Chapter 3: Gauntlet

Just when she thought she couldn't stand one more moment in that room with those officers, a third black-clad Elite swaggered in through the open door. He exchanged some words with Ensei and San while darting quick glances over at Katara. When he finally left, Ensei turned to her with a smile.

She didn't like it.

"Time for your walk," said Ensei.

"Time for you to meet the big dogs," said San.

She rose from her seat and walked until she was just inside the open doorway.

"What's the point of this gauntlet?" she asked.

San guffawed as Ensei looked at her with a friendly gaze that wasn't friendly at all.

"The point? Stay alive." He said.

Katara stared at him. "Just… stay alive?"

Ensei nudged San. "Any other tips, Corporal?"

With a straight face, San said, "Nope. Survival's pretty much it."

"Leave your bag here," Ensei said. "Don't worry, we will look through it."

They really did have big heads, these Elites. Personally, she just wanted out. She just wanted to leave this place and these smart-talking officers and go back home to Kyoshi and the warm sandy beaches.

But she stepped through that doorway, before they could physically push her out. Katara blinked in the harsh sunlight.

Two groups of Elites, maybe about a dozen total, lingered by the door. As soon as Ensei and San came out behind her, they began to group together and advance.

"Directions: You run, we chase." said Ensei easily. "Three… two…"

She lit off down the path and through the barracks complex before he'd finished counting. Katara understood now. It was going to be a gauntlet in the full sense of the word. She didn't stop to see if they were following.

Katara darted around buildings and through groups of other divisions, scattering them all.

" – Hey! Watch where you're – "

" – Fucking Elites! – "

Risking a glance behind her, she noticed that the group of Elites had grown. Other soldiers had peeled off from their various businesses and joined in the traditional chase.

Katara broke out of the Army complex and burst through the West Gate, back into the city, hoping to lose her pursuers in the large crowds. She forcefully pushed aside the people in her way, without bothering to apologize. She didn't care. She used elbows and legs and knees and teeth. There were only two ways to end this so-called gauntlet. Either she got caught, or she lost her pursuers.

She didn't want to know what would happen once she got caught.

Cries of outrage and anger from behind her told her that the Elites on her tail weren't any gentler with the crowd. By the sound of it, they were gaining. Katara tore off down a side alley and followed it until she entered another crowded main street. Shops and people and carts and produce flashed by. Her heart pounded in my chest. She continued to run through the thickest parts of the crowd, using the people as cover.

But it seemed as if word of the gauntlet had spread. As she turned the corner, she found that majority of the people there had already cleared off to the sides, in order to escape being trampled on by a group of bloodthirsty soldiers. Now the Elites had a perfect line of sight straight down the street to her.

"Shit! No! Don't leave!" she yelled out of frustration at the curious bystanders. They didn't do anything, just continued to watch. This probably happened every year, and they already knew what to expect.

Looking up, she caught sight of a slow moving cart stuck in the middle of the street. It was piled high with bright green cabbages, and apparently one of the wheels was broken.

Katara quickly darted behind the cart, peered up over at her pursuers, then ducked down again, grabbing a cabbage in each hand.

"Hey! No! You have to pay for those!" yelled the merchant.

She ignored him and popped up again, lobbing one, two, three cabbages at the running soldiers. Two hit and they stumbled. The rest charged on.

One plan having failed, she turned around, braced her back against the cart, and heaved with all her strength, much to the dismay of the cabbage man.

"NOOOO!" He wailed as his produce tumbled rapidly off the cart and into the oncoming Guards.

Katara didn't stick around to find out what happened. She disappeared down a smaller side alley, dodging trash bins and other boxes left by the inhabitants of the buildings on either side. She could see the end of the alley where she would be able to dart into the market crowds again. She was almost there.

Then something slammed into her from the side and against the hard wall of one building. The breath whooshed out of her. Seeing stars, she struggled to get up, and saw two black-clad Elites standing before her. There was an open window above them.

How did they get here before me?

Her confusion must have showed on her face, because one snickered and said, "We know our own city better than you do, kid."

Taking a deep breath, she tensed her muscles, then leapt from the ground, eyes set on her destination and intent on escaping. A strong grip on her arms jerked her back so fast she got whiplash.

She struggled, landing one blow to the temple of the Elite on her right, and he stumbled back, cursing. The feeling of desperation in her climbed. She had to get out of here before the rest of the soldiers caught up to her.

Katara and the remaining guard eyed each other warily. He was standing so that he blocked her only way out of the alley. She tried kicking him with one foot, but he caught it, lightening-fast, and sunk another fist into her stomach. She wheezed, doubled over, and couldn't breathe.

A loud patter of footsteps on the dirt ground alerted her to the arrival of the rest of the Elites.

Oh, shit.

Sucking in one more breath, she leapt up and slammed her fist into the eye of the soldier who had punched her in the gut. He yelped and stumbled back, clutching his bruised eye.

"Cheap shot." Somebody muttered behind her, and before she knew it, they were all on her.

She couldn't even stay on her feet anymore, and she didn't know when she'd ended up on the ground. But she curled into a fetal position, trying to protect her vital organs as the kicks came from every side. Katara tried to remember what Suki's face looked like.

I won't cry I won't scream I won't. She tasted blood in her mouth from the mere act of keeping silent.

"Don't think just 'cause you're a female we gonna be easy on you."

"Everybody goes through this – you ain't nothing special."

The next foot that connected with her ribs she grabbed and hauled herself up on, punching and scratching and hitting anything she could come in contact with. Hands pulled and grabbed at her, trying to haul her off her victim. One hand touched her breast, and whether accidental or not, it enflamed her mind and she thought this is it, and faster than anything an eye could see, she whipped out the knife on her upper arm and swiped it in a wide circle.

Every single one of them snapped back, reflexes dodging the metal as it came towards their heads. They clearly hadn't expected her to have any type of weapons of her body. One soldier wasn't fast enough, and the point of her knife caught him just under the eye, making a perfect, clean cut.

"Bitch – " he swore, clasping his hand to the dribbling blood.

"Did she get ya, Sakai?"

"Ooh, she marked you, she did."

Katara panted, holding the knife in front of her, turning in a circle in the center of the crowd of Elites. They were warier now, and nobody was willing to risk a knife in the gut carelessly. With her free hand, she wiped the blood trickling from the corner of her mouth where she'd bit her own tongue in order to not cry out.

Stepping out forward behind the circle of Elites was the golden-haired Lieutenant. He was chewing casually on an unlit cigarette in his mouth. In one smooth move, he flicked it out of his mouth and onto the dirt where he ground it under his boot.

"No one thought to do a weapons check on the girl?" He drawled, addressing the entire group.

There was a bit of shifting and shuffling.

"You're all idiots." Ensei said, with a smile on his face that didn't reach his eyes.

"Well… she's a girl… so a full-body pat down would have been…" another Elite stuttered.

"Inappropriate?" Ensei said, fixing on the man who'd spoken up. "Curious. I thought you enjoyed that sort of thing, Joal."

Joal flushed and the rest of the group chuckled. Even though he couldn't have been the officer with the highest position, the Elites seemed to look to him as their leader.

Out of the corner of her eye, Katara saw someone make a move at her back. Almost snarling in anger, she drew back her knife hand to slash at him, but was brought up short when another stranger's hand forced open her wrist. The knife clattered to the ground. Before she could dive for it, a black-booted foot came forward and kicked it carelessly away.

She looked up, and startled, met the gold eyes of the scar-faced man who had interviewed her earlier.

Curiously, he seemed to command a sort of respect from the Elites, because they all backed up to give him more room.

"What's going on here, Ensei?" He asked, in a smooth and authoritative voice.

"We were just finishing up the new recruit's traditional test," said Ensei. Oddly enough, the lieutenant didn't call him sir like all the other soldiers did, nor did he salute. The scarred man didn't seem offended. In fact, the two men seemed at ease with each other, even though the lieutenant was obviously of lower class.

"Ah. The gauntlet, I'm guessing?"

"Yes, sir."

Katara remained in a half-crouched position the during this small conversation. She couldn't help it, but when that scarred man turned his bright gold eyes back on her she flinched involuntarily. If he noticed, he gave no sign of it. Instead, the man caught the sight of the blood on Sakai's face.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Sir, she had a knife and I wasn't fast enough." Sakai replied stiffly.

Nodding, the scarred man began to circle around the ring formed by the Elites. Katara unconsciously began to walk in the opposite direction, so they were circling each other like two fighters do before engaging.

He made the first move, a swing that clipped the side of her face when she dodged too late. She tried hitting him, but he was too fast and they returned to the circling.

Katara was getting more and more confused by the second. What is this? Who is he? What are we doing?

Everything happened in a blur as the scarred man attacked again. She ducked the first few, but then it was all a flurry of blows. He caught her ribs, she raked his chin, and then his armored shoulder slammed into her stomach. She gasped, trying to fall backwards, but he kept going forwards and slammed her against the wall.

She was caught against the wall, and instinct took over again. In another split second she had a knife in each hand, and with both, sliced at the man's neck. He let her go, darting back, so that the knives swiped empty air.

" – where is she getting those things – "

" – watch out, sir! She probably has more – "

Katara crouched, back against the wall, and her pounding heart seemed like it would burst at any second. What was this gauntlet? Was it fight until she was half-dead? She was certainly getting tired. The run had taken a lot out of her, and she could tell her reflexes were slowing down.

A movement out in her peripheral vision had her paranoid self swinging around again, but it was only Lt. Ensei taking out another cigarette. Too slow to realize it, a hard blow caught her at the juncture between her neck and head, and she fell forward, losing the grip on her weapons.

She fought the blackness threatening to claim her vision, and just hoped to all the powers above that they wouldn't start in on kicking her again. She was utterly defenseless on the ground, as that blow to her head had numbed every single movement she could make.

Two rough grips hauled her up by each arm, and she couldn't help the way her head hung, tired and defeated.

"Seems like enough for today, doesn't it?"

"Yah… we still got a couple more recruits to go through." Ensei said, flicking a piece of ash to the side. The smoke rose from his cigarette in a lazy, wandering stream.

"She put up a good fight, gotta give her that."

That seemed to be it, and she was dragged out from the shadows of the alley back into the main street. Eyes followed the group of soldiers as they forced her to walk back to the Army barracks. It almost seemed like some sort of victory march, the way the soldiers lined up in a loose crowd behind her.

Once they arrived at the complex, she was dropped off at what seemed to be the medical hospital.

"Hey! Doc! Something for you to work your magic on."

The hospital room was mostly filled with beds in orderly rows of four. Some were occupied, and Katara thought she could see Hiro at a bed in the far back. That was right, he would have gone through the gauntlet before her.

A gray-haired man bustled up and in a curt voice, said, "Put him on bed four, boys."

"A girl this time, Doctor," drawled Ensei.

The doctor looked closer at her and seemed to take it all in stride. "Oh. I couldn't tell, under all that dirt and blood," he said casually. "Why you go through this every year is beyond me, Lieutenant. You just waste my time and my beds."

"You know you love a visit from us, Doc."

The doctor just shook his head noncommittally and walked off to attend to something else. "I'll be right there."

The soldiers who'd brought her back deposited her roughly on bed four, and left without a backwards glance, led by the yellow-haired Ensei.

"Hey Katara. Doesn't look like you had too much luck either." Hiro, from the bed next to her, grinned through the large bloodstained bandage on his left cheek.

"Speak for yourself," she said curtly, and tried to get into a comfortable position on the bed with all her bruises and aches. "It seemed to me like a useless waste of energy. What was the point? To scare us?"

"Come on, Kat." Hiro laughed. "It's a tradition! These are scars to be proud of."

It was like Hiro to take a bout of violence as a joke. He just laughed it all off. Well, not everyone had his optimism.

Oran was led in not ten minutes later. Surprisingly, he didn't seem to have any cuts or scrapes that bled, just a few bruises. Silently, he sat on the bed next to Katara's.

"Hey man! How'd you do it?" asked Hiro curiously.

The dark-haired young man just shrugged. "Simple. Don't fight back and they get bored after awhile."

Katara wondered to herself why she hadn't thought of that at first. Her instinct was to fight back at anything that attacked her, but Oran seemed to have seen through the intent of the gauntlet and found the quickest way out, with the least amount of injuries.

Soon, the doctor came back. "Arms up," was his only instruction, and Katara obediently followed it as he checked her ribs for signs of broken bones or anything beyond the usual bruising. There was no amount of perverted interest while he checked her torso. He was all business, and strayed no further than he would have with a man.

"No broken ribs. I would suggest some relaxation and bed rest for the bruising to heal," the doctor said. "but fat chance you'll be getting any of that around here."

"Why not?" asked Hiro.

"Because we start training tomorrow." Oran said flatly.

"They don't waste time, do they, these Elites." Hiro said, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. "I like it!"

The doctor pronounced the same verdict on Oran, and shooed the three of them out of the hospital building, with "You're just taking up the space real patients will need. Get out!"

After a bit of wandering about, they soon found their barracks. It was a very large, very long, wooden building like every other building in the Army complex, and split into three sections. The one on the left was further split into multiple rooms, each room with five bunks inside. The central section of the building was the cafeteria, with wooden tables and benches in orderly rows. Along one wall was where the food would be set out during mealtimes. Since it was almost dinnertime, the cooks were just setting up the kitchen. The last section, the one on the right, was the weapons and armory room.

The three of them entered the sleeping quarters and found their room. It was obviously theirs because some smart-ass soldier had written on the door, "FRESH MEAT INSIDE. EAT QUICKLY TO PREVENT SPOILING."

"I guess we're in here before we pass training," muttered Oran, who pushed open the door.

Once inside, they found that their bags were already there. Katara found that, true to what the Lieutenant had said earlier, their bags had been searched. The searchers hadn't made a mystery of it – they deliberately didn't place the things back in their original places. This didn't overly bother Katara, for she hadn't brought anything personal in her bag. Nothing that would tie her to the rebels. It would have been a death sentence if a connection was found.

"Wonder who the other two newcomers are." Hiro mused.

Katara didn't say anything, just swung her bag onto one of the lower bunks. Oran did the same on the bed across from her. Hiro chose to leap onto the bunk above Katara.

No sooner had they gotten themselves organized, when the door opened again and they were greeted with the last two fellow bunkmates.

"What took you guys so long?" joked Hiro, jumping off the top bunk. It was like him to be the first to welcome the newcomers.

The first boy smiled back, friendly-like, at Hiro and jerked a thumb at his partner behind him. "Guhan got his arm broken during the gauntlet, so we had to spend a little extra time at medical."

Guhan was cradling his bandaged arm to his chest, a perpetual frown on his face. He didn't say a word as he dragged his bag across the floor to the farthest bunk in the back of the room. Then he threw himself on the bed and turned his back to the rest of the group.

"Not much of a talker, is he?" whispered Hiro.

The first boy just shook his head with a small smile. "I'm Juiko, from the Southern Islands."

"Hiro. Born and bred in the city."

They shook hands, and then Juiko's brown eyes caught sight of Katara over Hiro's shoulder. They widened for a second.

"I didn't know they allowed women to join the Elites," he said.

"Well now you know!" Hiro said cheerfully, clapping a hand on Katara's shoulder, pushing her forward. "This is Katara, our own little novelty here at the trainee barracks."

"Hey," she said, noncommittally. She wasn't here to make friends or have relationships. She was here to kill someone.

The loud horn calling for dinner blew, and the five of them, with Guhan slumping along at the rear, walked outside and joined the flow of men heading towards the cafeteria in their building.

Once inside they joined the food line, amidst the catcalls and rude comments as they, along with several other newly recruited groups, were recognized by the older soldiers.

Looking around, Katara counted the number of new recruits, and came up with a number much too large, if what Mistress had said about thirty being the maximum number was true.

"I thought they were only accepting enough for one new patrol," she remarked.

"Yeah. At the end of training, they'll pick the best through a series of tests, and the rest will be sent to different divisions," answered Juiko.

"How many of us will be accepted?" she asked. What are the odds of my getting in?

"I heard eight, but some say seven. Apparently last week, another patrol was attacked," said Juiko.

"Those idiot rebels should just give up," scowled Guhan, who was still clutching his broken arm. "They should know by now they're fighting a lost cause."

"There've been more attacks lately," said the usually-quiet Oran. "They're getting stronger."

"Or just more desperate," smirked Hiro.

With an air of feigned casualness, Katara said, "You seem to know an awful lot for a village boy from the Southern Islands, Juiko."

Juiko looked at her with a startled expression, as if he himself was surprised at his apparent wealth of knowledge. "Yeah? I just listen to a lot of gossip… lots of news around the city…" he finished lamely, drifting off at the end.

Katara left it at that.

They each picked up a tray and sat at an empty table in the corner, away from the rest of the soldiers.

While Hiro and Juiko engaged in a conversation about the merits of a crossbow as opposed to a regular bow, Katara chewed her food silently and pondered the day's happenings.

She'd decided by now that Hiro was a harmless entity. He was a joker, a crowd-pleaser, a friend to everyone. His intentions were wholly honest, and he came from a well-to-do family in the city. He'd joined the army because it was a tradition in his family for the eldest son to inherit the business while the younger ones tried their luck in the military. His father had recently passed away, and Hiro's older brother wanted him out of the way. Hiro had told Katara all this with a smile and "Well that's the way life is, isn't it?"

It certainly was.

Oran was a quiet, closed-mouthed guy. He didn't go out of his way to piss anybody off, and he'd come from a village just north of the city. Other than the sparse information he'd offered up, he was a mystery to Katara. There was no reason to suspect him of anything, but Katara wasn't ready to trust him either. She wasn't ready to trust anyone, even Hiro.

Guhan, the man with the broken arm, she knew nothing about. He had a perpetual scowl on his face, which Katara attributed mostly to his injury. He was probably embarrassed at being the only one in the group who had sustained a serious injury. He would have a hard time of it when they began training. From what she'd heard, the instructors weren't ones to go easy on you, even if you were disabled. You were either up to their standards or you weren't.

And at first, she'd been willing to write Juiko off in the same category as Hiro. But after that brief interlude in the dinner line… she wasn't so sure. That boy knew way too much to be an innocent little villager from the Southern Islands. He had to get his information from somewhere, not just from gossips. News about dead Elite soldiers didn't just make its rounds through the gossips in the city. That sort of information was kept confidential for as long as possible.

After dinner, they tramped back to their barracks, amidst the shouts of other Elites.

" – this is your last night of freedom, kids. After this, you'll be – "

" – enjoy it while it lasts! – "

" – tomorrow the torture begins – "

Katara was surprised to find Lt. Ensei outside the door to their bunkroom. She was even more surprised that he was there because of her.

He flipped a cloth-covered package to her, which she almost dropped before reaching out at the last second to catch. Peeling back the rough cloth, she found it contained the three knives she'd pulled this morning during the gauntlet.

Lt. Ensei began to walk away, before calling back, "The Emp says he's sorry he didn't return them sooner."

"Wait – the emp?" Katara called after him.

Ensei turned around and gave her a look. "The Emperor, girlie. The guy who beat your sorry ass in the gauntlet this morning?"

Katara froze.

That man with the scar, who'd interviewed her and ended her gauntlet, was the Emperor Zuko?

He was her target? She'd met him twice today already, and she hadn't known it?

The rest of her fellow bunkmates stared at her in wonder as Lt. Ensei left.

"The Emperor himself was at your gauntlet?" Hiro asked, voice hoarse.

Katara was asking the same question to herself silently.

"I think he interviews every one of us," Juiko said quietly. "But I didn't know he was at your gauntlet, Katara."

"I didn't either!" she protested. "I didn't know it was him!"

"And you used weapons against him," Hiro said, eyeing the knives in her hands. "Did you get him at all?"

She shook her head. I didn't kill him. "He was too fast."

Silent, they all trooped into their room, and got ready for bed. Katara changed in the bathroom, which had several private stalls for showering. These army barracks had indoor plumbing. What a luxury. Did all the divisions get this, or was it only the Elites?

The Elites are special, Katara, because they don't fight in regular wars like the Navy or Army does. Mistress had said. They carry out special… missions that the Emperor would not trust to anyone else. They don't fight in the open like regular soldiers. They hit specific targets in teams, targets that the Emperor needs gone.

If I'm commanded to kill, what should I do? What if it's a mission against our own people?

You'll do what you have to do without compromising your position.

That could mean anything. Katara would have to trust her own judgment on this one. But still, she dreaded the day when she would be sent on a mission that involved killing Kyoshi rebels. What would she do if she met a warrior face-to-face and had to kill them? Would she do it? What if she recognized one of them?

What if one of them was someone she loved?

A/N: For all of those who've been asking - yeah this is the semi-sequel to THATP. I mean semi-sequel as in you can read this fic by itself, without having read THATP. It can be a stand-alone, but it also ties up some threads left by THATP. So yeah... since I released this before I finished THATP, there are spoilers and such.

I'm incredibly tired. No time for questions, I'll get them next chapter. Sorry.