Chapter Four: Father?

It was the middle of the night. Katara was now 15 years old. She lay in her bed sweating. She was mumbling nonsense as she smiled happily. She was having another dream.

Katara's Dream:

Katara was once again standing in a steel room. This one was different though. It looked like a ball room. There was red and black confetti scattered across the floor and there were balloons floating around. Katara heard a familiar voice and jumped around to face her visitor. "Hello again, Katara." He said. It was the man again. She gulped. Her father.

She stared at him for a moment before reluctantly answering him. "H-Hello." She strained her eyes to see his face. Although as much as she tried, the shadows were far too thick which made it impossible to see his features.

The man reached out to her but stopped and put his hand back down to his side. "Come to me, my daughter. Come see what you are. You need to learn. If not…" He stopped himself. Katara watched as he turned his head to the door at the far side of the room. The door opened slowly and her mother walked in. Katara's face brightened as a smile spread across her face. Her mother walked over to her and stood just a few inches in front of Katara. "It is time. You are 15, you are of age. Now, you will learn the truth. Her mother stepped towards her and put her hand on Katara's forehead. Katara gasped and she gripped her eyes tightly shut. There was a long silence and Katara slowly opened her eyes again.

Her eyes shot wide open and stared at what lay before her.

It was her mother standing before her. But she looked younger…much younger. There was a man facing away from her. She couldn't see the man's face. He was putting on armor. Katara gasped. It was the Fire Nation's armor. Sokka sat next to her mother and in her mother's arms was…Katara. As a baby. She lay sleeping silently, looking completely peaceful. The man walked over to them. He leaned down and kissed her mother and then down and kissed Katara on her forehead. He bent down to his knees and took something out of his pocket. Katara gasped. He reached over Katara's head and wrapped a necklace around the baby's neck. At the end of the silver chain hung a blue stone. Katara glanced down to look at her one. The chain was different, but the stone was the same. Katara watched as the man turned and left.

There was a sudden flash of light. When Katara opened her eyes again she noticed that her surroundings were different. She watched.

There was her mother again. She was older now. So were the playful Sokka and the giggling Katara playing in the snow. Suddenly there was a loud clunk. They all froze and looked behind them. There, right before them, was a Fire Nation ship. Her mother jumped to her feet and grabbed Katara. She held her close to herself. The door to the ship opened and out came…Admiral Zhao. "Where is the girl?" He roared. His gaze rested on the wide eyed Katara in her mother's arms. Zhao walked towards them. "Give her to me!" He roared. Katara watched as her mother tightened her grip around the little girl.

"No. You will not do anything to her. Please. She doesn't know anything. She hasn't a clue what she can—" She was cut short.

Zhao swung out his hand and slapped her mother across the face. "Give me that…abomination. That…disgusting mistake."

"There is nothing wrong with her! She won't even begin to change to she is of age." Her mother shook her head as she glared at Zhao.

"Two benders cannot have a baby! It is not meant to be that way. At least not for water benders and fire benders. They are opposites. It is not meant to be to have both bending skills at once!" Zhao glared at the little Katara and reached out to grab her.

Her mother backed away. "N-no. I see what you're doing. You don't want to kill her. You want to use her. You know she'll be a threat to you. If she learns both skills, you know she could possibly beat you. Y-you just want her for yourself! She is just a child, not some tool for your idiotic war!"

Zhao had had enough of this. "Give me the child now."

Her mother put the girl down on the snowy ground. She glanced to Sokka. "Sokka, go back to the tent. Take Katara with you." Sokka walked over to the little Katara. Katara screamed no. Sokka rolled his eyes and grabbed her. He dragged her into the tent and shut the door. After making sure that they were both inside the tent, her mother turned back to face Zhao.

"That was not a very good choice, water peasant." Zhao pulled his hand out from behind his back. His hand was aflame. Just then, Katara and Sokka poked their heads out of the door to see what was going on. "Her father really is a great man. He's a very good fighter. It's sad how he has to be the father of such a disgrace and in love with such an idiot." With that, he punched out at her mother. Sokka and Katara screamed as they both sat and watched their mother be engulfed in flames. Katara tried to run out but Sokka grabbed her. He shook his head in disagreement. The little Katara shut her eyes and Sokka's eyes were bloodshot as tears streamed down his cheeks. When Katara opened her eyes, again, there was a pile of ashes drifting away in the wind as the Fire Nation ship pulled out and began to float away from view.

There was another flash of light.

Katara was now standing on a deck of a ship. A Fire Nation ship. Now her father was the only one who was standing there. "Now you know. You know what you are, and why you are not safe from Zhao. You must come to me. The think with fire bending is, if you don't find a way to release it, it can consume you from the inside. You must find me, and soon, before the fire that runs within your veins kills you. Before it burns you from the inside."

Katara hesitated before she said, "Father?" Yes, father. She knew it now. It really was him. He looked at her curiously and waited for her to continue. "I don't know where you are. I don't know if you noticed, but I'm not exactly friends with the fire benders."

He smiled. "This might be hard to understand, and even harder to do…but…" He didn't finish. He figured he'd just let her see. The shadows on the deck disappeared. Katara's eyes went wide. All around soldiers were running around. But the one that stood out the most caught her attention. Zuko.

"You are on Zuko's ship! You are on his crew?" Her face turned red with anger. How could she meet her father if the only way to see him was to go on to her enemy's ship.

"All you have to do is stop running. Just stay in one spot. We are already close. Once we catch up, I will be on the crew to come down to the land. I will meet you at the shore."

Katara hesitated. It took all of her might not to blow up in anger at her father. She took a deep breath and nodded. "Okay…I will be there." Her father smiled at her with pride at what an amazing girl she'd grown to be.

End of Katara's Dream

Katara sat up in her sleeping bag. Her face was no longer sweaty but her face was red with anger. Anger at Zhao. He'd killed her mother. Then another thought overtook her. What was she going to do about her father? How was she going to tell Aang and Sokka that she was just going to leave them, go onto their enemy's ship, and meet her long lost dad, or else she'd die because of the fire within her. She chuckled at the how strange it all sounded when you put all the information together. After her dream she couldn't go back to sleep. She heard a little bit of grunting from Sokka's tent next to her. She listened intently to what he was mumbling about. "No! Momo, give me back that fish." He grumbled a little more. "Ahhh! Momo, run! The fish are coming for us! AHHH!" Katara covered her mouth with her hand and immediately began cracking up. After a while, Sokka stopped mumbling and Katara grew bored. So she sat thinking for the next two hours until Sokka and Aang finally woke up. She could hear them rustling around outside the tents. She yawned and stepped out of her tent. She yawned again as she stretched out her aching muscles. She circulated her wrists to regain their feelings and moved her legs around. She'd been sitting there in her tent for far too long.

Sokka and Aang glanced over to Katara. Aang was the first one to speak. "Hey Katara! Want some breakfast?"

Katara smiled and nodded. She glanced over to Sokka. He sat there with his bottom lip puckered out and continued to make small 'hmph' noises. "What's wrong with you, Sokka?"

Sokka stood up. "What's wrong with me? You wanna know what's wrong with me?" His nose flared and his cheeks were red with fury.

Katara looked at him as if she thought he was the stupidest guy in the world. "Well, if I didn't want to know, do you think I would've just asked you? Geez, Sokka." She rolled her eyes.

Sokka jumped up. "You always get the good stuff. You get the pretty necklace. Then you get water bending. And THEN you get fire bending, as if one bending skill didn't already make you enough of a freak. And on top of all that, Momo took my fish!" Momo clicked his tongue. Katara looked over to him to see that he was holding a fish and cradling it to himself like it was his treasure. Katara laughed.

Aang walked over to her and handed her some fried fish. "There you go, Katara." He watched her for a moment before turning around to fry the rest of the fish over a fire that was quickly dying down.

Katara looked at her fish in disgust. All they'd eaten was fish since they'd left the water tribe. Except for a few good meals every once and a while. She gulped down her thoughts of nausea and looked over to Aang. "Um, thanks Aang." She sighed and took a bite of her fish, chewing it like as if she was eating a fat juicy spider. God, I hate fish, Katara thought.

Sokka watched her eat with jealousy. He stood up and leaned against the tree. "Yah, well just made sure that elephant-ears over there doesn't steal it from you." He said while pointing to Momo. Momo squeaked angrily and jumped over to Sokka. He looked at him for a moment and tilted his head to the side. He stuck his tongue out and then whacked Sokka on his shin with the fish. Immediately he jumped away and pounced off towards the trees.

After they'd all eaten Katara looked uncomfortably at her hands. She thought back to her dream and decided to announce what she had to do. "Um, you guys? Can we talk?"

Aang and Sokka glanced at each other and walked over to Katara. They all sat down in a circle. Katara took a deep breath. "I-I have to leave you guys. I need to see my father."

Sokka paused for a moment. He knew this was coming. He braced himself for Aang's reaction. He knew that the outcome of Aang's actions would tear Katara apart.

But to his surprise, Aang did or said nothing.

Katara continued. "I had a dream. I need to go and meet my father. He said that if I don't release the fire within me, I could die. That the fire inside me would consume me. I need to go with him so that I can learn fire bending." She blinked a few times and looked at them.

Aang smiled. "That's great! I can go with you and we can both learn fire bending together."

Katara closed her eyes and shook her head. "No, Aang. You can't come. I'm sorry. But you just can't."

Aang looked at her with a confused look pasted on his face. "W-why can't I come with you? I mean, obviously your father is a fire bender, but just because he's Fire Nation, he could still help me. Not all Fire Nation are bad. I'm sure he wouldn't mind if I was there with you."

Katara thought about what he said. "Not all Fire Nation are bad." She would have to remember that when she meets her father. Katara looked down before saying what she knew he was going to hate. "You can't come because…because my father lives on a Fire Nation ship…" She paused for a second. "Prince Zuko's ship, to be exact."

Aang jumped up. "WHAT? You're leaving us to go be on a ship with Zuko? Katara look, I have no disrespect for your father. I mean, from what Sokka's told me, he sounds like a great guy. But you can't go to Zuko's ship. Need I remind you that he has been chasing us since we left your home? That he is the son of the man that killed your mother. The Fire Lord."

Katara also jumped up. "THE FIRE LORD DID NOT KILL MY FATHER! It was that bastard, Zhao!"

Sokka also stood to his feet. He was about to try and calm things down when Katara swung around, "Stay out of this!" Sokka stared at her and his eyes widened. Her eyes were changing. The gold in them were now glittering, shining, reflecting off her own anger. She closed her eyes and relaxed. 'I'm sorry Aang. But I need to go. It's the only way I can learn to fire bend. I highly doubt there are other fire masters out there that would be willing to teach a water tribe girl."

Aang looked at her, his face going from anger to sadness. "Katara. Please don't. We can find someone else. I promise. After all, I still need to learn fire bending too. Just wait. We can do it together."

Katara stared at him. "I have to learn soon. I told you what my father said. If I don't learn soon, I could die. Is that really what you want to happen? Do you want me to die?"

Aang shut his eyes and shook his head. When he looked back up at her his eyes were watering and his bottom lip was quivering. The face reminded her of the way he'd looked when she'd yelled at him about water bending back at the water fall. He stared at her for a moment. He took a step forward and wrapped his arms around her. She smiled slightly and returned the warm embrace. "I'm sorry, Aang. It has to be this way."

Immediately he pulled away. He glanced at Sokka. Sokka reluctantly nodded to Aang and looked back to Katara. Aang also looked to Katara. "Go." He said. "I want you to go, and to learn." He forced a phony smile. "Maybe when you return, you could help teach me how to fire bend." Katara took a step towards him to apologize. His smile turned to a frown. "Go!" He yelled. He had said that harsher than he'd meant it. He ran a few steps off and jumped onto his glider. He looked back, jumped up, and within seconds was floating high above the trees.

Sokka watched Aang fly away. He knew he would be back. Sokka cautiously turned his gaze to Katara. He braced himself. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, he counted down in his head. Just as he got to 0 Katara burst into tears. Sokka walked over to her side and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Come on now. He hadn't meant to be mean. He was just sad. Besides, you're still a water bender, remember? You're going to need all the water you can get, so stop wasting it all."

Katara looked up at him. She shoved him away. She looked at the puzzled face he was wearing and began to giggle. She stopped laughing after a few moments. "I know. I just…don't like to see him sad. Especially not if I had anything to do with it."

Sokka frowned. "It wasn't your fault. This was a choice that you had to make. If not, you would die. It's just going to take Aang a little longer to fully understand that."

A few more tears fell down Katara's cheeks and soon they all disappeared. She gave Sokka a reassuring smile. Sokka smiled back. "So, where do I need to take you? I'm guessing you had somewhere in mind to meet your father, right?"

Katara nodded. "I need to meet him by the beach when they arrive."

Sokka thought for a moment. "Well how are they going to find us?" He thought for a few more seconds and his face brightened up. "I have an idea." As he began to pick up a few fruits lying on the ground, he told Katara what he was going to do. The last few sentences were hard for Katara to understand because his mouth was already stuffed with fruit. Basically, he was going to get on Appa and fly towards Zuko's ship. He was going to keep a safe distance, act alarmed, and turn back to the island, which would lead them straight to Katara. Katara nodded in agreement. Her heart began to race; she was going to meet her father. But she couldn't help regretting this whole thing. What was Zuko going to do when he found out that she belongs to one of his soldiers?

Prince Zuko was out on the deck of his ship. He could hear his uncle's laughter behind him as he won yet another game with some of the other crew members. His face grew contorted with annoyance. He stared out at the sea when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around to come with face to face with his uncle. A smile grew across the old man's face. "Prince Zuko, why have you been so quiet lately?"

Zuko looked at his uncle with frustration. "I haven't been quiet lately. You've just been to busy with your games. Why do you insist on playing games when we are so close to getting the Avatar?"

Iroh laughed. "All work and no play can make a fire bender a dull boy."

Zuko raised an eyebrow. "Where did you hear that proverb? That doesn't sound like your usual advice."

Iroh smiled, "I do not know. It just seemed like an appropriate thing to say at the moment." He shook his head and was about to turn away when he thought of something. "Would you like some tea? When we stopped off at that last market, I was able to buy more ginseng tea. It helps calm the nerves, you know."

The prince frowned. He thrust his arms down to his sides and fire spewed from his knuckles. "Uncle! I do not want your tea. I have no nerves to calm, and I never will, so stop asking!"

The old man laughed while walking away to continue his game with some more members of the crew.

The prince shook his head and looked out to the sea when something caught his attention. He squinted his eyes and saw something flying towards him. Was that a bird? No, it wasn't a bird. As it grew closer, his eyes widened in realization. It was the flying bison coming towards them. "The Avatar." He whispered. Suddenly, the bison stopped and turned around. Prince Zuko looked and noticed that he was heading towards an island. And the island was close to them. "Uncle! Turn the ship. Go to that island. The Avatar is heading there." The prince ran to his room and put on his armor.

After a few minutes, Sokka and Appa landed back on the shores of the island. He jumped off quickly and ran to camp. Appa slowly followed the trail to their camp. Katara was sitting there, waiting. Sokka ran to his tent and began taking it down. Katara jumped up. "What are you doing? You're leaving?"

Sokka continued to pack his and then Aang's things and loading them onto Appa's saddle. After everything was packed he turned to Katara. "I have to go. The prince's ship is on its way here. They should be here within 5 minutes. I need to take out things and leave. Look, Katara, I don't want to leave you, but I have to. It's the only way they can believe that you're harmless. Go to the beach and meet your father there. After that, I'm sure Zuko's soldiers will come to look around the island. When they find that only your things are here, tell them we left you. Tell them that we hated what you were and abandoned you. You can play along from there." He watched Katara's eyes widen as she began to realize what he was really saying. He stepped over to her and hugged her. He rested his head on her shoulder and tears streamed down his cheeks. "I am so sorry Katara. Just promise me that you understand. We are not abandoning you, we are helping you."

After a few seconds he pulled away from her. Her face was wet with tears. "I promise. I promise I understand. I don't want to…but I do."

Sokka forced a smile. He turned to get on to Appa. He hesitated. Katara smiled. She thought that maybe he was changing his mind. To her surprise, he wasn't. He turned and ran over to the pile of fruits. He picked up two and cradled them in his arms like they were his babies. He kissed Katara on her forehead and then climbed onto Appa's back. He couldn't fly, or the prince would see him. So he and Appa took off, walking to the other side of the island.

"Finally. I thought we'd never get here." Prince Zuko muttered. He turned to his crew and yelled, "Next time, I expect for you people to work harder and faster." He rolled his eyes and turned towards the bridge which was being opened up and spread across to land. He and a few other crew members got off the ship and began walking across the sand. Today, I will catch the Avatar, Zuko thought to himself. Little did he know that the Avatar was far away from this island already, on the back of Appa who was skimming along the water on the other side of the island. He waved for his soldiers to follow him. Katara sat a ways off, hiding in the bushes, watching them. Suddenly, one of the men peeled away from the rest of the group and walked away from them, past Katara. Katara's chest tightened with nervousness. She immediately recognized the man from her dream. The man stopped at the water and sat down, waiting. Katara's hands were sweaty and her throat was dry. She walked up behind the man and hesitated. "Father?" She asked.

The man turned around in shock. His face relaxed and his smiled. My, how she'd grown. "Katara…" He said in a whisper. Katara, he repeated in his head.

I'm so sorry you guys. I told you guys that I was going to post this either last night or early this morning. And here I am submitting it at 7. Ah well, at least it's still on the same day that I promised.

Well, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. I worked hard on it. Please R&R! Also, I'd be more than happy for and ideas that you guys have to offer. Thank you so far to all those who have reviewed. Your comments are very inspiring.

My stupid laptop crashed last night. And it's the onlycomputer that my story is saved on. I was freaking out. I finally took the freaking peice of crap apart, put it back together, and wala, here I am posting my next chapter.

Also, the girl who thought I was copying her story now says that she was wrong. Not only that, but she loves my fanfic! Score for me!

Next Chapter: Prince Zuko, Just Give Her A Chance