Katara couldn't stop the tsunami but she could at least slow it down and stop it from completely crushing her and everyone else aboard the ship. She braced herself for the huge wave and when it came crashing down she parted as much of it as she could. The water she wasn't able to circumvent hit her at a slower rate, but it was still enough to sluice her over the side of the ship. She fell into the sea and immediately bent the water back creating an air pocket around her. Once she surfaced she began looking around for Zuko, the crew, and the northern waterbenders. Sending her over the side of the ship had been a strategic move on their part to separate her from everyone else. The north knew that she could hold her own out at sea, but the others they didn't care about, she was the prize they hoped to capture.

"Katara!" Came Zuko's strangled voice from somewhere across the sea. "Katara!"

If she had not been in the sea with other waterbenders Katara would have worked up some fog to create cover but that would be like a homing beacon to the Northern benders. She had to plot her next moves very carefully.

"Katara!"

She swam towards the sound of Zuko's voice. Being from the South Pole her eyes had long grown accustomed to seeing in the darkness and she made out the shape of one of the lifeboats. Katara pulled the water towards her and the lifeboat came bobbing along when it was within her reach she grasped the edges firmly and climbed onto it and began looking for Zuko once again.

"Zuko!" She called out and hoped to find him before the north did.

"Katara!"

She turned her head toward the sound of his voice and craned her neck out in search of him. His splashing alerted her to his position off in the distance. He was treading water but he look like he was struggling to stay afloat. She used her bending once again to propel the lifeboat towards Zuko as fast as she could. "I'm coming Zuko! Hang on." She called out.

He swam towards the lifeboat as she sailed it nearer to him. Once she was close enough she reached down and started to pull him up onto the lifeboat. She grabbed his hands they were as cold as ice and tugged. His waterlogged clothing seemed to make him twice as heavy and he didn't have much strength left so Katara had to dig down deep and use all of hers. She braced herself down in the lifeboat and pulled him up into it with one mighty tug. Zuko flopped up onto the lifeboat like an oversize fish.

"Thank the Spirits you're all right." He said through chattering teeth and fell backwards onto the safety of the lifeboat. He was shaking all over.

Katara began searching the lifeboat until she found a thick white blanket and wrapped it around Zuko. A few moments later he was able to sit up and he wrapped the blanket around her too.

"Did you see anyone else from the ship?"

Zuko shook his head. "But I know they're out there and so is the Northern Tribe. We've got to put as much distance between them and us as possible."

"Do you think anyone is looking for us?"

"Of course. I don't know how long it will take, but I do know reinforcements are on the way." Zuko assured her.

"That means reinforcements from the North are also on their way."

"Yeah, and here comes some now."

Sure enough three outriggers were making their way towards their lifeboat.

"We can't keep running, so if it's a fight they want then it's a fight they'll get." Katara said and stood up.

"Damn straight." Zuko said and stood up beside her. "They're going to regret attacking our ship."

Three soldiers jumped off the outriggers and began making their way towards the lifeboat on icebent surfboards. They surrounded the boat.

"Let's show them what you get when you mix fire and water." Katara said.

"What do you get?"

"Steam."

Zuko grinned wickedly. "I like the way you think agnaga."

Katara let out a spray of water and Zuko trained a column of fire at it. The two of them turned in a complete circle and the steam rolled out hitting the soldiers directly. The soldiers screamed in pain and dove into the water or fell in when their ice boards melted, but the North's assaults were relentless. Deep submergence vehicles had replaced the outriggers and they popped up from under the water like weeds.

Zuko shot fire blast after fire blast but they bounced ineffectively off the surface of the submersibles."Where do they keep coming from?"

"They must have an underwater base." Katara noted. "That's where all the submersibles are coming from."

"Shit!"

There was no way they were going to be able to fight their way out of this. Katara realized but it didn't mean that all was lost. There was always another way of doing things if one didn't give up. She formed a water whip and used it to cut off a strip of the white blanket that Zuko had wrapped around the both of them and waved it back and forth like a flag.

"What are you doing?"

"Getting us out of this alive." Katara replied. "Do you trust me?"

"Completely."

"Good. Then follow my lead." There was no time to explain her plan to Zuko all she could do was set it into motion and pray that it had the outcome she desired. "We surrender!" She shouted. "Call off your soldiers we surrender!" Katara watched with bated breath as the submersibles moved towards them. Zuko took her hand in his and she didn't pull away. He was her husband and they were in this together.

It didn't take long for the north to completely surround their lifeboat. Each of the soldiers were equipped with ice spears and ice shields and some of them held metal weapons. They had come along way from her Gran gran's time when all they wielded were weapons of bone and wood.

"Giving in so quickly Princess Katara? This had better not be a trick."

"It isn't. We surrender, and I'll go with you wherever that is under the condition that you don't hurt Prince Zuko."

"You're not in any position to make demands upon us, princess."

"I'm who you want right? If you want to capture me alive then you will meet my demands."

"Very well. Ensign Pakak, Ohitok, secure the princess and the ash maker."

The two soldiers bent coils of rope out of water, lassoed them, and dragged the two of them onto one of the submersibles. "Try anything and we'll drown the ash maker scumbag." One of the soldier said to Katara. "Ohitok get the ropes and tie them up, and don't think you can firebend your way out of these ropes, they're fire proof."

Katara closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths to stay calm as the soldier wrenched her arms behind her back and began to tie her up.

"Don't hurt her!" Zuko growled.

"Shut up burner."

"Are you O.K.?"

"I said shut up." The soldier commanded and punched Zuko in the mouth.

"Leave him alone you coward!" Katara cried. Only a coward would hit someone whose feet and hands were tied. Her anger grew even deeper as she watched blood trickle down her husband's mouth.

"What do you care what happens to him?" He kicked Zuko in the stomach and he doubled over in pain. "He's the enemy, remember? Get your priorities straight, princess."

"That's enough Ensign Pakak! It's time to take these two below."

"Yes, Captain Naalak." Ensign Pakak closed the hatch on the submersible and then began to propel them downwards with his bending. Slowly they descended beneath the surface of the sea. All around them the other submersibles were disappearing below the surface too.

Katara's hunch had been right there was a base underwater and they were going to take her and Zuko right to the source.

"What are you going to do with us?" Katara asked.

"We're taking you back to where you belong. The Northern Water Tribe." Ensign Pakak explained.

"Her home is the Southern Water Tribe."

"Did I ask you ashtray? What happens to Katara is none of your business, she's property of the Northern Water Tribe."

"Property? Excuse me, but I'm not anyone's property and my home is the Fire Nation now."

Ensign Pakak looked her up and down and his upper lip curled up like a wave. "If you had any loyalty to the Water Tribe you would have married Hahn and the two of you would have powerful heirs, so powerful that the Water Tribe Nations would never again have to suffer the tyranny of the Fire Nation."

"The Fire Nation isn't the one kidnapping me or holding my village hostage."

"Don't blame the North for you and your father's poor decisions! What we're doing is for the greater good."

"Funny, that's what my father said when he tried to take over the world."

"We're not trying to take over the world. We're trying to prevent that very thing from ever happening again." Captain Naalakk said.

"And you honestly think kidnapping me and forcing me to marry Hahn is the way to do that?"

"Yes."

Katara didn't say anything else there was no point. There was no reasoning with Captain Naalak or any of the other soldiers. Reasoning with them had not been her plan anyway.

The submersible sailed into a passageway that Katara knew to be part of an airlock. Behind them a solid metal door slammed shut sealing them inside of the large passageway. It was completely dark inside as the submersible twisted and turned along the passageways taking them further and further away from the point they had been captured. Katara wondered how many miles the passageways covered and had did no one know that this underwater base existed? After what felt like a lifetime of lifetimes they finally reach the other end of the airlock that housed a small marina. Ensign Pakak and the other northern soldiers bent the water down low enough to keep the deep submergence vehicles afloat and then opened another metal door.

"Through there and don't try anything." Captain Naalak ordered.

Another metal door opened up and Katara and Zuko were blindfolded and then stepped up onto a deck and were ushered through a long hall way and down a flight of stairs. Captain Naalak pulled off Katara's blindfold pointed to a small jail cell. "In there." Katara went in first and Zuko followed her but Captain Naalak grabbed him by the forearm. "I don't think so flame thrower."

"Where are you taking him?" Katara asked. "You said you wouldn't hurt him."

"I lied."

"Let him go!"

"Can't marry Hahn if you're already married."

"What does that mean? What are you going to do to Zuko?"

"Something that's noble to our cause, this flame thrower is going to ensure that balance is restored to the world."

"If you kill me you're signing your own execution warrant." Zuko said.

"Then it's unlucky for you that I've always been a gambling man." Captain Naalak snarked.

"Zuko!" Katara cried.

Captain Naalak dragged Zuko out of the holding cell room.

"Zuko!"

The door slammed and Katara was in total silence and darkness. Angry tears fell from her eyes. She had not expected the North to keep up their end of the bargain, but she also thought that she'd have more time to work out her plan. There was no telling what they were doing to Zuko and if she didn't hurry up and free herself she would be a widow.

Her hands were tied but the tips of her fingers were still free. She bent the tears away from her face and gathered them in her fingertips and bent her tears into a sharp single blade. After some awkward maneuvering she was able to grasp the blade and use it to start sawing through the ropes. She worked as quickly as she could and as soon as the ropes fell free she hid in the darkest corner of the cell and waited.

Zuko lie on the hard concrete floor groaning in pain. He felt as if every single bone in his body had been broken even though he was pretty sure that the only bones that were actually broken were his ribs. Pakak and Ohitok had worked him over like a speed bag while calling him every slur under the sun, but he was still alive. For now.

He didn't know how he was going to do it, but he had to do it. He had to get up and get free. Katara was depending on him and Spirits only knew what would happen to her if he couldn't free himself. For as long as he lived he would never forget how she sounded when she'd screamed his name as they were dragging him away. There had been so much anguish in her voice and it had all been for him. She had been scared for him. She cared what happened to him. "I won't let you down Katara." Zuko rocked himself back and forth until he was able to sit up. His hands and feet were tied, but he hadn't been mentored by the dragon of the west for most of his life without picking up a few tricks.

Captain Naalak had said that the ropes were fire proof and Zuko had no reason to doubt him, but surely there was something in his cell that was flammable. Power in firebending came from the breath; acknowledging that fact he braced himself for the pain he knew was sure to come. Zuko drew in a deep breath and let a flame rip forth from his mouth, and despite trying to hold it back, a cry of pain came out with his breath of fire. The fire ripped from his mouth and rolled forward igniting a wooden bench. The fire engulfed the bench until there was nothing left or nowhere for the fire to go beside up the wall. The flames crawled higher and higher until they were rolling across the ceiling.

"What in the name of Tui and La are you doing in their you crazy ass ash maker?" Ensign Ohitok shouted from his post outside of the cell door as smoke billowed out from underneath. Zuko jumped in his skin when the door was kicked open and slammed against the wall. Ensign Ohitok swept into his cell. "I have half a mind to leave you in here and let you burn alive, but that would ruin our wedding gift to Prince Hahn, Ensign Ohitok grinned down at Zuko, taking you to the North to be publicly drawn and quartered." He put out the fire and dragged him into the hallway. "You look like you're going to try anything all bets are off. I'll kill you on the spot."

Zuko lie on the floor wondering what would happen if he let out a breath of fire at Ohitok's feet. It wouldn't help him to escape but it would bring the other guards who were posted just down the hall, and if he'd caught Ohitok off guard perhaps he could catch the others off guard too. The northern guards might be tough but unlike the ropes tied around his feet they weren't fire proof. Trying something was better than sitting there and doing nothing.

"This plan is never going to work. If you had half a brain cell in that tiny head of yours you'd let me and Katara go." Zuko taunted. If he was busy running his mouth Ohitok certainly wouldn't be expecting fire to come from it. As the proverb went a barking dogs seldom bites, but as another proverb went the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry, and oftentimes moments occur in life and there are no proverbs, no feelings, no earthly equivalent to aptly describe it. That moment was happening to Zuko.

For reasons he or the Spirits couldn't possibly explain Ohitok listened to him. He bent down and cut Zuko's ropes away. His face was a mask of shock as if he couldn't quite comprehend why he was doing what he was doing and Zuko couldn't either. Then even more inexplicably he pressed the same knife he'd cut the ropes free with to his own neck. Ohitok's breath hitched as a small trickle of blood ran down his throat. Zuko watched with a horrified fixation as Ohitok's eyes widened and his mouth dropped open like he was playing a frighten character in a one man play, but he wasn't acting he was genuinely frightened.

At the end of the hall was a small high window. Light from the full moon spilled in from the window and through it Zuko saw a shadow move behind Ohitok. Katara stepped into his line of sight. In the moonlight the veins on her arms stood out like roots on a tree. She began to move her hands, and Ohitok who was now whimpering like a child, began to move along with Katara's movements. His movements were ungainly and rigid as if he was trying to fight back against some invisible force.

Zuko scrambled to his feet and watched bug-eyed as Katara continued to twist and contort her arms. Her fingers were claws pulling on invisible strings in the moonlight. Ohitok kept walking in that same slow rigid way down the hallway. Katara was controlling him like some kind of maleficent puppeteer Spirit. He couldn't take his eyes off of her. How? How had he not known that she had this much power? The hair on the back of his neck raised up.

Katara walked Ohitok to the cell room she'd been held in. Several of the other guards were already in the cell all of them were tied together.

"Tie him up, Zuko." Katara directed.

There were lengths of rope around her waist like a belt. Zuko took a rope from around her waist and tied Ohitok up as tight as he could. The men in the cell all wore the same look of abject horror and when they saw Katara they looked even more horrified. She opened the cell and walked Ohitok right into it.

"Now tie his feet."

Zuko didn't hesitate. When Katara shut the cell door he shot a blast of fire at the lock and melted the keyhole shut so that no one could open the door without great difficulty.

"We're leaving." She said.

Zuko could only nod.

Katara took the lead as the pair walked towards a second airlock. Zuko didn't have to ask her how she found out how to escape this underwater maze he just watched her march forward like the unstoppable force that she was. Her eyes were focused and her mouth set in a thin tight line. She gave no indication of how truly powerful she was, but somehow Zuko couldn't help but feel the power emanating from her. The bending skills that she possessed was beyond anything that he'd ever seen in his life. If she wanted to she could have easily killed him. A shiver passed through him that started at the base of his spine and ended at the top of his head.

"Where do you two think you're going?" A guard shouted.

Without breaking her stride Katara raised her arms up above her head and then off to the side as if she were flinging something away. The guard mimicked her motions by running himself head first into the wall and knocking himself out. Zuko took the ropes from around her waist and tied the guard up. They made their way to the second airlock without further incident. Luckily for the both of them there was another marina, and it too was full of deep submergence vehicles. Katara commandeered one and the silent duo made their way up to the surface of the Mo Ce sea and the submersible moved swiftly along under the starry night sky.

Tension in the air hung as thick as steam. Katara didn't say anything she just watched Zuko looking at her from the corner of her eyes. She scared him. She'd freaked him out so badly that it rendered him into silence which had become so loud she wanted to cover her ears to shut out the noise. Zuko was still looking at her; looking at her as if he was trying to figure out if she was real or not. Katara took stock of the emotions that revealed themselves on his face. Shock. Confusion. Terror. Awe and back to shock before settling into a purposely passive "I'm not judging you" expression.

"What? What was that? What you did back there? What did you do?" Zuko finally asked. His voice came out quiet and seemed lost in the darkness of the night.

Katara looked up at the moon and thought on both Hama and the moon Spirit Yue. She couldn't think of the moon without either of them coming to mind. Especially Hama for blessing her with the curse of bloodbending.

"Bloodbending. It's called bloodbending."

Even in the darkness of the night Katara could see Zuko shiver.

"So you like- you can control people? The water inside of people;inside of me?"

"Only when the moon is full." Katara wondered how Yue felt when she saw her bloodbend. Had she upset the moon Spirit because she used the moon for such a purpose? Or did she understand her dark side? She was the moon after all and she had a dark side too.

"Bloodbending." Zuko repeated and stared up at the moon. "When I first saw you do it, bloodbend, it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and now that I know what is that you're doing." He shook his head. "You're amazing Katara."

"It didn't feel amazing." Katara confessed.

"So then how did you even learn that you could do that?"

"Hama. She was a Southern waterbender who escaped from the Fire Nation. She taught me."

"A Southern waterbender in the Fire Nation?"

"She was captured by the Fire Nation during the hundred year war. She and other Southern waterbenders were forced to live in wooden cages like rats. They kept the room the waterbenders were in dry and free from water. Hama told me that whenever they gave her water they chained her up so she couldn't bend. Ironically enough it was the rats she first practiced bloodbending on."

"I'm sorry." Zuko said and turned away from the moon and looked into her face. "I had no idea."

"You weren't even born yet how could you have?" She asked. "There wasn't another Fire Nation raid on my village until they found out about me."

"I don't know how you could marry me after everything my family has done to yours. No wonder you hate me."

"Hated you. I told you I don't hate you anymore and I'm not even sure if I ever did."

"Anyway, I'm glad you know how to bloodbend. It saved our lives."

Katara thought back to how she pleaded and begged Hama to stop but she wouldn't. The moment Hama found out that she was the powerful waterbender from aunt Wu's prediction her mind had been made up. She was going to pass on her life's work through her no matter the cost. Hama used her. She had used her body, soul, and mind. Sometimes Katara could still feel the ghost of Hama pulling on her. Forcing her to do her will. To carry on the curse that ended up being her salvation.

"I didn't want to learn how to bloodbend but Hama left me with no choice. It was her intent from the moment she met me. She wanted her legacy to live on through me. She wanted me to take out her vengeance on the Fire Nation for what they did to her."

"She sounds like my father. To him people are just pawns on his big chess board. What anyone else wants or feels doesn't matter so long as he gets what he wants in the end, and believe me the end always justifies his means."

"There was nothing that could have prepared me for the way I felt when Hama first bloodbent me. It was the worst feeling in the world. You know the pain you get when you're dehydrated and your muscles cramp? Well multiply that by a thousand and you're just scratching the surface of that pain. It felt like I was curling into myself and when Hama was done with me I'd be nothing but a mummified version of myself. I had no control. I was helpless in my own body and wherever Hama lead me I had to follow. She could have walked me off of a cliff and I would have not been able to stop her. That's why I hate using bloodbending against people. I know what it feels like, but sometimes I'm left with no choice."

"Hungry?" Zuko asked to change the subject.

"Yes, and I'm sure there is some food stored somewhere in this tin can." The two searched until they found the food supplies. Katara opened the box and took out the contents.

"What is this?" Zuko asked. He was holding what looked like a ball of tightly packed coarse coffee grounds.

"It's pemmican."

"What's pemmican?"

"Survival food. It's a watertribe staple made from lean meat, fat, and sometimes berries and tundra greens or as you call it seaweed."

"Is it good?"

"Depends on who makes it. The way Bato made pemmican you would think it was a delicacy." Bato was still on her mind. It was still hard for her to imagine how she was going to live the rest of her life without him in it.

Zuko didn't say anything he set about making dinner out of the supplies that had come in the box of rations and Katara helped without feeling the need to break the silence. When everything was finished the two sat down in their cramped quarters to a dinner of pemmican, rice, dried fruit, and putuligaaq.

Katara let out an excited little gasp when she saw the putuligaaq.

"What now?" Zuko asked as a curious little smile stretched across his face.

"Putuligaaq!"

"The bread?"

"It's not bread you uncultured warthog-swine. Putuligaaq is what you would consider a doughnut, oh just try it."

Zuko held up the round bread that had holes in it. Before biting into it. "No wonder why you got so excited. These taste amazing."

"They're really the best when they're fresh from the oven, but I haven't had putuligaaq in such a long time I don't care."

"All things considered I'd say this was a pretty good meal, but now that we've been freed and fed where do we go from here?" Zuko asked. "We could try to make it back to the Fire Nation or we could try to go to the South Pole. It's your call."

"You'd never make it to the South Pole. Not in your state."

"The way you're examining all of my cuts and bruises must mean I look a sorry sight, but don't worry none of my injuries are fatal." He said. "I'll heal."

Zuko, she noted, was trying to breathe as normally as possible so that she wouldn't notice that he'd broken his ribs, but Katara wasn't fooled she'd heal too many people not to notice the tell tale signs.

"If you let me help you then you'll heal even faster."

"What?"

"I have healing abilities."

"You do?"

"Yes, not all waterbenders are healers, but lucky for you I am. Now lie down."

Zuko didn't need to be told twice. He lie down on the small metal framed bed and Katara bent some water out from their supplies. It shimmered around her hands before she began to move it around his body.

Zuko shuddered and let out a moan of relief. "That feels amazing."

"They really did a number on you didn't they?"

"I'm alive and that's all that really matters isn't it?"

"You're right it is."

"Besides I've got the world's greatest healer to tend to my wounds. Do you ever think that maybe your bloodbending could be used for good? You're a healer and the most talented bender I've ever seen from any element of bending. If you combined healing and bloodbending you could help a lot of people."

"I've never thought about my bloodbending like that." Katara admitted. "I've always been scared of who I might become when I use my bending that way. I don't want to lose myself."

"You wouldn't, You won't. I know you won't, but if you did get lost I would find you."

Katara softly caressed Zuko's cheek. "You should try and get some sleep who knows how long it will be before someone comes to find us."

"What about you?"

"I'll be all right. I rise with the moon, remember? Besides I can take care of myself. You can take over the watch when you wake up."

Zuko nodded. "I have no doubts about that. If there is anyone in this universe that can handle themselves it's you, Katara."

Katara watched over Zuko until he fell asleep. Now that she was all alone and relatively safe her thoughts turned to Bato. She still couldn't believe that he was dead. If only she had been there she could have healed him. He was probably buried by now which meant that she had missed his funeral too. She buried her face in her knees and cried. If Bato had been alive he would have told her to stay in the Fire Nation. He would have never wanted her to risk her life to come to his funeral, but she knew if the shoe was on the other foot he would have done the same. That's what it was to be Southern Water Tribe you risked it all for the ones you loved dead or alive.

Katara looked at the moon from one of the windows and began to speak. "I'm so sorry that you had to die Bato, but if there's one good thing that came from this it's that I know you're with my mother right now. Please tell her that I miss her and that I love her. I love you too, Bato, and so does my mother, but I don't have to tell you that. I know she'll be both sad and happy to see you again. Take care of each other and don't worry about us down here. Even though it will be hard living without you we'll manage somehow and live on for the both of you." She bent her tears away from her face and let them flow from her fingertips into the palm of her other hand. She formed her tears into the shape of a heart and watched it as it slowly melted.

Zuko yawned and dug the sleep from his eyes. Once again in the night Katara had found her way over to him and pressed her body right up against his. Maybe she did it because she needed his heat, but still she needed something from him none the less. No one had ever needed him before. Especially not someone like Katara. He looked down at her in fascination. Controlling people through bloodbending and healing powers would her wonders ever cease? Kaito had been right the luck of the Spirits were with him on this arranged marriage. The same had been true of his father to be married to a woman like his mother, but he never learned to appreciate her. His uncle had always told him his enjoyment of life depended on his perception of life. It was a statement that he was realizing was true now more than ever.

As gently as he could he disentangled himself from Katara and opened the hatch and climbed up the ladder and out on the small platform that surrounded the submersible vessel. The Northern benders had been taken so far away from the point of their capture that Zuko had no idea where they were. Not one definable landmark was within seeing distance the only think he could see was the sky and sea. This was going to make it harder for his uncle to find him, harder but not impossible his uncle wouldn't rest nor would he allow anyone else to rest until he and Katara returned home safely.

He'd given Katara the choice of going back to the Fire Nation or going to the South Pole, and knew that she was going to choose to go to the South Pole and that was the right choice. The South Pole was where they were needed. As the future Fire Lord he had to find a way to help end this war as peacefully as possible before it got any worse and Katara lost someone else she loved. Even though the North was the one waging the war Zuko felt responsible for it and for Bato's death. The North was dead wrong he'd no doubt of that, but if his great grandfather, grandfather, and father hadn't of instilled such fear of the Fire Nation in the rest of the world the North wouldn't feel the need to create such a powerful bloodline.

He knew first hand how wrong trying to create powerful bloodline could go because it was the sole reason that his dad had married his mom and, as twisted as it was he got the logic behind it, but twisted logic is what escalated civil wars into world wars. He couldn't let that happen. Never again would he allow the Fire Nation to drag the rest of the nations into a full scale war. He'd yet to tell Katara the truth about his parent's marriage and he didn't know if he ever would. Sharing that information with her might not be that big of a deal, or it could do more harm than good. The last thing their marriage needed was another setback when he felt like they were finally getting to the point where they got along well enough to never repeat past sins of their ancestors. Making things right with the rest of the world and changing the tainted reputation of the Fire Nation was all he wanted. That and for Katara to fall in love with him the same way he was falling in love with her.

He wasn't sure when it had happened but he realized that he was falling in love with Katara. Ever since his mother had left he'd always ached for love. He longed for it more than he had longed for anything else in his life, but love always seemed to be the one thing that was unattainable to him. Then Katara came into his life and she was unlike anyone he had ever known. Her compassion and openness left him vulnerable to emotions that he'd always been scared of feeling. He was a walking contradiction. He wanted to be love and he wanted to fall in love, but the moment someone came along that could offer him both of those things he fought and fought and fought against letting love in. To be in love and then have that love taken away was worse than not having love at all, but somewhere along the line Katara had broken through his defenses and found her way right into his heart, and now that she was there he didn't want to let her go. If his uncle were here he would tell Zuko to never let her go. His uncle would say it was better to have loved and lost. His uncle was a believer in following your heart even if it meant your heart might break.

"Well uncle I followed my heart and it got us stranded in the middle of the Mo Ce sea." He sighed. "I suppose you think I've messed things up, but if I had to do it again I'd make the same decision."

He had married Katara in order to help the South stay liberated from the North, but he'd also married her to help repair the Fire Nation's, putting it mildly, damaged reputation. Getting married in front of the world while the war in the South still waged on wasn't the way to do that. Neither was having an opulent wedding when the Fire Nation needed money and the Southern Water Tribe needed supplies. It would do little to endear them to either side. What he had to do was show the world that the Fire Nation had changed and words weren't good enough the world needed to see that he backed his words up with his actions. Fighting for the South was one of the ways to show the world that his country was truly making amends. It would also show the world that they could be allies with other nations once again.

Another positive to being lost out at sea was that he'd come to his own decisions without having to weigh the input of sycophants or saboteurs. When Katara woke up he would naturally run his ideas by her but he didn't fear her input as she was neither a sycophant or a saboteur. She was never at a loss to tell him how she felt about any given situation and it was one of the things that he liked best about her, but after seeing her bloodbend he realized that there was still a whole lot that he didn't know about her, and that was another motive for him to go to the South Pole. The South Pole had made Katara who she was. It was hard not to be yourself when you had a family that loved and adored you like Katara's did. It only took a few meetings with her father to see that he thought the world of his daughter. When ever he spoke to her the pride he felt for her always showed on his face.

Zuko was a part of her family now but he wasn't family. He wasn't even sure if he knew what the meaning of family was. Now the idea of going to the South Pole seemed lonely. He wondered if Katara had a favorite thing about him. If he had to pick a favorite thing about himself he didn't know what that would be. His mother had said one of the things she loved about him was that he was someone who kept fighting, but right now he wasn't fighting hard enough. He shot a few fire blast into the sky.

"What's going on!" Katara cried popping up from the submersible hatch's opening like a jack in the box.

"It's O.K. I was just sending up signals in case there's anyone out there searching for us."

"Oh, good idea."

"So have you decided where you want to go next?" Zuko asked.

Katara opened her mouth to answer him but was drown out by the loud blast of a ship's horn.

"We've been saved!" Katara cried. "The Fire Nation found us!"

"That's not a Fire Nation ship." Zuko said.

"Well it isn't a Water Tribe ship either. Who could it be?"

"It's from the Earth Kingdom, and I know who that ship belongs to."

"Friend or foe?"

"It's a Friend." Zuko said. "See the flying boar on the ship? That's the symbol of the Beifong family they're the richest family in the Earth Kingdom and that ship belongs to Lao Beifong."