Chapter 8: awakening


Zuko sees something like an octo-squid leaning over him. His eyes are convex and azure blue. An octo-squid moves with dozens of tentacles, squirming like a ball of snakes. The tentacles begin to creep on his body; over his chest, down his legs, and around his feet. They are cold and wet like water and it disgusts him even more.

Voices are heard somewhere far away. "What is his condition now?"

And a female voice responses even quieter. "Still has a fever. Hallucinating all the time."

Zuko hears loud footsteps, then feels a refreshing coolness. The flame burns inside him. He tries to open his eyes, but fails. Feels the irregular beating of his heart. Hears some voices again. The octo-squid disappears. Zuko feels as someone's fingers touch him above his wrist. Tries to open his eyes, but his eyelids are so heavy that there is no strength. Why is it so hot?

But again, people are talking somewhere. He tries to open his eyes again. The fire is still burning inside. Drink... how he wants to drink! He will get up now, get a drink. But why doesn't he get up? He just wants to move, but his body feels strange, disobedient. As if not his own.

Someone is approaching him. Isn't the octo-squid sneaking up again? Here he is, here is the blue color of his eyes.

"Sokka, bring him some clean water." Whose name is it? Zuko tries to remember, but sinks into the darkness. Drifts out of there and remembers–wants to drink.

"I think he's waking up."

And the clearer, closer, a gentle voice asks. "Zuko, do you want to drink?"

He tries to open his eyelids for the third time and finally succeeds. Through the narrow slits of the eyes, the first thing he sees is a burning ball above his head, but it's surrounded by some darkness. That darkness leans towards him. The lips feel the hard edge of the glass and the refreshing moisture. The fire inside goes out, so Zuko whispers. "I'm good... now."

"Can you see me?"

It's that darkness standing by him. And before he falls asleep, he manages to respond. "I can... hear you."

"Who could have said he would survive? And he really did." Katara's voice relieves.

"Good to know." Aang smiles.


Katara has been sitting by Zuko's bed for a while now, waiting for his condition to change. He woke up yesterday and asked for a drink, but now he sank into a coma again as if he hadn't woken up at all. His body is not moving, it's still strange for her to see him completely helpless, he looks so harmless, but she is ready, she knows that he is an enemy, he can attack at any chance, without thanking her for help and care. But it doesn't matter to her how he reacts, she's ready for anything, even somewhere, deep down inside, she tries to believe he will thank her one way or another.

And only after two weeks his condition finally starts to change. Katara's blue eyes doesn't move away from Zuko for a minute when his eyelids start to twitch. She observes the changes in his face, knows he can wake up at any moment, but doesn't know if his eyes will be able or ready to see. The day Toph brought him here, his eyes were full of dirt and obviously infected. She did everything she could to clean them, used her healing abilities, and kept his head bandaged for a while. But it doesn't make sense to keep the bandage anymore, his eyes are clean and healed now.

Not to mention his broken bones. Although Zuko was and probably is still her enemy, Katara can't imagine anyone who could have treated him so terribly. An enemy or not an enemy, no man on earth deserves to be tortured. Even though, a scar on his face shows that Zuko is probably already used to it and probably deserves it. Still... no one can get used to wounds or scars, how could he? After all, he is human just like everyone else.

"I wonder..." Katara mechanically, as if without understanding why, raises her hand to Zuko, directly above his face, on the side where the scar is burned. Her fingers tremble a little as she approaches, just a millimeter away from touching it...

"Try it again and I'll cut your throat open."

The girl's hand suddenly withdraws, as if burned by fire. "Oh, you are awake now?"

"How does it look like to you? Octo-squid girl."

"EXCUSE ME?!" Katara rises abruptly from the floor, her face flushes with anger. How can he do that? She helped him recover, and he allows himself to insult her like that?

"I hated it." He speaks in a raspy voice. "When you stood in front of me with those wet things creeping on me, you looked like an octo-squid."

"Are you still halucinating?" She puts her hands on her hips, examining him, until she finally realizes what he meant and her face tuns even redder. "It's my water whips, I tried to heal you, idiot!"

"Well, your healing session doesn't feel that pleasant. But what do you expect from me? I hate water, I am a man of fire."

"A man? I can't see any men here." She mocks him. "Also, you can't cut my throat open, because your hands are broken. And I took your knife, just in case if you feel better and try to attack me or my friends."

"It's a gift from my Uncle! Give it back, NOW!" Zuko's face fills with rage and he jumps incredibly fast on his feet. However, his condition is still not fit to move. As soon as he rises, his vision darkens, skin becomes cold and covered with sweat. He closes his eyes tightly and gasps. His legs are shaking uncontrollably, knees twitching. The boy writhes as if some invisible weight is pulling him down, trying to prevent his body from rising off the ground.

Katara approaches him and helps him sit down, her hand finds itself on his back and holds him until the girl lays his head back on the pillow. Zuko doesn't resist, his breathing is frequent and unstable. Katara looks at him with cautious concern and doesn't know if she should feel sorry for him or be scared.

"You don't need to steal my knife, I can firebend at you whenever I want when I recover." He says when he gets better and his vision brightens.

"Are you so ungrateful that you can raise your hand against the one who heals you?"

"No. But you are not my friend." He speaks in a cold voice. "I didn't ask you to heal me."

"But you didn't want to die either, did you?"

Zuko is unsurprisingly sullen. He doesn't even know what he wanted that night when he had to split up with his Uncle. All the images emerge in front of his eyes; how he came out of the hut when he heard a suspicious sound, then fought with the earthbender, and later was surrounded by more benders and they crushed his hands. And then nothing. As if his consciousness darkened. He doesn't remember much about how he managed to escape the earthbenders and where his Uncle might have disappeared. Nothing, as if his memory had been erased.

Katara doesn't know what that silence means, she doesn't know if Zuko wants to answer, that silence scares her and sows the thought in her mind that he might... have told the truth when he begged for death in his torturous hallucinations. But at this point, she tries to believe that it was just the effects of his condition, and nothing more.

"I didn't steal your knife, I'll give it back when you recover." She states and rises from the floor. "I'm going to tell my friends you are awake. Then we will figure out what to do next."

She stands up and cleans the dust off her tunic. Zuko watches her intently and thinks about something, but she doesn't see it, walking through the door. The Prince is left alone, surrounded by complete silence. He looks around, only now trying to figure out where they are. Musty wooden walls are around him, the room is almost empty, only a small table with a lighted candle stands next to his bed. He raises his hands in front of his face, wondering if he can bend the fire properly. His hands are neatly bandaged, probably Katara's water was unable to heal such injuries in one day or couldn't at all. He still clearly remembers the boulders crushing his bones, it will probably take a long time for him to fully recover, but he doesn't want to wait. He needs to go. He doesn't care about the Avatar now.

He needs to find his Uncle.


As soon as Katara opens the door to the room next to Zuko's, everyone's eyes turn at her, only Toph sits at the table without lifting her head, clearly bored.

"I checked up on Zuko." The Waterbender says. "He just woke up."

"And what does it mean?" Sokka responds. "Is it time for us to run away because that ponytailed creep is going to zap us?"

"I don't think he's a threat to us, yet." She explains in a quiet and tired voice. It's already very late, black circles are under her eyes from the lack of sleep. She covers herself with her hands as if trying to hide from the cold that gets through a cracked window. It's pitch black outside, heavy rain pouring on the porch is the only sound for a while. "He's still very weak, couldn't lift a mosquito-fly."

"What did he tell you?" Aang gets up from the chair and goes to her, interested. His face looks unquiet.

"Nothing in particular. We didn't talk much, he is too tired."

"You're also tired, better get some sleep for a few hours. You're staying at his bed until midnight all the time, I'm worried about you."

"Yeah." Sokka agrees. "You don't have to be the only one on watch if he decides to attack us."

"I know, but... it's not just that..." Katara speaks with doubt in her voice, not knowing how to explain her feelings.

"And what is it then?"

Katara is standing at the door and doesn't know how to explain. Images appear in her mind, like the day Toph brought Zuko and she had to heal him... She felt disgust that she had to treat her enemy, and he was so helpless, and so close... she could even... murder him so they could travel much safer. She could do it secretly and just state he didn't make it. Such a selfish thought had certainly plagued her head for like an hour while Zuko was unconscious.

But then Zuko himself begged to end all his suffering...

Wanted her to end him...

And she felt guilty, angry at herself, she didn't want him to die, and that's why tried her best to heal his wounds and find out who was torturing him so terribly. It wasn't just a wound, was it? It was something more, and it probably still is. How could she have thought of such a horrible thing? How could she have wanted him to just... die? It's not her nature, she never turns her back on those who need her help, even if it's her enemies. He doesn't deserve to die. No one deserves to die... She can't murder a man just because he wants it, she has to help him get out of where he's trapped in. Even if she still doesn't know if it was just hallucinations. She must to find out.

"What is it, Katara?" Aang asks with concern, but she still doesn't respond. "Hey, snap out of it."

She shakes her head, driving her thoughts away. "Wha– what?"

"I just asked you about Zuko. Will he survive?"

"Yeah... yeah, sure. He just needs more time to recover, that's all."

"Spill it out, Sweetness, you are hiding something, I can tell." Toph states, still sitting at the table in the darker corner of the room.

"Well... Maybe it sounds weird because he's our enemy, I'm worried about Zuko more than I thought I would." Katara admits, knowing she can't lie because Toph knows all the time if someone is hiding the truth. Sometimes that ability annoyed the young Waterbender, she wanted to delve deeper into Zuko's situation alone, to make sure she worried about him for a good reason.

"We are all worried." Toph emerges from a dark corner and goes to her friends. "No matter if he attacks us or not."

"And I think we just need some rest." Aang yawns. "We can talk about it in the morning."

"Yeah, good idea, Aang!" Sokka agrees, taking his bedroll and placing it on the wooden floor. "Sweet dreams, I'm coming!"

Toph's hand reaches for the door knob. "Whatever, I'm going to watch on Zuko tonight."

"Don't overdo it, when you want to sleep you can wake me up." Katara reminds.

"Sure, don't make a fuss." The little Earthbender leaves the room almost without a sound and walks down the hallway to Zuko's door. But before reaching it, she realizes she doesn't feel any existence. To make sure of her senses, she stumbles scared at the door, thinking he might have died. And when she opens it, there's nothing in the room. It's empty.

Zuko is gone.


To be continued...