Chapter 4: Training

Katara felt her eardrums were going to shatter when the shrillest whistle she'd ever heard in her life blew early the next morning.

"YOU GET ONE WAKE-UP CALL," bellowed the whistle-blower from outside. "IF YOU'RE NOT DRESSED AND DONE EATING IN FIVE MINUTES, YOU'RE GOING HOME TO MAMA."

"It's still dark," Hiro murmured, burrowing his face into his pillow.

Katara sat up in bed and pulled on a pair of pants and a shirt. Visibility was zero in the room, so there was no risk of her privacy being invaded. Besides, she was going to be living with these guys for awhile; she might as well get used to it.

Yawning and blinking, Katara and all her fellow bunkmates shuffled outside into the queer half-light that occurs right before dawn. They slipped into the stream of other bleary-eyed recruits, all making a path for the dining hall.

"Sun's not even up yet," muttered Guhan.

Nobody answered him. Everybody was just focusing on putting one foot before the other and making it to the dining hall without falling asleep again or tripping over a fellow soldier.

Once inside, they began to automatically shove food in their mouths, without even noticing what it was they were eating. Not that the food really mattered—within two minutes, three instructors in uniform were inside the dining hall, blowing those shrill whistles and yelling insults at recruits moving too slow for their tastes.

"—my grandmother could eat faster—"

"—food is not to be enjoyed, it's supposed to be eaten and then turned into energy to fight with—"

"—who do you think you are to have so much time on your hands? The Emperor?—"

The entire group was herded outside again, ushered by the instructors. Following directions, they all began to run around the entire complex. Past their own barracks, past the medical building, past the army barracks, past the navy barracks, around the Firebenders Division (the largest of them all), and by the training field and arena.

Katara had never seen so many buildings and so much land and so much manpower devoted to an entire military purpose. It was enormous probably already a third of the size of Kyoshi Island. Again, that old despair crept up her throat as she thought of the firepower of the Empire compared to the tiny Rebellion. How could they possibly win?

Well that's why you're here, isn't it? To find a way to win this thing.

Her feet pounded the dirt as they rounded the last turn. She wasn't the fastest, but she definitely wasn't slowest either. She might have been able to pick up the pace a little, but she wouldn't let herself stand out. Don't attract attention to yourself. Stay anonymous, stay unnoticed. It was hard enough already, for she drew attention because of the mere fact that she was a woman, and women generally did not join the army, especially not the Elites. I'll work around it somehow.

The instructors stopped them, and several people leaned over, panting, their breaths steaming visibly. Katara sucked cold air into her lungs. The run certainly did help wake on up. Maybe not such a bad idea after all.

Pushing open the gate in the wall around the training field, the instructors led everyone inside.

"Where you're standing is the main practice area, the one used for swords and other conventional, hand-held weapons for close combat," The instructor with close-cropped black hair boomed. "Over to your left—" he demonstrated with his arm, and heads turned, "—is the archery field, walled off for obvious reasons."

"On your right is the formal arena," he continued. "that is where ceremonies, initiations, promotions, and funerals are held. It is also where you will receive your entrance exam."

"And when will that be?" somebody called out from the crowd.

"When you are ready," came the cryptic reply.

The black-haired man appraised the group. "I am Instructor Tsunan. My partners are Instructor Lui and Instructor Moaz. Do as we say, follow the rules, and nothing bad will happen. Understand?" It was an implied threat. Don't fuck with us and we won't fuck with you.

"What are the rules?" yelled another person Katara wasn't familiar with.

"There's only one: Do as we say," Instructor Tsunan repeated.

Easy enough, thought Katara. Follow instructions and you'll be fine. No problem.

"We're going to start by running everybody through the weapons we have in the armory. Some of you have might have had training before, while some of you have never touched a weapon in your life. I won't mince words—those of you without training are screwed over unless you're fast learners."

A snigger ran through the group. Some looked nervous.

"I'm not here to baby-sit you guys, got it? It's not going to be fun and games. I'm not going to personally hold your hand and teach you your drills," a slight sneer on Instructor Tsunan's face as he said it. "It's going to be hard and fast and you better keep up, or you'll find yourself outside on your ass, looking for a new job."

The group was split into smaller groups of three by each of the teachers, and two stayed in the practice area while the third went to the archery field first.

Katara was on the practice field in a group with Hiro led by Instructor Lui.

"Practice swords are in the armory shed," the Instructor said in a ringing voice, pointing. "Each of you pick a sword and a partner, and spar. Or try to. I'll be around to see what level you're at and whether it's worth the army's time to keep you here."

The whole group trooped into the small, squat building where a variety of weapons hung on the walls and on shelves. The wooden practice swords were in a pile on the ground. Katara picked one up and handed another to Hiro, who was standing behind her.

"Wooden swords?" sneered a young man on her other side. "They want us to use these cheap things?"

"Probably to keep you from hacking off your hand in the first round, Borr." A voice came from behind the sneering man. "Safety issue, you understand?"

Borr just sniffed and picked up a wooden sword as if it was going to contaminate him.

Hiro rolled his eyes at Katara and they left the armory before picking a spot on the field to start. Several pairs were already beginning to spar next to them, and Katara couldn't help but run her eyes over them. That one was too slow, that one had obviously had professional training, this one was helpless, and that man in the corner was using his sword as if it were a butcher's knife.

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a movement as Hiro swung at her head, and she barely reached up with her sword in time to block it, the impact sending shivers down her arm. They began to fight, swinging and blocking and turning and stepping.

"You'll be my partner, right?" Hiro smiled as she blocked another swing he aimed at her ribs.

"A bit late for the question, don't you think?" Katara grunted when Hiro thwacked aside her sword that had been aiming for his neck. In truth, she'd let him. She was moving deliberately slower, in order to pretend as if she were more of an amateur. Every move she made she planned out in her head first, and then executed with a painful slowness, so that Hiro wouldn't suspect a thing.

This was why she'd given up so easily during the gauntlet. Wouldn't it have seemed overly suspicious to the soldiers if she'd fought back like an expert? She'd thrown a few fists around, kicked a few shins, and drew her knives only when her instincts took over. It was all a farce. Not one bit of her Kyoshi training could be evident to these people. A farm girl from Yeriv, fighting like someone who'd trained her entire life? Definitely suspicious. They would have apprehended her and questioned her.

Personally, she'd thought that just by drawing the knives during the gauntlet, she'd given too much away. It was a miracle nobody had asked her yet where she'd learned that skill. She should have kept her weapons hidden and pretended to be all helpless and defeated. She should have let herself be beat up.

Anyways, it'd all worked out fine so far. Katara just had to pretend to be much worse than she actually was.

She danced back from another swing before charging at Hiro again, whacking at his face. He parried, and her sword stopped inches away from his nose before he forced her back.
"You're pretty good," Hiro panted. They were both sweating now.

"My brother was a good teacher," was all she said.

"Practiced a lot?"

"Whenever I had time. You?"

"Father hired a sword instructor for my brother and I when we were younger." Hiro shrugged.

A personal sword instructor? He must have been more rich than Katara had thought. Maybe the spice trade was doing particularly well.

Soon enough, Katara could feel the calculating eyes from Instructor Lui as he walked up to watch her and Hiro spar. She attacked with a bit more energy, and she knew Hiro knew that the Instructor was watching. They both tried harder, both tried to disarm or injure the other first.

Instructor Lui held up a hand, and they both stepped back, wiping sweat off their foreheads.

"Names?" he demanded.

"Katara," she said first.

"Hiro."

"Where did you two learn sword fighting? Especially you, girl." Instructor Lui asked them.

I thought I told you my name for a reason. Katara thought silently. Out loud, she said, "My brother taught me in his spare time. Said I needed to learn how to protect myself."

"What else do you know?"

"Um, some archery, a bit of knives and spears," she shifted uncomfortably under Instructor Lui's direct gaze. Thankfully, the teacher soon turned attention to Hiro.

"And you, boy?"

Hiro just cracked another easy-going grin. "My father had my brother and I taught from an early age."

"You're from the city, right? Who was your tutor?"

Hiro seemed surprised that Lui was so interested. "Uh… I think it was a man named Vusut."

Instructor Lui looked at him for a long moment. "Instructor Vusut is my father."

Clearly Hiro hadn't been expecting this. "Oh! I didn't know that."

"Yes, well, I recognized your style," As if dismissing the connection between them, Instructor Lui turned from Hiro back to Katara. "However, you, I don't know. I don't think I've ever seen the technique you use. What is it?"

Katara gulped nervously. The ancient Kyoshi warrior style, that's what it is. "Um, I'm not sure myself. My brother just taught me how to hold the sword and use it and I guess protect myself with it. Didn't know there was any style of any sort."

Instructor Lui gave her a look as if to say what do those peasant farmers know anyways? "You two can move onto the archery field, along with Borr and Oran."

He left, and Katara and Hiro stood and stared at his back.

"That was strange." Hiro mused out loud. "Didn't know I knew the bloke's father."

Katara didn't say anything, just started to walk towards the archery field as Borr and Oran joined them.

Borr was complaining. "Those wooden things handled like clubs. I honestly don't know what these Elites think they're doing, treating us like children. If you're not up to a real metal sword's level, you shouldn't even be here at all!"

Hiro laughed, and Katara and Oran didn't say anything. Borr was obviously the whiner, the one who could find wrong in every possible situation he was presented with. Katara found herself to actually look forward to fighting him in training someday. Was he as good as he made himself out to be? She hadn't seen him fight before, but from the way he spoke and the way he carried himself, he was obviously some rich merchant or noble's son. Probably in a similar situation as Hiro, just a bigger asshole about it.

Walking onto the field, Katara could see it was set up much the same way a regular archery field was. Round targets with red bulls-eyes at one end of the long field, and the archers stood on the other end. The distance was no bigger than what she'd trained with before.

Leading the group over to the archer's end of the field, she picked up one bow, testing it, unstringing it, and then restringing it to her liking. Definitely not as good quality as the ones back in Kyoshi. These were only practice weapons, anyhow. The wood was more brittle than she'd liked, but she wasn't going to say anything about it.

Oran, Hiro, and Borr took up places next to her and they began their shots.

Pulling back her first arrow, Katara sighted down the length of the shaft and released. The arrow thwanged into the target, off to the right side of the bull's-eye. Perfect. Just where she'd wanted it.

A few more arrows, placed off-center and one just brushing the red eye made her farce even better. She also purposely shot one off too far to the side, and it hit the stone wall behind her target.

She hadn't gotten one single bull's-eye. And it was just the way she'd wanted it.

Looking over to the side, she checked on her fellow recruits' progress.

Hiro was much along the same level she was, but he'd landed two arrows in the center. Oran had three actually on the target; his other arrows littered the ground before the wall. Borr, the git, had five in the bull's-eye and one off on the side. He also had a supreme smirk on his face.

Katara silently gritted her teeth and ignored Borr's expression. All in good time.

She knew she could have landed all six arrows in the center. She knew her own abilities, and that was enough. Nobody else really needed to know. She just had to be better than average, good enough to get in without appearing suspicious.

Borr gave her what he probably thought was a reassuring smile, and placed one hand on her shoulder, which she couldn't help tensing under. "It's not your fault, Katara. Females generally just have weaker muscles than men. It's a fact of life. I'm sure you'll improve, even if you don't make Elites."

She narrowly avoided ripping his head off.

Instead, she contented herself with swiping his hand off her shoulder and moving to stand next to Hiro, deliberately turning her back on Borr. Katara focused on toning down her temper. She couldn't trust her tongue at this moment, and so she chose not to say a thing. Who knew what she could reveal in a moment of anger? A million scathing comments filled her mind but she bit down on all of them. Just take it, and he'll get what's coming to him some day, that rich snobby bastardly little fucker.

She took a deep breath before exhaling loudly.

Hiro gave her a look and rolled his eyes, showing his derision for Borr's comment. "Just ignore the idiot," he whispered to her.

The rest of the day passed in relative peace. They threw spears at a straw target (Katara purposely missed all but two), practiced knife handling, which included sheathing, drawing, throwing, and other types of manual fighting. This she allowed herself to show a little more talent in. Everybody else had already heard the rumor of her gauntlet, and she had to uphold the evidence. But not too good. Not too good to make her really stand out.

"Where did you learn the knives?" Instructor Lui asked her during a short break.
"Practiced with my brother. It got boring around the farm sometimes. We'd set up targets and just keep throwing until we got it." She replied in a monotonous tone, knowing that others were listening and watching. Nothing special here. Move along, people, move along.

Near the end of the afternoon, Katara's attention was caught by the sight of another group of soldiers moving onto the empty half of the practice field. They were dressed in traditional red uniforms, but she had no idea who they were.

She tugged on Hiro's sleeve. "Who are those guys?"

He turned before looking at her. "The Fire benders, of course. I guess they're here for their training too." Hiro just shrugged and went back to trying out the battle axe, the one weapon that most of the people here, including Katara, had never tried.

However, Katara's attention was completely held by the Fire benders, who began to train, letting off great spouts of searing flame into the air and moving in unison. She watched, amazed at the power, and really, a little scared. She couldn't help but instinctively move back, further away from them, even though they were on the other side of the field. She could just imagine that burning heat by her face, searing her skin and eating her flesh.

Katara shuddered at the horrible images. Because that was what would happen to her, if her true identity was found out. Death by fire.

She turned to Hiro again, mouth dry. "Hiro… do you know how to Fire bend?"

He gave her a surprised look. "Well, no. Nobody here does, I think. The Elites aren't for Fire benders. We're for specialized missions. The Fire benders are just brute force, used for majority of the army."

"So you can't just, just learn it?"

Hiro shook his head again, giving her another strange look. "Nope. You gotta be born with it, Katara. I'm not sure how the talent travels through bloodlines. I guess if both your parents are Fire benders, you're sure to be one. But not me, and I guess not you. Don't you know anything?"

Katara mentally slapped herself. She was asking questions any self-respecting Fire Empire citizen would know. "Uh, uh I guess not. Neither of my parents were benders. Maybe a few generations before. I think my great-aunt was one, but she was kind of a surprise for the rest of the family," she lied.

Hiro just shrugged. "Yeah, same. A few distant relatives are benders, but not my immediate family. I think it's pretty much fifty-fifty in the Empire right now. Half have it, half don't. It's not that big a deal."

Good. Then Katara could continue pretending to be a citizen of the Fire Empire, and no one could suspect her for not being a Fire bender.

By dinner, they were all exhausted. Katara rotated sore muscles, thinking that it'd been awhile since she'd exercised. Those two weeks on the ships from Kyoshi to Menthat to Kotzut had made her lazy. Still, she was in better shape than some of the people here. Especially Guhan, who had had to deal with his broken arm the whole day. She looked around, and noticed there were less people here than before. She asked the question out loud to her tablemates.

"The really hopeless ones got sent home," Juiko said, mouth full of food.

Hiro snorted. "Did you see that one kid who was trying to shoot an arrow backwards?"

Katara was amused. "Doesn't he know not to hold the pointy end?"

"Apparently not. He got sent to medical, he cut his hand so badly," Oran put in.

Borr sniffed haughtily. He did that so often, Katara wondered if he had an allergy problem at times. "They don't deserve to be here. Weak fighters will just corrupt the Elites."

Katara chewed on her food with a little more energy than needed. She could detect the faint air of exasperation and annoyance coming from other members at the dinner table. However, no one said anything aloud. Nobody wanted trouble this early in training. Better to just let Borr spew his shit about being oh-so-holy and righteous, than get into a conflict about it.

As for Katara, she knew getting into a fight would attract undue attention to herself. She couldn't be known as the girl with a temper. She couldn't have rumors and people whispering about her. She needed to stay anonymous and quiet and unobtrusive. Borr could go screw himself; she wasn't going to waste anymore time on him.

"Any idea what we're doing tomorrow?" Juiko asked, spearing himself some more fish with a fork.

"Probably more of the same thing," answered Hiro. "but they'll split us up into groups according to the level they saw us fight at today."

After dinner, Katara took a shower in one of the private stalls. She luxuriated in the warm water that came through the pipes at a simple twist of a knob. She played with the water a bit, looping it around her hands and through her fingers, thinking about the technology and planning needed to make this instant water happen. The Fire Empire was a very advanced civilization, certainly, at least compared to the conditions back home on Kyoshi Island. Gigantic cities and opulent architecture and indoor plumbing. And, and toilets! Those things were an absolute marvel! An amazing invention!

Katara would trade it all in a second to be home joking with Sokka and training with Suki.

An almost choking wave of homesickness washed through her.

And she and Sokka hadn't even parted on the best of terms.

I'll see him again, she told herself, we'll make up and he'll tell jokes and I'll laugh and wish I'd been at his wedding.

Katara wondered if Suki was pregnant yet. She wondered if she was an aunt already. It was important for couples to have children on the Island. Babies were treasured and for a good reason. It was a harsh way of saying it, but if the Kyoshi people did not reproduce fast enough, they would die out. There were just too little of them, and too many warriors dying each year. As well as the fact that since the Island community was quite small, inbreeding in the gene pool was bound to happen sometime. If it ever got bad enough, disaster would happen, and they would die out. That was why Katara and her brother had been such a welcome presence when had been discovered on the beach. New blood was always good.

Sokka's probably already got that part covered, Katara thought a bit darkly. It'll be a miracle if I get out of this alive and still manage to have children.

That night, Katara had a harder time falling asleep, even though the day had been an exhausting one. She didn't join in the conversation with her bunkmates, just turned to face the wall and tried not to think about home.

The next morning, they repeated the same routine over again. Wake up, breakfast, and run.

Katara found she actually enjoyed the lap around the army complex. The rhythm of her feet pounding and her heart thumping rang in her ears and she didn't have to think about anything, not Kyoshi, not Sokka, not assassins, not Emperors, and not herself.

That day she found out she'd been shifted to into the upper level along with Hiro, Borr, Juiko, and Oran. Guhan was left behind in the less advanced group.

"It's because of my arm," Guhan snarled when he found out. "they should know, they're the ones who broke it!"

Instructor Tsunan told him to stop whining or he'd do Guhan a personal favor by breaking the other arm.

Guhan obediently joined his line.

Borr just sniffed when he saw Katara in his group. She tried not to react, but instead, smiled innocently and said, "Would you like to be my sparring partner today?"

Borr agreed, but looked reluctant, as if he was loathe to waste his time on her. Hiro and Juiko paired off, and Oran went to fight another boy from a different bunk.

Katara didn't give him time to get ready. Like Hiro's surprise attack yesterday, she leapt at Borr, swinging toward his ribs, which he blocked quickly, if not a bit late. The surprise on his face quickly turned to determination and he fought back with ferocity. Katara swung and stabbed and slashed and blocked with just as much energy, the anger at Borr's imbecilic comments from yesterday rising in her and making her forget certain, more important things.

They circled each other for awhile, trying to find weaknesses and openings and defects. He swung, she parried. She stabbed, he blocked.

But soon she was pressing him back, back, back towards the stone wall erected between the practice field and the archery field. A strange expression stole over Borr's face—disbelief? Maybe even fear?—as he felt himself retreating from her attack. He knew he was taking far too many steps backwards for him to still be on the offensive. He was defending now, defending his body and his pride.

Sweat ran down Katara's forehead and her eyes caught on Borr as he lunged much too far to the left, leaving his right side unprotected. She was about to dash in for the kill when, out of the corner of her eye, she saw that Hiro and Juiko had stopped fighting, and Instructor Lui was standing stock-still next to them, eyes cold and calculating. A chill ran down her spine.

How could I be so stupid?

At the last second, she pulled back on her swing enough so that the tip of her wooden sword barely nicked the side of Borr's ribs. How could I forget? It threw off her balance, this last-minute change in direction, and Borr, being a fool but not an untrained one, noticed. How could I let my anger take over? She tried to regain her balance, but only succeeded in leaving more of her body exposed as her arms tried to compensate, and Borr leapt in on her as she fell backwards onto the hard dirt, his sword point stopping a centimeter before nicking her undefended throat.

The expression on his face was almost savage in its triumph. He knew he'd been losing the fight. He knew he'd almost been defeated by a mere girl. He'd grown desperate in the last few minutes, knowing that his fall was coming. The fact that he now had her on the ground in a complete turn of events, at his mercy, made his unbelievable victory all the sweeter.

She stayed in her position on the ground, letting her expression be one of utter humiliation. She wouldn't scurry away from Borr's sword like a beaten dog. Everyone who had been watching thought she was upset because she had lost. If they could have read her thoughts, she would have been killed on the spot.

How could I forget my mission? How could I have blown my cover so quickly? How could I lose control to my temper? The other recruits might think I was lucky I was beating Borr at first, but the Instructor won't be so easy to fool. He'll know. He'll know it wasn't luck, he'll know it was training, training that a farm girl from Yeriv could never have received, not even from her older brother. He'll know and he'll tell Instructor Tsunan, who'll tell Lt. Ensei, who'll tell the Emperor, who'll kill me. I'm dead. Dead, dead, dead.

Hopefully the fact that she'd just lost the fight to Borr would confuse the Instructor. Hopefully he wouldn't be able to tell that she'd purposefully lost, that she'd purposefully pulled back when she'd almost had Borr writhing on the ground beneath her own sword.

"I win," sneered Borr, touching his sword to the bottom of her chin.

She jerked away, glaring at him before picking herself up off the ground and pretending to busy herself with brushing off the dirt. She could hardly stand the gloat in his eyes. She knew she'd lost on purpose, but Borr thought he'd won because he was the better fighter.

So what? Let the idiot think that. Let the idiot think he was so much mightier than her. He could think he was a god and she couldn't care less.

Hiro and Juiko came up behind her while several other men congratulated Borr on his win. Apparently everyone had stopped to watch them fight.

"I really thought you had him there, Katara," Juiko said quietly.

"Yeah," said Hiro. "You put up a good fight."

She yanked her sleeve down angrily and didn't look at them. "He'll never let me live it down," she said tightly.

"He's an ass," Juiko tried to booster her confidence. "Come one day he'll be sorry he ever got on your bad side."

Katara nodded, and tried not to let the sounds of Borr's triumph get in her head.

Too soon, he came over, followed by his happy little entourage, to accept her congratulations. It was customary for the fighters to shake hands, and the loser to honor the winner.

Borr's smile sickened her, and as she shook his hand, she pretended it was his throat she was gripping. "You did good," she said, barely choking the words from her mouth.

"So did you." His sneer said otherwise.

I shouldn't let this bother me, Katara hissed silently to herself. I know I could have beaten him. I know I could've beaten him until he cried for his mother. What does it matter that he doesn't know that? Don't let pride get in your way, Katara.

She felt a tap on her shoulder, and with a sinking heart, turned to see the stony face of Instructor Lui. What she saw next made her seriously contemplate the idea of suicide.

Instructor Lui was standing behind her with not only Lt. Ensei, but the Emperor Zuko as well.

This is the part where I am discovered.

They would question her and find out the truth. She could act and she could lie with a certain amount of success, but she was unsure how her acting abilities would play out in the face of so many enemies.

Don't think of them as enemies. You must become Katara, the farm girl from Yeriv, and forget about Katara, the assassin spy from Kyoshi. This is how you will survive.

"Really thought you had him there for awhile, girlie," The lieutenant drawled, his signature cigarette sending a faint trail of smoke from one corner of his mouth. "What happened?" The blonde man's posture was casual, his face so relaxed it might have been slack. But his eyes. His eyes were alive and calculating and digging into her façade. Don't underestimate him, Katara.

"I—I tripped," she said, eyes cast downward as if she were truly ashamed. Inside, she was shaking with fear. "I lost my balance and he got me." She refused to even think about the Emperor. He was right there, standing next to Instructor Lui, so close she could have reached out with a knife and impaled him.

"Overconfidence," Instructor Lui said smoothly. "The mistake every amateur swordsman makes." No one bothered to correct the gender-specific term he'd used. Katara knew everyone had noticed, but if they weren't going to make a big deal of her sex, she sure as hell wasn't either

She nodded, seizing on this excuse. "I thought I was going to win," she said through gritted teeth, sounding like the perfect sore loser. "So I swung harder, thinking I was going to finally get him but I tripped and lost my balance and fell." She scuffed at the dirt with one foot. "It won't happen again." Believe me, oh please believe me.

The Instructor nodded slowly. Ensei held the cigarette casually in one hand and exhaled, "At least you learned somethin'."

The smoke didn't seem to bother anybody else, not the Instructor nor the Emperor. But it slipped into Katara's lungs like a poisonous lover and she sweat with the exertion not to cough or choke. If she was to play the part of a real Fire citizen, breathing smoke would be like breathing regular oxygen. For the Fire people, they were around the byproducts of fire so often that it had ceased to bother them or cause health hazards. Increased exposure to dirty air and smoke caused lung sickness and death in peoples of other nations, but not for true descendents of the Fire Empire. Lt. Ensei could smoke twenty cigarettes a day until he turned a hundred, and nothing would ever come of it.

Breathe it in, Katara. Breathe it in like the Fire bender you aren't.

Katara could feel the Emperor's eyes assessing her, testing her. She looked straight ahead like a disciplined soldier, refusing to meet her superior's eyes.

Look your fill, you power-hungry bastard. Look at your enemy. Look at the deadly snake who's slipped into your paradise, unknown to your subjects. Look at your future murderer.

All he said was, "The exam's in a month's time, isn't it, Ensei?"

The lieutenant tapped his cigarette, the dead ashes drifting to the ground. "No. It usually is, but this time we gotta hurry it up. Too many empty spaces we gotta fill, sir." His voice sounded callous and uncaring, like it didn't matter to him that so many of his fellow soldiers had died. But his eyes said otherwise.

The Emperor merely nodded. No good job or nice, promising group you have here or you're all hopeless idiots go home now.

Then he and the Lt. Ensei left as if they'd never been there.

Giving her one last cursory look, Instructor Lui left behind them.

Exhaling in a loud whoosh of breath, Katara turned back to Juiko and Hiro, who had most likely watched the entire exchange.

"Not much for words, either of them, eh?" Hiro said, squinting his eyes to follow the progress of the Emperor, Lieutenant, and Instructor as they left.

"Guess not," muttered Katara.

Hiro remarked, "They seem awfully casual with each other, Lt. Ensei and the Emperor."

"They've been childhood friends since they were both born. Ensei's the son of some nobleman with a province in the west. He was raised here in the capital and decided to join the Elites to serve the Emperor when they both grew up." Juiko replied, eyes absent.

"Talk about true friendship," Hiro said, impressed.

Katara was impressed, but not with Lt. Ensei's apparent loyalty. "Amazing how you know everything about everyone here, Juiko," she said, off-handedly, as if she were making an insignificant observation.

The young, dark-eyed man seemed to wake suddenly from a reverie. "Yeah? Well—hear things, lots of things and I've got a pretty good memory. Gossips—they let anything slip, you know."

"You do know a lot, Juiko," Hiro said, smiling and oblivious as always.

"That's why I'm smarter than you," Juiko said, seizing the chance to make a joke of it. Katara permitted herself a small smile, pretending to be in on the humor.

Hiro put on a wide, offended look and pushed at Juiko's shoulder, knocking him into Katara, and said, "You dare put yourself above a distinguished, educated gentleman such as myself?" Juiko laughed, shaking his head, and Hiro snapped his fingers as if for a servant. "Katara! Beat this disrespectful, lowly peasant's sorry ass for me, will you?"

Katara grinned and moved into a ready position. "Why not? I'll need the practice if I'm to defeat Borr the Idiot next time I fight him."

DID YOU KNOW THAT THE MAN WHO DOES ADMIRAL ZHAO'S VOICE IN THE AVATAR SHOW IS JASON ISAACS, THE SAME MAN WHO PLAYS LUCIUS MALFOY IN THE HARRY POTTER MOVIES?

I thought that was so cool. Found out from my little brother's Nickelodeon magazine for this month. Rejoice in your newfound knowledge, my wonderful readers.

I know the lack of Zuko/Katara interaction when we're already at Chapter 4 really frustrates some people, but stay with me here. Things will REALLY start picking up soon, especially after the exam. These earlier chapters are to set down ideas and plotlines and meet new characters. While on the subject of new characters, how are you guys liking the new OCs? Which one do you like best? Which one do you hate the most?

And also, if you are going to scream at me to update Hunter and Prey, or ask me why it's taking so long for updates, do not use this story's reviews for that. Use the Hunter and Prey reviews for Hunter and Prey stuff. I'm not going to fly into a destructive fit if somebody goes "UPDATE THATP" again when I read Love They Enemy's reviews, but I'd really appreciate it. Thanks.

As for why long updates it's because I like vacation and traveling and if I do have time to write, it's on four-hour shaky car rides with a #2 pencil and notebook resting on my knees.

It's all in my head already—I just have to get it down in my computer.

Remember, vote on my OC question from above. I love feedback.