Okay long chapter. Umm yeah pay back. Ah and Oh warnings: blood, cussin, um agonizing pain, and a small little bitty playful inuendo. enjoy

Katara opened her eyes sleepily. She looked around the room. Zuko and the baby were both gone. Sh took a deep breath and let it out jaggedly. She stood up and stretched. She had a weird dream, good, but weird. She flet a connection between Zuko all of the sudden. She hated it, but it was comforting. She rubbed her eyes. She was so confused. She shook her head and straightened out her hair.

She walked out and found Iroh in the dining room drinking his usual cup of morning tea. He had Riyo in his arms. It was a wonder that the old man hadn't tried to give the baby some tea. She smiled and looked around.

"Where is the monster at this morning?" She said smiling. Iroh looked up at her with a chuckle. He had noticed that Zuko had walked up behind her.

"Oh I don't know I think that he's on deck sparring." The old man lied. Zuko smiled. He walked right up behind Katara. He had been planning on how to get her back. He had to stay out of the way of her feet and get her hands restrained so she wouldn't drown him. He wrapped his arms tight around her, pinning her arms to her side. He smiled and looked at her neck as she started to thrash. He saw his opening. He bit down on her neck hard.

"OWW!" With that she went into even more wild kicking until she she felt soft lips and warm breath against her ear.

"I told you I would get you back, little girl." He whispered in her ear and let her go. She turned around and started to kick him but he had expected that and steppedout of the way.

"You bastard that hurt!" He looked at her coyly.

"Did you expect it to feel good?" She gasp and blushed madly and turned her back to him sitting down. He smiled in victory, taking Riyo and walked out to join the captain on deck.

Katara ate her breakfast and made idle chat with Iroh. He was such a jolly old man. Reminded her of the man that always tried to get Gran Gran to marry him. This brought a smile to her face. She stood when she finished and excused her self.

She walked out onto the deck seeing Zuko, armor and all, standing with the Captain and a handful of crew members. A strong breeze blew past Katara and brought a chill to her. She looked out at the sky. Black and dark blue covered the horizon. Flashes of lightning were awe inspiring even from such a distand. She walked over to stand next to Zuko. He noticed her presance and handed her the baby.

"Take Riyo and get below. A bad storm is coming." She hugged the baby into her as another strong gust a wind blew across the ship, causing her to loose her balance. A pair of strong hands caught her. Zuko helped her to steady herself and put his arm aroudn her shoulder.

"Lock everything down!" Zuko shouted and walked her over to the door. She looked up at him.

"What about you?" He looked at her with a stern face.

"Get down below. I will come and get you when the storm has past." He turned to walk off but she grabbed his hand firmly.

"What about YOU!" She yelled as the wind began it's mournful howl. He grabbed her shoulders and looked her straight in the eyes.

"I'll be fine." He pushed her back and pulled the door shut. She turned as a hand landed on her shoulder. She gave out a sigh of relief seeing Iroh.

"Come on Katara." He grabbed her arm and the went down into the hull. She felt useless. She could help and he knew it. She was the waterbender. And a good one at that. A little storm didn't scare her.

Just as that last thought entered her head the entire ship jolted to one side. The wind sounded even more menacing as it beat against the steel. She could feel the water started to rock the large ship.

The crash of a lightning strike jerked the baby Riyo out of his plesant state and into a fit of screams.Katara held him tight trying to calm his cries. The sound was terrifiying. The rain came down in a continuous stream. She could hear the rain start it's beating on the front of the ship and work it's way back. A powerful wave hit the side and jolted it yet again. She steadied herself and looked at Iroh.

The short man looked green. The ship had been rocking and jolting back and forth for several minutes. Katara wanted to help. She knew she could. She handed the baby to Iroh and started towards the door.

"Katara, don't." Iroh said with a very parent-like look. She shook her head.

"They need my help."

"You don't know what's going on out there. How do you know?" He was pleading with her. Something inside her told her to go anyway. She looked at him then went up to the door. She heard the men shouting. One voice stood out to her.

"BRACE YOURSELVES!" It was Zuko. Another wave was about to hit. She braced herself against the wall and closed her eyes tight. This one was worse then the others. She opened her eyes when she heard shouting.

"Pull him up men!" She cracked open the door and peeked out. The rain immediatly foudn her and began stinging her eyes and face. She looked over and saw Zuko, the captian, and some of the men pullin on a rope. The were pulling up a man that had went overboard, catching the rope on his way. Katara looked vak and another wave was about to crash down on them. She pushed the door shut. And braced herself again. She opened the door again. The man they were pulling up had made it but where was Zuko. The captain was leaning over the ship trying to throw the rope out to the prince, who bobbed in the water fighting the waves and the torrent that tried to pull him under. The last wave had caught them off guard and claimed Zuko as it's prize. The men were slipping as the water on the deck hindered them. Katara had to help.

She shut the door tight behind her so no water could run down into the hull, or at least as little as possible. She squinted her eyes as the rain pounded down on her. She brought her hands up and threw them to the side taking all the water on the deck with them. She ran over to the ledge. Zuko was loosing the fight. There was all sorts of debris around him some from the ship other from the water that had been stired up with the storm. She concentrated hard, keeping her mind off the tiny needles of the storm. She tried to pull the water that surrounded Zuko to her. She strained as a bead of sweat rolled down her temple. It was working. But the prince was having a hard time staying surfaced.

She had to hurry. She put a little more effort into it and brought the large mound of water closer to the ship. The storm and torrent grew wilder, almost as if the sea was frantic for Zuko to belong in its depths. She couldn't move to grab his hand.

"MEN! GRAB THE PRINCE AND PULL HIM ON BOARD! I CAN'T KEEP THIS UP MUCH LONGER!" She yelled. Her amrs were starting to ache. The men did as she ordered. Once they had his arm she dropped the water. But something was wrong. As the water dropped a weight seemed to pull aggressively on the prince's leg. She looked over the railing. Blood was pouring down his leg and into the water. An old chain had wrapped itself around his leg and was refusing to let go. The prince was doing what he could to get the chain from his leg, but if he struggled to much his men might drop him back to the water.

The mens' hands were slick from the rain as was the deck. Katara grabbed onto Zuko and tried to help. But themore they pulled the more open his leg began and the more blood gushed from it. She looked at the chain it was pulled tight. It was attached to something. If we keep pulling on him, we'll rip his leg off. She was breathing heavily. Between theh strom, the bending, and the pulling she was beginning to feel the unforgiving punishemnt of sleeping on that damned chair.The storm had died down, but only for a while. She looked at the sky. She had a break in the storm and only had maybe a few minutes. She let go of Zuko. He grabbed at her with his free arm. She could see the fear in his eyes. It made her heart tear to pieces. She had and idea.

"Let him go!" She ordered the men. But they looked at her like she had gone insane. She frowned deep.

"I SAID LET HIM GO! IF we keep pulling we'll kill him!" She yelled. Reluctantly the men let go of the prince's arm. She heard the splash. Now or never Katara. She coached herself. She backed up a few paces then ran full force diving over the rail into the water, before the captain could catch her. She brought her self up right and let her eyes adjust to the stinging salt water. She saw him. He was panicing! He was thrashing violently and kicking trying hard to get the chain from his leg. She swam as hard as she could over to him. She grabbed his face and made him look at her. He calmed down, a little. She pulled him to the surface so he could get air.

"Try to stay top water." She said and dove back down. She felt along his leg and felt where the chain had dug into his skin. It wasn't some normal chain. It was a huge chain that had once connected an anchor to a ship. She looked at it for just a moment then pushed her self to the surface. Zuko's face was pale and his eyes were glassed over. She could tell even with the strom pickin gback up that he was loosing alot of blood and fast.

She dove back down and traced her hand along the chain. She found the end link and it had imbedded itself deep in his thigh right above the back of his knee. She bit the inside of her bottom lip and took the link in her hand. This is going to hurt alot . She ripped it back as hard as she could. Even under the water she heard Zuko's cry of pain. She hurridly unwarped the chain from the rest of his leg and surfaced. He was going. She caught him as he slipped out of conciousness and down into the water.

She took a deep breath and put her free hand out away from the ship. With just enough energy to do she caused a wave to throw the two on the deck. Before they hit she moved so that she would take the brunt of the force. She quickly got to her knees and drug his body back close to the door. She looked around to find the men. All were there, holding on for dear life to the railing of the ship since the storm had found it's second wind.

She screamed and covered Zuko's body as a bolt of lightning struck the water just a little way from the boat. She closed her eyes knowing that they would be electrocuted but it never came. She laid her head on Zuko's chest and listened for a heart beat. It was there but it was faint. She looked down at his leg. He was loosing blood. Of course he's loosing blood! I' ve got to stop it.

She looked around and there was nothing useful. She ripped on of the legs off of her pants and wrapped it tight around his leg. A stick has been thrown on deck with them and she grabbed it greedily. She wrapped the leftover cloth around it and turned it so that the cloth was tight and secured to the wound. She held it there and covered him with her body, doing the best she could to sheild him. She was ready for the storm to be gone. She was ready to heal Zuko's wounds. She was ready to get off that damn ship! After almost fifteen minutes the storm died down for good. She laid Zuko flat on the ground as the captain and crew gathered around. She set her hand in the water that was still on the deck and formed a glove around her hand.

She carefully untwisted the stick and unwrapped the wound. She grimaced as she saw the extent of the damage. She placed her hand in the bend of his knee and felt the water flow from her hand and heal the worst part of the wound. It was still messy and would have to be wrapped but at least he wasn't loosing any more blood. She looked up at the captain.

"He had a chain tearing into his leg." She said quietly as if trying to give them that 'I told you so' scold. She listened to his chest. His heart beat was regaining it's normal rhythm. But he still wasn't breathing.

"He must have swallored water!" One of the crew men stated. Katara could fix that. Well she could try, she hadn't ever done anything remotely like what she was about to do. She tilted his head back and opened his jaw.

She dug up the last little bit of energy that she could find and placed a hand over his mouth. She closed her eyes and raised her hand up as if pulling and invisible string. She did it again. Zuko's body lurched as a stream of water came to her hand. She opened her eyes and sent the water back to the ocean. Zuko had been sent into a fit of coughing and sputtering. She smiled and grabbed him huggin him tight.

"I swear!" She looked at him as his coughing subsided. He looked up at her with curious and confused golden orbs.

"Why did you do that?" She shrugged and pulled the band from his wet hair. He shook his head as she tried to fix it back into it's normal pony tail.

"WHY?"

"Because I couldn't let you die! That's why! Now shut up!" She scolded him as two of the men helped him up. The took him down into the hull to have his leg looked over. She huffed and looked down at her self. Her clothes were soaked and she was missing half of one on her pant legs. What made it worse? That ungrateful little ... She huffed and walked over to the rail.She looked back at the storm. They had made it through, by some force of nature.

Malana peeked her head up over the edge of the small boat. She had just been tossed around like sack of fruit. The storm had did a wonder on her clothes. She growled and used her hands to shovel some of the water out. She looked up as she saw something in the near distance.

Well I'll be damned.

We found it! We found it!

I knew we would! I told you didn't I?

I never doubted you! Zuko here we come!

I wonder what kind of welcom we'll get.

Alrighty then. Bed time for me.Can't spell I know. I usually type late at night and get in to much of a hurry and don't catch the little mistakes. Sorry. Next chapter. The confrontation. And little miss insane has a harsh reality comnig to her when she realizes all her plans were jsut delusions of grandure.