Thank you so much to my reviewers: MissLuxe, Astra Across the Stars, SlythindorRen, greyerve, FireLordTash, EuroEccentric, SophieCambellBower, i have snacks, chimbombo, Maddzzo, Aztefeder!
i have snacks: I never stopped writing it XD I update every three weeks! And that certainly would be interesting...read on to see ;)
Katara expected to feel anxious, or maybe a sense of resignation. What she didn't expect to feel was nothing at all, yet as Aiga and Katara walked to the room where she would dress for the fights, Katara searched her soul and found strangely few feelings on the entire matter.
That itself worried her, but she hardly had time to consider it.
The room, though it had only opened a minute ago, was already plagued with deep feelings. The heavy feelings seemed to vibrate off the girls, most of whom looked pale and scared.
"You are free to choose any clothing option to wear. Breakfast is through that door and practice area is through there. You have an hour before the games start," Aiga recited to Katara, who stared unblinkingly around the space. "Err, you okay?" she asked.
"Uhm…" Katara tilted her head, "Hmm."
That wasn't much of an answer, she completely realized. Aiga pursed her lips, as though understanding more than Katara said, and shook her head.
"I'm going to get you a plate," she said.
Katara wandered over to the racks of clothes offered. Most were very lightweight and tight-fitting, exactly what someone would want to wear in a spar. Katara found some fresh wrappings and used a small curtained-off area to change. She elected for something close to what she'd wear to bed but tied tighter; Minimalistic, kept all her soft places tied town securely, and would not get in her way. She opted for a pair of lien shorts instead of a skirt. With a spare piece of leather, she caught her hair into an untidy pony and tied it up and out of her face.
Outside, in the seating area, it seemed all the girls had woken and arrived. Maiha was puking into a bucket.
Katara sat beside her, rubbing the girl's shoulder comfortingly while her handmaid tried to encourage Maiha to drink a glass of water.
"I'm...so...scared…" Maiha blubbered, "I don't want to be Fire Lady anymore!"
"Drop out, save yourself the heartburn," Avizeh said simply across the way. She was stuffing her face with much more food than Katara would suggest eating right before vigorous activity, and there was something in her hands. Katara thought it was a weapon for a moment before she realized it was an embroidery needle.
"What's that for?"
Avizeh looked down at the white cloth in her fingers.
"Well," she said, completely calm, "I'm not going to go out there and 'try my hardest' and still lose. I know my own limits. Might as well expedite it," she said, showing the corner of a surrender flag.
"Oh," Katara said, eyebrows knitting. She almost offered Avizeh some parting words, such as "I'll be sad to see you go" but didn't know if it would be true. She could appreciate the woman's simplicity about her departure, however.
"Here you are," Aiga said, handing Katara a plate of food that would give her energy throughout the day, not dissimilar to what warriors would eat before going off to battle. Katara wasn't hungry but forced herself to eat it anyway.
"I'll stay in my own clothes, thanks." Toph's voice caused Katara to turn. Toph was waving off the options with a dismissive hand.
"I don't know if it's fair to make a blind girl fight," Nadhari said, wrapping her fingers as she exited the changing area, loud enough for Toph to hear.
"I'm fine, thanks," Toph sneered.
"Oh, now you're concerned about disabled people?" Suki muttered.
"I'm just not sure how a blind person can lead anyone, except for off a cliff," Nadhari continued, "They should do the kind thing and cut her from the competition now, before she's embarrassed out there."
"Ah, there it is." Suki rolled her eyes. "Ignore her," she said to Toph.
"It will be embarrassing," Toph spat, pushing past Suki, "But not for me, for whoever I fight! The fight will be over in a minute, tops."
"Wanna make it a bet?" Nadhari asked with a calculating grin.
"No!" Katara stood, intervening. "She has nothing to prove. Go bother someone else, great Tui."
"I coulda made some easy money off her," Toph said, pouting. "What gives?"
"Zuko probably wouldn't appreciate you robbing Nadhari's family blind," Aiga said, to which Toph gave a grumpy scowl. "Even if she deserves it," Aiga said in a low tone.
"Toph, eat an apple," Katara said before Toph repeated that loud enough to taunt Nadhari and got Aiga fired.
There was some commotion by the door. Katara turned to see the guards trying to shove someone into the hallway, barring them from the door.
"I'm just tryin' to see my baby sis!" Sokka argued, "You're really that heartless?"
Toph moved toward the door immediately, along with Katara and Suki.
"Women's room. Can't come in," Tahoe said sternly, narrowing his eyes at Sokka.
"I'll come out," Katara said with a calming smile to Tahoe. She stepped outside with Sokka and then led him down a different hall, out of the earshot of the curious eavesdroppers. "If you're here to get me to drop out right now, spirits, Sokka-"
"No! I mean, I think you should, but I know I'm not gonna change your mind. I have something for you."
Katara's frown vanished, replaced with surprise.
"Huh?"
"I sent a hawk to dad and explained it all, and I asked for this." Sokka opened his very nice bag he'd gotten from the Earth Kingdom and pulled out some tins. Katara opened it to see the ceremonial fighting paint. "If you're going to go out there, you might as well have the strength of a wolf."
"I don't…" Katara stared down, touched, "I don't know how to apply it right," she admitted. While she'd always been ready to spar anyone in her village that would take her on, Sokka had always been the one obsessed with the formal military practices of their people, including their war paint customs.
Sokka grinned. "But I do."
By the time he finished, Aiga was motioning that it was nearly time for the fights to begin. Katara turned to leave as Sokka was re-screwing the caps on the paint, but was caught by a strong grip. She turned and asked a half-question just as Sokka pulled her against him, hugging her near enough to cut off her air.
"Sokka!" she whined, but didn't mean it.
"Don't be an idiot," Sokka said, "Now, I know your track record isn't great with that-"
"Hey!"
"But for the love of all things ice," Sokka continued, his teasing tone dropped, "Don't leave me without someone to tease, right?" His words covered up his true fear as he reached out, tugging on a stray strand of hair.
Katara searched for a reply but her throat was dry and time was closing up on them. Instead, she nodded firmly and Sokka stepped back, allowing her to rejoin the group.
"Sweet makeup," Suki said with a wink. In the time Katara had been gone, she'd donned her traditional Kyoshi attire.
Zhi led the group through the halls. They took the back halls and found themselves in one of the cool-off rooms of the arena. In a box was each of the girl's weapons, if it were something that could be held. Katara's knife and sword were gleaming, ready for her.
"I just want you all to know before this happens," Zhi said, but her throat caught. She used a fabric square to dab her eyes. "You are all worthy of being Fire Lady, damn what this fight says. It's unprecedented and unfair. I think that you all should be able to make your own case to Prince Zuko, but it's not up to me to decide such things. I don't want anyone who loses to feel as though they are not good enough."
Katara was truly touched by her words. While it seemed Zhi was always half a second from suffering a stress-induced stroke, part of it came from how deeply she did care for the girls and how much she did want them to succeed. She was a tough love sort of mentor.
"Now," Zhi regained her composure, "For the fights, you are all allowed to watch if you so choose, or you may wait back here and practice or…" She paused. "Or do what you wish. A Fire Sage is randomly choosing the order for the Royal Family right now and- ah, here he is!" One of the Fire Sages, with his pointy cap, entered the room. "We will also be randomly choosing your order so that neither side knows who they are fighting until they go out there. The two girls going after the contestant currently fighting must be waiting on deck in here, as no one can guess how long a fight may or may not take. If you are not in line or you have already fought, you are free to go sit right up front or remain in here until the end of the fights. If you lose," The word seemed rough coming from her throat, "You will be dismissed after a celebratory dinner tonight. Do we have any questions?"
The room was deathly still. Zhi nodded to herself and raised a bag of clinking metal. She held it up and the Fire Sage reached into it.
"Wait! Do you already know the order on the other side?" Caecillia asked accusingly.
"No, Lady Caecillia," the sage replied, "They are choosing as we speak. This is truly a fair, random match-up."
"He's tellin' the truth," Toph confirmed, and for all that did believe her, most it seemed, it settled the nerves of the room. The sage picked out the first girl, grasping the metal coins that Katara had helped design.
"Lady Saoirse will go first."
Down the line, next to Kilee, Saoirse fainted upon hearing this. Zhi leapt over, waving a tiny fan over her face as Yue nervously moved her to a sitting position. Katara swallowed hard. Sure, everyone knew they'd be fighting at one point today, but first? Well, as confident as she was in her own skills, Katara was glad she was not first. She also hoped she wasn't last. A nice middle of the road position would suit her just fine.
She was picked fifth, which was earlier than she would have preferred, but at least she was going to get it out of the way. Suki was second, but she hardly seemed fazed. She just glanced back at Saoirse as though wondering if the girl would even be awake for her fight. Toph was near the end, right before Ty Lee.
The absolute last would be Ratana and Katara couldn't tell if she was happy about this or not.
As the line of girls went through a side door to sit down, Toph waited for Katara.
"I think I'm gonna just chill back here," Katara shrugged, "I'd have to come back here after Suki's fight anyway." The next-in-line had to wait at the edge of the arena hall, and the girl in-the-hole had to be in the backroom. It seemed like a better use of her time to practice back here with the weapon she had the least skill with: her dagger.
"Worried?" she asked Suki, who leaned against the pillar leading to the arena, watching a shaking Saoirse drag her weapons out and drop her knife on the way.
"Nah," Suki said. "It seems a bit silly, all of this. I just want to get it done. I'm not a show for anyone, not unless I want it to be." She was checking her fans as she spoke, flipping them and trailing her finger along the edges.
Katara had to agree.
She went to the back space where there were some feather-stuffed dummies waiting. She picked up her knife from her box, weighing it in her hand. She heard Ozai speaking into a microphone and welcoming everyone. Lots of purple prose, something about honor, something about courage, lots of bullshit. The clapping that followed was deafening. The arena must be completely packed to the brim, Katara realized. This did send her stomach into a weird curl.
The announcer's voice was booming enough so that as Katara flicked her knife, she could hear the announcement that Saoirse would be going up against Kuzon. She tried to get her throws right, but she wasn't sure if she was just bad with her aim or if her heart wasn't in the practice. By the time that they announced Kuzon as the winner - maybe about ten minutes later (and, it was incredible Saoirse held on that long), Katara abandoned her practice.
Anasemla was after Suki and Katara trotted over to the entrance, hoping maybe she could catch a glimpse of Suki's fight. She was sure it would be entertaining. Anaselma was blocking most of the way, frustraingly.
Saoirse stumbled back into the area, head held high and limping. Her lip was split and her hair was in disarray. It wasn't until she was in the safety of the white room that she broke down crying.
Just like that, there was one less girl was in the competition.
"'Luck," Katara said softly to Suki as Zhi motioned for her to come out, after a two-minute break in which a pair of earthbenders cleaned and reset the arena stage.
There were two ways a girl would be deemed unworthy. She would be rendered unable to fight by being knocked unconscious, or she could choose to take herself out, which is what Katara assumed Saoirse did. Saoirse's handmaid rushed around the glum girl, trying to patch her face.
There were two ways a girl could be deemed worthy. A Royal Family member could decide at any point that the contestant showed it through their fight, or (so as not to drag out the whole day) if a contestant and a Royal Family member were locked in a stalemate where neither were budging past half-an-hour, the lady would be declared the 'winner' and allowed to remain. With such seasoned warriors in the Royal Family, Katara doubted it would ever come to that.
Suki was set to face Azula, and there were murmurs in the crowd. Every Royal Family member was intimidating in their own way, but people seemed to feel the static about this match-up. It was probably the most interesting thing they had seen in a long time. Though Katara's view was cut off and she couldn't see more than a tiny square of the action, she could see that neither girl took long to leap into the fray.
There was lots of dust kicked up. Katara was regretting not sitting up front for this show. Everyone in back edged closer and closer, hoping to see what was going on.
The crowd reacted in waves that seemed tied to a flicker of something through the dust. There were grand 'oohs' and 'ahhs' and gasps as Katara caught the whip of a fan slicing through the air, a burst of a flame so warm Katara could feel hints of the heat far in the back, or an arm or leg or half of a body skidding before they got back up again; Suki and Azula seemed to be falling equally as often to the other, but neither were budging out of the competition.
Even with almost no way to truly see what was going on, Katara was captivated. So were the others in the back; Anaselma edged forward in interest, Smellerbee frowned, and Saoirse tried not to look as curious as she was, but it was hard to resist.
At one point, there was a loud thud followed by a moan Katara knew to be Suki, and she inhaled sharply, "Oh, come on, Su…"
Katara didn't think she could stand the palace if Suki went, even if she was in direct competition with her. Luckily, she saw Suki's foot standing up and standing strong and said a prayer of thanks.
Her original theory about the time and length of the fight was shot out of the water pretty quickly. Katara was so engrossed that she startled when she heard the announcer's voice cut through the noise.
"We have reached the half-an-hour mark. By the decree of the Fire sages Lady Suki is deemed worthy!"
The crowd yelled and clapped. As the dust settled around them, Katara watched as Azula raised her chin, refusing a hand or any sort of congratulations. Suki was beaming and could hardly be bothered as she returned into the cool-off area, smile as bright as the North Star.
"Oh my gosh, that was so fun!" Suki said as she grabbed a glass of water. Her makeup was nearly wiped clean away, and in the places it wasn't, the white was now a dirty brown. "It reminded me of sparring with you. Course, I would have loved to beat her truly, but she's tougher than I expected."
"Lady Suki, you can wash off now if you want," Suki's handmaid offered. Suki hugged Katara.
"I'll try to be fast to see your fight."
"If you aren't, any advice?" Katara asked, a bit overwhelmed. Katara was just now realizing, as Suki had made this seem like a cake-walk or a fun afternoon activity, the differences between the pair of them. Suki had been training as an official warrior her whole life. Katara had her own will-power and a few lessons from a master, but could she really beat a seasoned bender? Especially since it was outside of a full moon. Would her choice be made by the trial of circumstance?
"Keep away from walls. Don't let whoever you fight back you into a wall."
By the time Suki left her, Anaselma's fight had already begun, against General Iroh. Katara had only seen Anaselma fight a few times. She knew her to be steady in her practice, and some said she had true talent.
This fight was much less dusty. Though Katara could still only see a small fraction of the fights, it was clear from the start that Anaselma was indeed a good earthbender. Not like Toph, but still quite seasoned. She was steadfast and slow-moving, methodical. Unmoveable, like earth. Katara at first thought she might actually win. Earth against fire was a toss-up; it was anyone's game. They were not a weakness when played against each other, but the opposite of that was not a strength, just a solid imbalance.
Then, Anaselma began to be pushed back against a wall, just like Suki had warned. At first, Katara couldn't understand how steadily this had been happening, until she caught sight of Iroh. If anyone was going to be good at responding with patience and deliberate moves, it was certainly him. That wasn't what was giving him the upper hand; no, what cued Katara in to what he was doing, as she caught Aang's confused expression across the arena, was the realization that he was using a movement she'd never seen a firebender do.
And that's when it hit her; the way he was swirling the flames and heating the area was not a firebending move, it was an airbending move. Katara had only seen Aang bend air a few times, but she recognized the way he used his fingers instead of fists and his body instead of his toes.
She and Aang likely had similar, stupefied expression that translated to the same idea: how in the name of the spirit world did Iroh know any airbending moves?
It was a good tactic. Just as fire's adversary was water, earthbending - which was tied to the ground - was pitted against air. And, when it came down to one element duking out the other, it was now about who could use it better.
This was Iroh, hands down.
Anaselma was a good earthbender, but she'd only ever had to fight against firebenders and other earthbenders. Though Iroh was pressing fire from his hands, Anaselma was completely unprepared to face his forms, and she was struggling.
It wasn't until she was at the back of the wall, directly across from the entrance to the competitor's locker room, that she waved a hand.
"I yield! I yield!"
Iroh would have never hurt her, no, but she clearly realized she was in too deep over her head to fight him. Iroh helped her up, and though he had a shade of sorrow on his face, he did not seem terribly sad about the fact that she would be leaving.
At least Saoirse managed to hold her composure until she was back in the safety of the room, whereas Anaselma was leaking tears before she got half-way across the arena.
"You did really well," Smellerbee tried to compliment her.
"Not well enough," Anasemla said, going sadly toward the showers.
Smellerbee realized that it was now her turn. The small girl was nervous, chewing on her lip. She turned, looking for some sort of encouragement, but the girls left were Katara and now Mai, who was going after. Katara didn't know her well enough, and wasn't too pleased with her all things considered, and Katara doubted Mai would ever give out any sort of soft assurances.
"I hope it's Ozai," Smellerbee said, just before she walked out, just loud enough for Katara to hear.
"Don't be stupid," Katara spat under her breath.
"I need to fix it."
It would be suicide to murder Ozai at the fights, and that was if she could even get close enough to do the job. But perhaps Smellebee realized this. Perhaps she wanted it. You did really idiotic things when you wanted to show your worth to someone.
"Lady Besu versus Prince Lu Ten!"
Katara sighed in relief. There would be no Fire Lord killings today.
"What did that mean?" Mai asked, startling Katara.
"Huh?"
"That exchange." Mai didn't miss a thing, and certainly not this. "Should there be reason for concern?" Her voice was completely monotone, but for some reason, Katara had the idea that she actually did care.
"I don't think so," Katara said, speaking truthfully. No, the Freedom Fighters weren't harmless. The foiled smuggling of the poison had proven that. However, she got the idea that Jet was the brains of the operation. Smellerbee might try something, but Katara doubted she'd get to the finish line before she flubbed and got caught.
Katara, closer to the front, had a slightly better vantage this time. Smellerbee was like a little hog-monkey, running up the sides of the arena, using them to her benefit instead of a trap she didn't want to be caught in. Katara wondered if she'd heard Suki's advice and changed her plans, or if this was her tactic all along?
She was impossible to catch, so unrefined. The way she lashed out was something Katara recognized; raw and unfettered, the likes of someone who had never been properly trained or had been raised by nature. Lu Ten, who was his father's patience and his military's rigidness, didn't know how to respond to her. He was trying, but whenever he shot fire at her, she was already three steps (or leaps) ahead, and it was near impossible to gauge where she'd be next. For the most part, she stayed far away from Lu Ten, at least a yard between them.
It became clear to Katara, and likely to Lu Ten, that she was trying to spin and disorient him. He managed to catch her with a burn as he spun and she momentarily dropped and hit the ground, though she managed to roll.
With the momentum of her fall, she stretched her arm out, trying to slice Lu Ten's ankles with her knife. At first, it seemed like she'd missed, as Lu Ten easily avoided it. The true deception was clear a second later when she caught him by the legs. Already off-balance from avoiding the swishing blade, he tumbled to the ground. Smellerbee acted like she was going for his chest plate, causing him to try to push the knife from his most precious organs, but at the last second the knife sank into the dirt, showing she was never going for that place.
But, once again, it had been carefully spun. With his hands otherwise preoccupied, he was unable to catch himself or fall gracefully. His chin hit the arena floor with a crack that echoed. Smellerbee darted back, knife out, waiting. Katara held her breath, heart hammering.
With a low groan, Lu Ten cracked an eye open. He rubbed his jaw, wincing.
"Great gods; she's good," he said, waving a hand off, "She passes."
Smellerbee hesitated, as though expecting him to come rushing at her at the last second. How awful to always expect the other person to be playing some elaborate game. However, Smellbee had been playing a bit dirty, so no doubt that was what she'd been taught. Katara doubted the Freedom Fighters had ever waged a fair war in their life.
It wasn't until the earthbenders came out to clear the area that Smellerbee realized she truly had won the match. She ran back into the locker room, flexing her fingers as she dropped her knife.
"Spirits, I think you broke his jaw," Avizeh sputtered to Smellerbee, "Oh, you'd better hope you didn't. Can you imagine how furious the Royals would be?"
"They knew what they were getting into," Mai said calmly. "It was impressive." She gave a swift nod to Smellerbee. "I doubt Lu Ten expected to be bested by a skinny little thing like you." It was almost a compliment.
As Katara turned, she realized with a stab of panic that she was up next. Her whole body felt like it was made of ice, completely fragile.
She forced herself to walk out into the arena. As she came to the crowd, she was overcome by how many people were shoved in there. It was almost nauseating. She faintly heard some cheers louder than others. She turned to see Sokka on his feet in the stands, whooping and wolf-whistling. Arrluck was standing too, and clapping. Hama and Pakku were seated not far away. Pakku gave her what perhaps was a smile, though it was hard to tell from so far away. Hama just narrowed her eyes in interest.
Katara felt for her two physical weapons. The second thing she registered was...there were no water barrels set up in the arena. And there were no movements that anyone was going to place them there.
She wanted to scream. They'd been told specifically by the Fire Sages that, just as their weapons were restricted in number, they were not allowed to bring aids to their bending skills. Toph had sputtered and cussed that she couldn't bring a ball of metal to ping-pong off someone's forehead, but figured she could find metal elsewhere in the arena.
Katara had assumed this was a precautions so she couldn't bring like, liquid poison or something in. She didn't think that Ozai would so obviously be trying to cut her off at her ankles, but since she had not been allowed to bring her water skin in, she was without waterbending at all as it seemed currently. And she wanted to really punch someone in reguards to this clear disadvantage; firebenders brought fire from their hands, earthbenders had the stage...waterbenders were clearly the odd one out.
"Goddamn you, Ozai," Katara hissed to herself. He had to make this difficult, huh?
Even before her opponent entered the arena, Katara could tell from the shadow of the silhouette that she had a dance with the devil again.
In the background, she caught the expressions of the rest of the Royal Family. Iroh and Aang looked deeply concerned, Lu Ten was glaring as he placed a pack of ice to his face, Ozai was expressionless, and Zuko met her gaze.
Be safe, he mouthed.
It was a fair warning and a plea, because she knew for sure that Azula was not going to go easy on her.
"Princess Katara verses Princess Azula!"
She had to think fast. She swung her head around and caught Toph trying to goad Suki, who had just returned - hair still wet from her shower - into lowering her over the safety railing of their front-row arena seats so Toph could press her hands against the walls, and in essence, 'see' the upcoming fight. At the corner of her vision was Hama.
For the briefest of seconds, Katara almost felt pressured to fuck their rules and terrify everyone by bloodbending. She wanted to be shown she was no fool without a water bucket and puppet Azula around like she deserved; she almost thought her anger alone would be enough power to do so. Hama was watching Katara; it was what the older lady clearly wanted her protege to do and as much as Katara was teetering on the edge of it...
She looked at Iroh and Lu Ten. At Zuko. She'd be thrown out. She'd be told she was a monster. She'd loose everything, if she could even muster the power to bend without the moon. She had to figure something else out.
She would take Hama's advice however; be like the water. Adapt.
She had no water tubs and did not have her water skin. It would take far too long to work up a usable sweat, and against Azula, Katara did not feel confident about going in with just a knife and a sword.
So, she did possibly the most undignified and disgusting thing she could have done, but hey, it worked.
She collected saliva in her mouth and spit into her hand. Half the crowd responded with cheers, the other half looked horrified. Hama was not quite smiling; she was probably thinking there was so much blood around that it was silly to use this, but Katara would not. Pakku was...pleased looking?
She did not have any more time to consider her options. Azula came running at her, full force, and spun a half-arc of fire right down where Katara had been standing a second before.
Katara had to keep her wits about her.
The crowd around them faded from her consciousness. There was enough to keep focused on here. The world around the pair seemed to move away; the noise, the amount of spectators, their responses...it all was far away and vague, like someone had muted them.
Katara used her spit to form little ice disks and sent them careening toward Azula. She knew that running around would dry up her throat quickly, but for now, she had to use what she had.
Azula blocked each disk like she was batting away a fly, evaporating them before they even got close enough to hurt. It was enough to keep Azula on defense for a bit, however, and kept her from advancing toward Katara, while Katara parried away and danced a sort of warrior's jig with Azula. Every time Azula stepped forward, Katara stepped back and left, or back and right. She was careful to stay at least a foot away from the walls.
It was exhausting.
Katara could not decide how much time had passed, but it felt like eons. Unlike if she were fighting Lu Ten or Iroh, in which case she would know this was more of a show, she was not unconvinced that Azula wouldn't be trying for-kill shots. Some of the barrels of fire that Katara leapt out of the way from seemed to uphold this theory, and she felt a growing sense of panic.
If she were smarter, she'd yield.
Katara laughed bitterly to herself; no, she wasn't that smart and she was far too stubborn.
By the time Azula had clearly grown tired of their back and forth, Katara had worked up enough of a sweat to pull from her body. As the fire gleamed against Azula's face, Katara saw a sheen of sweat on her, too. She knew that firebenders did not burn themselves, but they were not unaffected by the heat near their face, warming their bodies.
Azula was sweating up a storm. And Katara, who was dangerously low on water-sources, was not going to be picky where liquid came from.
Katara pulled forward, picking up the induvidual beads of sweat from Azula's skin, bringing a ball of water out from in front of the Fire Princess' eyes. Azula was so shocked and almost offended for a second that Katara got the upper-hand for a scariest second. She slid the water down into a slippery slope, turning the space below into pure ice and Azula skidded, almost losing her balance. Recalling how Smellerbee had used this moment to her advantage, Katara threw a couple more ice-daggers Azula's way.
A burst of fire exploded from Azula's hands, melting the water beneath her and evaporating the daggers.
"Now, Princesses," she said in a cruel tone, "You've made me angry."
"You weren't before?" Katara asked, confused and unsure.
"I consistently underestimate you," Azula confirmed, which was startling to hear, and Katara did not believe it for a second. Azula was just trying to get her to under-use her powers, Katara was sure, buttering her up with empty words.
Katara spied the water underneath Azula's feet, and instead of trying to summon the water from the ground, she instead took more sweat from her own body and tried to mix the earth and water more together. No, she could not control the earth, but she could control how the water moved through the earth.
The ground beneath Azula's feet collapsed. She buckled, yelping at the unexpected loss of footing. She threw out a fire dagger at Katara, which just brushed across her bare shoulder. It would have broiled her skin had it made contact, and as it was, she was sure she would have the equivalent of a sunburn there.
Katara pulled the water up, sealing Azula's foot in the earth and encasing the rest of her leg in an ice-block, rendering her basically one-legged.
As Azula yanked her leg, steam billowing from her nose as she furiously exhaled, Katara ran at her with her sword.
Azula defended all the while incapacitated, showing her true skills. She was magnificent, Katara realized. She'd never really seen Azula fight before, but she was just as good up-close as she was far away. And, to be frank, Katara was worse the closer she got. Waterbending was best fought a mile across the way. It wasn't exactly a contact sport.
It was fleeting, but Katara was sure she was going to win. She thought the timer would run up or Azula would admit defeat, unable to get her leg completely free and having cracked it a strange angle in their hand-to-hand combat.
Katara was just about to press the sharp side of the knife to Azula's neck and demand that she announced Katara as the winner, when Azula did something unexpected. Azula grasped Katara's neck, she put heat on it, and she tightened her grip.
Katara could have still won. She could have ignored this fear and pressed on. It was a shaky hold at best, Azula not quite able to get the angle right, and all it would have taken was one firm movement for Azula's grip to undoubtedly detach, but Katara was not herself. She was in the body of her life a thousand years ago. That old soldier who killed the Painted Lady had grasped her neck in such a similar way and shook her like a ragdoll, and for a moment, all Katara could see was death. She could smell it, the way it curled up around her as she recalled how her life had drained away.
She fell backwards, breaking their grip, her knife falling. Azula grasped the knife and used it to free herself, hacking away at the ice and the earth to break her leg to the surface. She glanced at it and snorted before throwing it far across the arena. She did a motion that Katara didn't recognize, started to extend two fingers on each hand out, but then paused.
"Do you yield to me, savage?" she asked, examining Katara with a sense of curiousness. Even the slur word seemed not to hold as much meaning behind it as it should have, like she was just repeating the words mechanically. Katara tried to pull herself from her own past, breathing in hard despite how her throat felt sore, but she was hit with a wave upon wave of memory.
"Are you going to give me what I want, whore?" the Fire Nation guard asked, slapping the Painted Lady's human face. Katara felt the burn of it, the feel of the fire as it sliced across her skin, leaving a red angry mark.
"Never. Not to you, akuma," she responded with just as much venom.
Katara processed her own words a second later. She wasn't sure what 'akuma' meant, but it had been pulled from some murky part of her being. Even if Katara didn't know it, Azula did, from the nearly imperceptible gleam of surprise that flashed across her golden eyes. Then, Azula seemed to come to a decision, something that settled on her face.
Katara inhaled, closing her eyes and waited for the inevitable. Perhaps it would be all warm and hot, and it would be agonizing. Perhaps it would feel like nothing.
She fully expected Azula to say something in her clipped tone and do something awful, but instead Azula dropped her hands. She blinked three times and time stood still.
"She can pass," Azula said, almost lazily, as though making a choice about what color to paint her bedroom.
Katara nearly did not believe it. Out of all the very unexpected turns that this fight could have taken, Azula giving up seemed impossible. She spun and saw Zuko staring at Azula with his jaw dropped, scrutinizing her with such a look of distrust that she knew she was right to think this had to be a ploy.
Instead, Azula waltzed by Katara, leaving her in the dirt, and leaving the victory seem hollow.