Category: Avatar: Last Airbender
Author: RedNovember
Title: The Hunter and the Prey
Pairing: Zuko/Katara
Genre: Romance/Action
Rating: T (PG-13) for now, but if I have to up it to M (or R) I will.
A/N: This chapter was written to the melodious tunes of Gwen Stefani, the Black-Eyed Peas, Matchbox 20, Garbage, and several other inspirational artists. Plus a few traditional Disney songs. Thank you very much.
Disclaimer: I realized I forgot this part in my earlier chapters. I do not own any part of this wonderful series. The fanfiction written, the plot contained and any original characters I might write (planning on a couple) I do own.


Chapter 3: The Fire Nation Fleet

A full 30 minutes (but what felt like 10 days) after Zuko had left, Katara sat bound in her chair, shifting uncomfortably and hoping that for her next 10 birthdays, everyone would get her chambers pots, all sorts in all different sizes so she would never have to be without one.

A servant soon arrived accompanied by the two guards to release her and give her (Thank the heavens!) a chamber pot and a small tray of food. In truth, Katara was quite flattered that they had sent two soldiers along with the servant, for it meant that they thought of her as enough of a danger to spend manpower on protecting a lowly servant from her. Either that or they were trying to threaten her. She much preferred the first explanation.

After releasing her bladder, a much-relieved Katara ate her sparse dinner, comprised of regular bread, water, and one measly orange.

The dinner was the last of her entertainment. Beyond that, she had no idea what to do aside from the customary sleeping. The next time the servant arrived again to collect her chamber pot (poor man) and the remains of her dinner, she made a point to raise her voice loud enough that the guards outside would hear her.

"I really need to see the Prince." She demanded, with an edge of a whine in her voice.

Mutterings ensued outside her door, and a gruff voice answered her. "His Majesty said you weren't to leave the room."

"But I really need to talk to him. I have some vital information he needs to hear."

"…No."

She was growing desperate, desperate enough to stand seeing Zuko again just to get out of this stuffy room. "He'll be upset later if he finds out you wouldn't let me talk to him. He'll be pissed off that you kept some important information about the Avatar from him."

The guards certainly weren't stupid, but everybody had seen what happened the last time a soldier got in the way of Prince Zuko trying to capture the Avatar. No one had seen the poor soldier since. It was enough to plant suspicion and a bit of fear in any Fire soldier's heart.

After a bit more conversing, the two guards relented. Thin Moustache came inside and bound her hands behind her back. "Let's go." He muttered, shoving her forward so that she almost tripped. Katara bit back a curse, grateful she was just able to finally leave the room. The other guard joined them and pushed and prodded her up the stairs towards the bright daylight ahead.

Reaching the main deck, Katara threw her head back and inhaled a deep breath of fresh ocean air. The deck was busy with sailors and soldiers moving about, preparing cargo, unraveling rope, and generally making a big fuss. The officers of the crew continually shouted at their subordinates, each trying to out shout the other for their orders to be heard. Apparently there was something going on. The Captain, recognizable by the three golden stripes on the shoulders of his uniform, was poring anxiously over a map laid out on a table. "We agreed to meet at this rendezvous point." The first mate jabbed at a spot on the map.

"I know that," the Captain snapped, snatching the map up and rolling it into a tube. "But I don't see the main fleet anywhere on the horizon."

Before Katara could catch anymore of this conversation, a hand descended on her shoulder and whirled her around to face an angry Prince Zuko.

"What are you doing up here?" He demanded, eyes flashing. He looked over her shoulder at the guards standing nervously behind her, and rephrased his question. "What is she doing up here?"

"Well… uh, she said she had something important to tell you, sir." Thin Moustache stammered nervously, his partner nodding his frantically. "Something real important."

"Ah. I understand." His eyes pinned Katara down again. "And what might this real important thing happen to be?"

Katara pasted a phony smile on her face. "I need a comb for my hair."

Prince Zuko's eyes darkened, but before he could unleash his fury, a whoop and a shout from the first mate behind him took everyone's attention away from the little drama unfolding around the Water Bender prisoner. "The Main Fleet's here!" True, on the northern horizon, the first mast of a tall ship with a red flag fluttering on top had appeared.

Whatever happiness this statement was supposed to procure, it was lost as everyone on deck doubled their efforts at whatever it was they were doing. Cleaning, wrapping, carrying, pushing, shoving, shouting, and a multitude of other actions went into top speed.

The Captain rushed up behind the Prince, wiping his sweaty forehead with a handkerchief, evidently relieved at his first mate's news. "The Main Fleet's here, my Prince!" he said breathlessly, tugging on Prince Zuko's armor clad shoulder.

Zuko shrugged the Captain's hand away impatiently and snapped, "I know, Captain, I'm not deaf!" The Captain backed away nervously.

The Prince turned back to his previous victim. He appraised her silently. "I suppose you could stay on deck. We'll have to move you soon anyways. Just don't get in the way." He glared at her two guards. "Make sure nothing happens to her. Do you two idiots understand me?"

The aforementioned idiots nodded frantically.

The Prince continued on, golden eyes filled with fire. "Whatever happens to her, happens to you, is that clear? If she is accidentally run through with a spear, you are purposefully run through with a spear. If she accidentally falls off the side of the boat, you will purposefully fall off the side of the boat." He gave them all one last angry glare before whirling around to listen to the Captain jabber information nervously in his ear.

Katara shot the guards a mischievous look over her shoulder. This could be fun. But before she could think up an idea to do anything, the ship swayed to the right and she leaned her back on the railing of the deck to steady herself. "Shit!" Her hands were still tied behind her back, and she'd ended up crushing her burnt hand. She quickly withdrew from the railing and winced, cursing. Nothing she could do when her hands were tied up. The servant had brought a salve and bandages earlier this morning and helped her wrap it up. The salve helped, but the skin of her hand was still blistered and red and hurt whenever she touched it. Shooting a look over her shoulder at the cause of all her troubles, she thought that, personally, she'd just love to ram a spear through his back. He was her enemy, and he was keeping her imprisoned on his stupid ship. If that wasn't bad enough, he was luring Aang and Sokka into a trap as well.

Biting her lower lip worriedly, she wondered if her brother and friend were looking for her now. Did they know the Fire Benders had taken her? Were they searching for her right this moment? Maybe not, she conceded to herself. Appa had only had one night of rest, and that probably wasn't enough for the hardworking flying bison. The furthest they could possibly fly was maybe a few miles today. Since she'd been asleep with they left the island, Katara had no idea how far out they were from the nearest landmass. If she jumped off the side of the ship now (along with her two dim-witted guards, probably), she could swim until she drowned from exhaustion and never find land, even with her Water Bending abilities to help her.

She would have to resign herself to a few more days of captivity. Before she could get much too gloomy, she raised her head up and gasped at the sight of a dozen, maybe more, brightly painted red ships coming towards them from the North. Each ship was bigger than the last, and all had proud red flags with gold designs waving from their masts. The sails were red, the wooden bodies of the ships were made of beautiful golden-red wood, and there were a lot of them. Katara counted exactly 14, which made an average-sized fleet complete with 5 smaller scouting ships, 3 warships, 5 cargo ships, and one gigantic, ornate, proud flagship of the fleet. It was easily double the size of all the other ships, and triple the size of the ship Katara was currently on, which she surmised must be one of the smaller scouting ships.

She almost didn't notice Prince Zuko coming up next to her. "Amazing sight, isn't it?" He said, almost gently. She nodded silently, her eyes fixated on the flagship that was drawing closer and closer, throwing a shadow over the crew on the deck. "They are beautiful." She admitted.

Prince Zuko seemed to rouse himself from a stupor and gave her an arrogant glance. "Of course, this is nothing. It's barely even one tenth of the whole Fire Nation fleet." Katara was sure that if he had been anything less than a Prince, he would have turned up his nose at her and sniffed haughtily. As amusing as that image was, Zuko was still a Prince, and acted accordingly. He simple turned at her silence and left to go back to supervising the Captain and his crew.

Suddenly the fleet didn't seem so beautiful and warm anymore. The cold shadow thrown by the flagship and the warships, which were quickly drawing up close, reminded Katara that yes, this was a war fleet, and yes, this was partly why the Fire Nation was conquering the world. If Prince Zuko's words had been any indication of the true size of the Fire Nation's fleet, then no wonder the other four elements were falling beneath it. The cold metal cannons gazing threateningly out from the side of the warships made Katara turn away and sit down on a box, with her guards following along behind her.

Soon, slanted wooden planks were laid down between the flagship and the smaller scouting ships. Supplies began to move back and forth, men grunting with the load. Pulleys and ropes dangling overhead helped move larger cartons of food supplies and cannonballs from ship to ship.

Prince Zuko appeared next to her, grabbing her hands behind her back and hauling her to her feet with a terse "Let's go". Katara cried out and wrenched away from his grasp, panting at the pain in her left hand.

"What do you think you're doing?" He hissed at her. The crew had stopped to watch them. He couldn't lose face in front of his men, not being able to even keep a hold on a girl. "Is there a problem?" His scarred face fixated in an angry scowl.

"Yeah," She shot back "I'm trying to save my hand. The one that you burnt."

He gave her a cursory glance and snatched her right arm, drawing her close to him again. His grip on her arm tightened. "You'll live." He said cruelly. Jerking her forward, he made her walk in front of him towards the walkway from the smaller boat to the flagship, where Katara guessed they'd be staying.

Placing a shaky foot on the wooden plank, Katara took the first step forward. She wasn't afraid of heights (the constant flying on Appa had taken care of that) nor the ocean water below (she was a water bender) but the slope from the smaller ship up to the flagship was pretty steep, and the wooden plank was smooth without any sort of foothold. She could easily slip, hit her head, and die before she knew it. Her hands were also tied behind her back, preventing any further balance she could have achieved.

She was halfway across the gangplank now, her two guards easing up behind her, undoubtedly more nervous than she was. She could feel Prince Zuko's eyes boring into her back, making sure she didn't try anything funny.

At that moment, a crewman on the flagship lost his hold on a rope connected to a pulley, and the load of crates on the other end of the rope swung down wildly and headed directly for the plank Katara and her guards were now easing across.

Looking up, Katara's eyes widened before she screamed and the sharp corner of a crate caught her in the stomach and swept her off the plank. She splashed into cool, salty water some 20 feet below the gangplank high in the air, and struggled to get back to the surface with her bound hands. She distantly heard two other resounding splashes, which were most likely her guards. Whether they'd fallen in from the crates as well, or Prince Zuko had them pushed in, she didn't know, and frankly didn't care. Stopping her natural instinct to struggle, she focused on building enough energy to summon a wave strong enough to shoot her back up onto the flagship's deck. Just as she almost had it, a third splash shook the water next to her, and even before she saw his eyes, she knew it was Prince Zuko. He grabbed her hard around the waist, and they were immediately tugged out of the water by a long rope connected to the Zuko's waist. They were hauled up fairly fast by the crewmen (this was their Prince after all) and the two were pulled over the railing of the flagship and tumbled to rest on the deck, panting and dripping wet.

"Why… wh-why did you jump in, moron?" Katara coughed and glared at Zuko.

He looked surprised, probably because he thought his efforts should have been more appreciated. "To save you, of course!"

Staggering up, Katara swung her wet hair out of her face. "In case you didn't notice already, your majesty," she said scathingly, "I am a Water Bender. Which means I can swim. Unlike your two soldiers in there." She tossed her head at the guards yelling and screaming for help from their crewmates.

"Your hands are tied behind your back. You couldn't swim like that." He hissed, stomping over and grabbing hold of her arm, yanking her away from the staring sailors and soldiers on deck. He dragged her all the way down a single flight of stairs and through an ornately carved door where he threw her on the floor.

She glared at him. He glared at her.

"I except that if your precious fucking Avatar had jumped into the water to save you, you'd be much more appreciative of him than a shoddy rescue attempt from me, a mere Prince of the Fire Nation." He glared down at her, water dripping from his single ponytail

Katara ignored the jibe about her "precious Avatar". "It was your choice to rescue me." She said calmly. "I am perfectly at home in the water. I could have easily summoned a wave to bring me back onto the ship safely. Which was what I was planning to do before you jumped in and screwed everything up!" Her tirade ended in a scream.

He scoffed, a sarcastic look twisting his mouth. "Like I'm supposed to believe that? Were you just going to jump back onto your captor's ship like a good little prisoner? You would have gone shooting off to who-knows-where, looking for that fucking Avatar and your brother, that puny excuse for a warrior." His eyes narrowed. "And if you are so at home in the water, you probably orchestrated that whole rope breaking so you could make it look like an accident that you fell into the water!" He loomed over her, staring her straight in the face. "Don't think I didn't see right through your stupid little plan."

Before she could wonder why he felt the need to add a swear word before "Avatar" every time he said it, or get mad at him for calling her brother a "puny excuse for a warrior" or deny that she would ever make up a plan as stupid as the one he'd accused her of, he had stood up abruptly and kept his eyes trained out the window, picking distastefully at his heavy armor, dripping with saltwater.

"I hate this fucking ocean." He stated without any emotion, and left the room, slamming the door behind him and locking it securely with what sounded like 4 separate padlocks on the outside of the door.


A/N: In a rare turn of events, I did not have any homework tonight, so that means two chapters! I'm getting excited about this story (maybe just a bit obsessed) but that's a good thing for the readers, yes? Thanks for all the helpful comments. I really did read them and think about the constructive criticism. Now, the usual: read and review!