch.

There was no way in hell she would love the Fire Lord. No way. Not even the Dai Li could brainwash her into having affection for him.

She stared at her reflection in the mirror, really noticing all the ways in which she was no longer fourteen. Six years ago, she would never have thought she'd one day find herself in the Fire Nation's royal palace.

How much could change in six months? How much would change?

Although she had expelled all her dinner, she couldn't get rid of the unease that had settled in her stomach.

That weekend found her back in the city, unwilling to wait for midweek to continue the search for her necklace. With Shao and Meira at her side, she combed every street of the city, even those she had never stepped in, so as to not leave a single stone unturned.

Every passing second sent revulsion crawling further and further up her insides. Did this nation have to take everything from her? Her mother, her freedom, her ability to choose whom to love, her power, and now she wasn't even allowed to keep items of sentimental value?

The waterbender growled as the air around her chilled and Shao let out a yelp.

"Master Katara!"

"What?" she gritted out.

"It's- it got a little cold."

She rolled her eyes and stomped over to the next alleyway. These people could stand to feel cold every once in a while.

"Should've brought a cloak, then."

Ignoring the racing heartbeats of her guards, she began to kick barrels and crates out of the way, scanning the newly exposed ground for a spot of blue.

"Master Katara," Meira began in an unusually timid voice, "is this what we're looking for?"

She spun around and zoned in on the ribbon dangling from Meira's fingers.

"Yes!" In a flash, she plucked the necklace and held it up to her eyes.

Shao let out one more shriek as goosebumps made themselves known on Katara's arms.

Her pendant was no longer attached to the fabric.

"Scour the area," she said, scrutinizing the cobbled roads for light blue. "There's a small stone with the Water Tribe symbol that's supposed to be hanging from this."

But an hour later, Katara was in a carriage riding back to the palace, with no pendant and only a frayed ribbon in her clenched fist.

"I'm sorry we couldn't find it, Master Katara," Shao offered. "We can return soon to keep looking."

Katara let out a sigh just before a bump on the road smacked her head against the window.

"Stop the carriage!"

In half a second, Meira's dagger flashed in her palm, and Shao's sword had been whipped out.

"There's no threat," Katara assured them before swinging open the door and hopping out. She made her way over to the other side of the street, where around ten children had lined up to stare at the carriage. She surveyed their faces, exhaling softly in relief when she didn't recognize any of them. Hopefully, Lee was right and the siblings she had met had found their way to a shelter.

Only once she took a good look at the sight in front of her was she made aware of the fact that these children looked as though they hadn't had a proper lunch in days. Determination solidified in her bones.

"Come on," she said, reaching out for one of them, "let's get you guys some food."

The boy whose hand she had been about to grasp stumbled backward with wide eyes. Katara tilted her head in confusion when she noticed that all the children were looking at her with some amount of trepidation. When she saw another boy's eyes flick to the guards behind her, she realized why.

She crouched down. "Hey. I'm not going to hurt you, okay? I'm not a part of the royal family. You don't have to be afraid of me." She put her hand out once again but didn't try to touch any of the kids.

A few moments of uneasy silence ensued. Katara shifted her fingers just enough to coat one digit in liquefied water vapor.

"See? I'm a waterbender, not a firebender. I won't hurt you guys." She heard Meira's awkward cough and shunted the voice in her head that whispered, 'bloodbender' to the side.

One girl slid her tiny hand into Katara's palm and said softly, "I'm Leela. Will you really give us food?"

"Yes. Of course. Right away."

A different child stepped closer, and another, and then two more, and soon enough, all of them were huddled around her, chattering freely about the foods they wanted to eat and the novelty of waterbending.

Katara rose and herded the small crowd down the street while demonstrating more frivolous waterbending tricks, uncaring if her guards were following. Surely she didn't need permission to care about the people that would soon be under her protection, and even if she did, she wouldn't ask for it.

Someone had to care about these citizens, and if Fire Lord Zuko couldn't be bothered to, she'd do it wholeheartedly. It wasn't right that innocent people had to suffer just because they had the bad luck of being born in this region of the world, and she'd do everything she could to change that.

Just as she led the kids away from the seventh stall they had stopped by, a stout man came rushing up to them.

"Where on earth did all of you go?" he shouted, panting and resting his hands on bent knees.

Immediately, she stepped forward to shield her charges behind outstretched arms.

"Who are you and what is your relation to these children?" She heard a soft whimper from behind her and her hackles raised even further.

The stranger sneered. "I think the more appropriate question would be who are you?" He looked pointedly at her Water Tribe robe, before adding, "Filthy savage."

Indignation didn't even have time to appear on her face before Shao stepped forward to whack the man's head with the hilt of his sword. He fell to the ground on impact and she heard a shriek - oh, she hoped it hadn't come from her.

"Apologize," commanded Meira, "to your future Fire Lady."

"Stop," Katara whispered as she took a step back and made sure the kids moved with her.

The man put a hand to the back of his head, where she could sense blood clotting, and stared up at her with fear.

"I am sorry, your Highness." He didn't even bother to disguise the venom in his voice.

"I'm not royalty yet," she said clearly, earning a disapproving look from Shao. She pulled water vapor from the air and reached forward. "I can heal you."

He scrambled away from her. "Do not bring your tribal witchery near me!"

Katara had to put a firm hand on Shao's arm to make sure he wouldn't strike again. "It's just waterbending. But I won't touch you if you don't want me to."

"Just give me the children so I can take them back to the orphanage."

Her knees locked. "Are you not feeding them well at the- the orphanage? Have you seen them? They look starved."

"Maybe talk to your precious husband about that, then," he retorted, eyes flashing and a pained quality to his voice.

"He's doing his best."

As soon as the words left her mouth, all four adults' eyes widened in shock. For the life of her, she could not figure out why she said that - had Lee's insistence that the Fire Lord was a good person gotten to her already? He wasn't even her husband! And the man from the orphanage didn't seem to know why she would say such a thing either.

"It must seem that way when you live in a nice, fancy palace."

She wanted to tell him that she really did understand, she didn't come from riches, she too, has felt orphaned and abandoned for a period of her life, but she knew he wouldn't listen. He wouldn't listen if she was just some girl from a backwater village, and he certainly wouldn't listen now that she's been associated with the royal family. So she gently pushed the kids behind her toward him.

Clutching their bags of edible treats, they surrounded the man as he rose. With a curt nod and a glare at Shao, the man started to lead the orphans away. Leela turned back to wave at her again and again, and Katara waved back every time.

"Will you visit us again to show us more water tricks?" the girl called out.

Hoping her voice carries over the sound of the man shushing the child, she replied, "Absolutely!"

As soon as the kids were out of sight, a frown twisted her mouth.

Perhaps the Painted Lady would be paying Caldera City a visit after all.

"Thanks, Sama," she said to her maid when she brought dinner to her room.

"Can I get you anything else, Master Katara?"

She shook her head, not really present in the conversation. Sama took the hint and quickly left as Katara lifted a spoon of curry to her lips.

Although a few days had passed, she could not get the altercation with the man out of her head. His jeers at the Southern Water Tribe reverberated in her brain, convincing her that she would always be seen as an outsider in this country. His taunts about the selfish tyrant that was her future husband followed her through the halls of his palace. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw him crumpling to the ground, and then his look of utter disdain that was aimed, not at Shao or the palace or Fire Lord Zuko, but at her. Every bite of food that she had intaken reminded her of cheerful, emaciated children.

It made her dizzy to think about all of it.

Or perhaps she wasn't dizzy because of her racing thoughts. She grabbed the edge of the table as the temperature in her room seemed to rise by 20 degrees.

No, that was just her insides being set on fire.

It was a struggle to keep her eyes open as she toppled sideways off her chair. Through her splitting headache, she managed to bend the bile up her throat and out onto the carpet. Only once all the food she had eaten was completely out of her system did she close her eyes and rest her head in her hands.

That wasn't the result of acid reflux. Nor was it an allergic reaction.

Someone had tried to poison her.

As she used water from the pitcher to check over her digestive system and clean the floor, she fumed. How long had she been here? Just a few days shy of a month, yet she had already faced an assassination attempt.

Perhaps she should celebrate. By leaping out the window and catching the first boat heading south.

What was wrong with these people? She had left behind her family and home to marry their Fire Lord, who, for all she knew could be the one behind the attack, so that he would look better in the public eye - and Tui knew he needed that badly. So why would they try to assassinate her? She was doing them a favor by being here!

A small part of her brain recalled the promise she had made herself three weeks ago. If she found a way out of the arranged marriage, she would take it. And if she told anyone about this incident, forget cutting off the wedding, she could probably start an international war.

But the part of her that Sokka would call irrational knew she'd never back down from a challenge. If they wanted her to leave so badly, she'd stay here and she'd expose whoever was against her. She'd prove that Water Tribe women could be fierce and caring, while also being the epitome of a graceful ruler. She would survive and she would thrive.

And no poison nor person would get in her way.

It wasn't until she was seconds away from a deep sleep that she realized she had missed her midweek meeting with Lee.

A couple of days later, Katara headed to the training grounds, hoping to burn off some pent-up anxiety and frustration. It had been a particularly grueling day thus far, what with constantly having to be on the lookout for assassins, and Mai's lesson topic - understanding the terms of warfare.

"In the South Pole," she grumbled at the carpet as she neared her destination, "we never have to learn about what makes up a battalion or brigade. Useless information."

"You're learning it as a precautionary measure." She halted in her steps to look up at the Fire Lord who had just stepped out of the training room. Had he been anyone else, she would have been hyper-aware of his lack of a shirt. Or the way his muscles were exaggerated by the action of wiping sweat from his neck with a towel. But he was not anyone else, so she was wholly focused on his face - and indeed, it was the same face that she had seen in the swamp. Her stomach roiled and he continued to speak. "If I were to die, you'd be commander of the troops. And if I died, there could be the chance that you'd step into that role just as a war breaks out or people try to take advantage of the nation's instability. So you would need to know what makes up our battalions and brigades."

Her jaw slackened as she blinked at him in a sort of horrified confusion. She didn't know what she was most shocked about - the casual manner with which he talked about his death, the way he implied that he might not die, the idea that his demise would result in such power being afforded to her, or his nonchalance over being one of the few things holding the world in balance. And she had no idea what she was supposed to say in response to any of those points. Thankfully, she didn't have to say anything.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, abruptly changing his stance to hide his hands behind his back.

Her mind spun. Why would he ask such a thing out of nowhere?

Unless- he knew.

He knew she had been poisoned. And she hadn't told Mai or her maids about the assassination attempt or even mentioned it in a letter, which meant that he had to be behind it.

She knew it! This piece of scum could not be trusted. Frost escaped her mouth as she scowled.

The piece of scum in question quirked his single eyebrow as he stepped back.

"Alright, then," he said uneasily. "I'll take your leave, Master Katara."

She kept her eyes locked on him as he moved in her direction, and her fingers were ready to whip water out of the air if he pulled anything. When he was right next to her, he turned sideways to squeeze in the gap between her the wall, pointedly still not letting her see his hands. And then, continuing in this manner, he walked backward away from her. She had never witnessed such suspicious behavior in her life.

Strange, sketchy, stupid man.

For the rest of the day, she pictured the Fire Lord - the root cause of every single problem in her life right now - standing on the other side of her ice daggers and water whips.

It made for a very satisfying bending practice session.

As soon the sun rose on the first day of the weekend, Katara began her mission. Channeling every inch of genetic material that she shared with Sokka, she started thinking about how she would tackle the assassin issue. She could hardly just march into the Fire Lord's office and accuse him of trying to kill her.

Which meant she needed solid proof. She needed to snoop around the palace and find the spot where he stored his diabolical plans.

She wouldn't find them in the library, and although she really had no marker of how intelligent he was, she was nearly certain that he wasn't foolish enough to keep such papers in his office, where they could get mixed up with other official items.

Her eyes widened as she remembered the vehemence with which her guards had said not to go near a specific wing on the third floor.

That's it then, she thought as she grabbed her waterskin and sprinted out of her bedroom. That's where I'll find my answers.

The forbidden wing was deserted, amplifying the eerie atmosphere that seemed to pervade it. She twisted her foot in the way Toph had taught her, seeking out any sources of blood. She could only sense one, likely a guard.

Nevertheless, she maintained extreme caution as she crept forward, staying close to the walls. There were twenty or so doors interspersed in the hallway, and she tentatively pushed on as many as she could. None of them opened, except for the one at the very end of the hall. Figured. Katara steeled herself and adjusted her waterskin at her hip, loosening the cork slightly, before tiptoeing into the room.

It seemed to be a bedroom, similar to her old one on the first floor in every way, bar size. Yes, as far as she could see, this one was way more spacious. The curtains on the windows were all pulled shut, shrouding the room in dark mysteria. The entire wall in front of her was lined with dressers, upon which there were countless frames and mirrors, many of which were covered. And as she moved forward, she narrowly missed stepping on a circle of glass shards.

She quickly opened just one curtain so she could see her surroundings better and then moved to the dresser nearest to her. She squinted at the frame before picking one up and studying it.

It was a painting of a mother and her son, both of whom were smiling at each other with unbridled joy. She couldn't put her finger on exactly what it was, but something about the woman looked familiar.

And then all at once, her stomach lurched, she felt a prickling sensation trace her spine, and her ears perked up just enough to hear the sound of soft breathing. Not daring to spin around just yet, her eyes flicked to the uncovered mirror closest to her, and there she saw the figure standing a few paces behind her.

The shadowy face may have been new to Katara, and the bright grin certainly made her feel apprehensive, but the hairstyle...she recognized the hairstyle.

And there was no way that should have been possible.

AN: okay so good news: 70% of the next chap is written. should be up sometime in the next week

even better news: it's ALL just zk interactions, over the course of three months. some of them are lee/katara and some are zuko/katara. it's very fun.

bad news: you guys will be left with this cliffhanger for a few weeks :/

your comments + favoriting + following + reading this story means the world to me 3

you can always yell at me for the cliffhanger/send me your theories on tumblr (thebluesunflower44)!