A/N: Hello Friends! I am sorry to report that my upload schedule is going to be a bit slower for a while. I will try to upload every other Tuesday. Even every other week will be a stretch for me to get written right now, but I will do my best! I want to finish this story off right, but alas it will take more time to do it well. I very much appreciate your patience!
…
Katara paced the small length of her room for the umpteenth time. Impatience, worry, and frustration taking turns swirling inside her, each demanding that she do something.
But what could she do? She hadn't been let out of her cell in three days.
Three nights ago, the evening after her ill-advised fight with the Crown Princess, Katara had been brought to Aang's room as usual. But when he'd arrived, he'd been nearly despondent—clearly drowning in misery—in a more emotionally concerning state than she'd ever seen him before. Katara had wanted to know what was wrong, but Aang hadn't seemed able to tell her. Like he couldn't bear to say whatever it was out loud. All she could think to do was to hold him in her arms.
That was the last time she'd seen him.
It hadn't taken long to find out what had happened. The very next morning she'd heard the gossip.
Usually when her guards' morning shift came to relieve the night duty, their exchanges were little more than murmured crossness, or perhaps a low curse here or there. More often than not it was nothing more than a silent, sleepy changing of stations. But that morning, Katara had been woken early by the guards's excited voices carrying even through the carved wooden door behind the metal bars.
"…to his sister!"
"She's not really his sister, dim-whit! The Avatar's not even Fire Nation!"
"I know that, you ash-brain! But still. Like, sheesh! They've been acting like siblings since they were kids. It's weird, I say!"
"I still can't believe the Firelord's letting an Air Nomad marry into the royal family!" a third voice had chimed in.
Katara's brain had snapped from the hazy muddle of interrupted sleep to a sudden alertness. The muffled words sending her stomach sinking into the floor. What?
"But he's the Avatar!"
"So what!? He's still one of the them."
Katara had gotten up and placed her shaking hand against the wood, anchoring herself, as she listened.
"Hey, if the royal family wants to climb into each other's beds, then who's to stop them?"
"Well I didn't say anything about stopping them. I just say it's more than just a little kinky."
Laughter and the sound of jostling bodies. Then another spoke up.
"Hey stop laughing you guys! The Firelord said it was Agni's will—"
"They always claim "Agni's will" Kikuo, you know that! It's all just smoke they breath so they can do whatever they want—"
"Hey you watch your mouth! If Agni decrees it then—"
"Shut up about Agni, Kikuo. We're tired of hearing you…"
Their words continued to swirl around Katara incomprehensibly as she braced her back on the door and slid to the ground. The Avatar… Aang… was engaged… to Fire Princess Azula? Disbelief had buzzed painfully inside Katara's head.
Since then Katara had been through a gamut of emotions: anger, hurt, betrayal. An incredible feeling of stupidity! What had she been thinking?! Playing games and kissing the Avatar—pretending away the war and the lies? How long had Aang even been with the Crown Princess? Had he been stringing Katara along all this time?! Had he thought that being with Katara, making her fall in lo… no, making her care for him, was all one of his stupid games?!
But whenever her thoughts would take her down this angry path—her fists clenching so tight they would blanch as she'd storm back and forth in her small room—it would never last. Eventually her mind would circle around to the tender way Aang had touched her, the overflowing care in his eyes that she knew was only for her, his genuine laughter ringing an aching lost tune in her ears. She would recall the absolutely devastated state he'd been in on the night of his betrothal. And Katara would know, deep inside that Aang had not been deceiving her. Her anger couldn't hold. Even though she'd hungered for an outlet for her anger—and Aang seemed like an easy target—she simply couldn't believe that he'd done this on purpose.
Which was perhaps even more tragic. That he had been as sincere and stupid as she had.
Katara was still filled with anger—at Azula, the Fire Nation, this whole endless war! But she wasn't angry with Aang. Not beyond the small sense of betrayal she felt that he hadn't told her about his engagement himself. She'd been there. That night. And yet he hadn't said.
Not that it would have changed things.
A day had passed. And then another. She'd expected to be summoned for the Avatar's waterbending instruction, but both days: nothing. Katara had known that her nights of visiting Aang in his room were surely over, but now she began to worry that she may not see him again at all. Ever. She didn't know if she could deal with that.
She'd rehearsed over and over what she could say… what she would do when she saw him next. But nothing felt right.
It probably didn't matter. Since she'd likely never get the chance…
Katara had dealt with loss before: when she'd lost her mother; her tribe; the people she'd been unable to save in the rebellion. Those were all terrible things that had shaped who she was, and had become foundational to her identity. They were past pains that fueled her purposes today.
But somehow losing Aang felt different. Like she was somehow losing her future. Like the infant hope she had unwittingly hung her whole heart on had miscarried, leaving her feeling gutted, empty, and foolish. And all the while she couldn't help but berate herself, because she had known better!
Deep in her heart she'd always known that trying to hold onto Aang was like trying to grip the wind in her fingers. And yet she had allowed herself to hope anyway.
Katara stopped her pacing for a moment and withdrew the note Aang had given her as she'd left his room that night. She hadn't known what it was at the time, and frankly in the wake of how upset Aang had been, and the crushing news of the morning after, she'd forgotten about it for a time. But when she'd finally opened it, the message had sent her straight to the ground.
Katara unfolded the note now and read it again, even though she could have recited it by heart.
Hey Katfish,
Long time no see! Almost like being back from the dead, eh?
Didn't expect to find you here—wish you'd stayed away frankly. But when two fishhooks get stuck in the same thumb, what can you do but rip them out together? I'm kind of tied up at the moment, but I'm looking into what can be done.
Stay safe,
-S-
The words had been carefully chosen. If the note were to be apprehended by someone unfriendly, little could be discerned of its meaning, who it was meant for, or who sent it.
But Katara knew. Her brother had made himself unmistakable.
Of course Katara had already known Sokka was here in Caldera City somewhere, or she never would have come to the Fire Nation in the first place.
She'd first heard his name mentioned during a strategy meeting with the leaders of the Rebellion. Someone had suggested discretely eliminating a water tribesman from the South living in Caldera City, one who was working for the Firelord. His inventions had been a scourge to their cause for years now.
"Is the water tribesman Sokka?" Uncle Iroh had asked. The informant had nodded. Iroh had quickly dismissed the suggestion, stating simply that the man in question had been an asset to the rebellion in the past, and he was not to be touched.
Katara's heart had caught in her throat when she'd heard Sokka's name. She had scarcely believed it! But when she'd asked Uncle to know more about Sokka, Uncle had side-stepped her questions, telling her that the less she knew the safer all of them would be. Katara knew that Iroh kept things from her: he had his secret networks and undisclosed secondary plans. But this one upset her.
Later that night she'd confronted Zuko in private about it. She'd demanded that if her brother was indeed alive and in the Fire Nation, that they needed to mount an immediate rescue! Zuko had tried to explain the futility of such a mission; he'd used words like "inadequate resources right now" and "unlikely to succeed" and "too high of an opportunity cost for the Rebellion." Needless to say Katara had been furious, and they'd both ended up yelling things they'd regret. The care Katara and Zuko had for one another was fierce, but they'd always been that way—like fuel on a flame.
Katara had left in a fume before morning, not telling anyone where she was going. If the leaders of the Rebellion felt the need to keep information from her, then she sure didn't feel obligated to tell them about her plans.
Only later did she regret not saying goodbye.
She'd come to Caldera City for the sole purpose of finding Sokka. The "opportunity"
to teach the Avatar waterbending had only come in a desperate moment, as a last ditch effort to save her own neck.
A lump rose in Katara's throat as she looked down at her brother's messy scrawl in her hand; she'd fingered the note so much the paper felt soft like fabric. She'd come here to rescue him, but of course Sokka would manage to find her first! She might have even been a bit annoyed if she hadn't been so damn relieved.
Katara rubbed the soft paper between her fingers, her thoughts returning to Aang once again. Always, always her thoughts circled back to Aang. He had given her the note. Aang had seen Sokka. She wished so desperately to ask him what he knew of her brother.
But with how she had antagonized the Crown Princess, compounded with the news of Aang's engagement, Katara didn't know if she would ever get the chance. Would she be allowed to continue teaching the Avatar? Or would she be locked up forever? Or perhaps, if she was no longer useful, the Firelord would simply rid himself of her altogether?
The grinding of a key turning in the outer door of her room had Katara snapping around to face it, hope and uncertainty battling with equal strength within her.
When the doors swung open, a guard walked in, extending her usual handcuffs towards her.
"Where are you taking me?" she asked, a bit of accusation in her voice.
He looked at her as though she were daft. "To teach the Avatar, of course, where did you think?"
Relief and hope washed over Katara. She was being taken to see Aang! She had worked herself up so much that the routineness of it felt completely unbelievable.
But when Katara entered the outer vestibule of the arena, her relief turned to trepidation. There waiting before the giant wooden doors was Counselor Zhao.
"Ah, Master Katara!" he greeted with a duplicitous smile.
Katara stood up straighter and looked past him to the giant doors, hoping she'd be lucky enough to simply walk through them and forego talking with Zhao. But it would appear luck was not favoring her today, as the great doors remained closed.
"Have you heard the news? The Avatar will be marrying Princess Azula. I understand the ceremony is meant to be hastened as quickly as possible," Zhao's voice gloated viciously.
Katara swallowed the genuine pain these words caused her, being sure to keep her face impassive. "I've heard."
Zhao sauntered toward her, the way he let his eyes wander over her made her skin crawl. "Looks like the Avatar's evenings will soon be busy with… other pursuits. I'm sorry to inform you that your stint warming his bed is surely a thing of the past."
To her horror, tears began to prick in her eyes. Katara angrily willed her mind away from the image of Aang being with Azula.
"But no worries," Zhao's sordid voice continued as he stepped closer to her, his shadow blocking out the lights from the windows. "The Avatar was young and inexperienced anyway. Perhaps I can spare some time to show you what the vigor of a real man is like." He brought one large hand up and brushed the side of her face with the back of it.
Katara beat his hand away with both of her cuffed hands. Zhao sucked in his breath as the metal from her handcuffs connected forcefully with the bones of his wrist. "You stay away from me, Zhao!"
With an angry grimace on his face, Counselor Zhao grabbed the chain between her hands and yanked her up against him. "Or what, water wench?! The Avatar's temporary interest in you is gone. Any power that your sway with him might once have given you is no more."
He then pushed her away gruffly, and she stumbled to the ground. Zhao stood above her and ironed down his shirt with his hands, taking a breath to regain his composure. When he spoke again, despite the false calm in his voice, his words filled Katara with chilling dread.
"You would be wise not to antagonize me, woman. I've recently heard tell that a certain Water Tribe slave in Research & Development has been asking about you… someone by the name of Sokka, I believe. He's been paying good money to my captain for information on you. I'd really hate for your behavior to cause anything to happen to him."
Zhao stepped past her towards the building's exit, but stopped once more, looking back dismissively at her on the ground. "I have no real time for a water-whore like you anyway. What I really want from you is for the Avatar to complete his waterbending training! Be sure that you turn all your energy toward that endeavor. And I'll see what I can do to keep your brother safe."
…..
Katara's hands were shaking when she walked into the Avatar's training arena, her heart pounding in her ears. She was still reeling from Zhao's words—a new icy worry gripping her heart.
And now she had to face Aang.
She didn't know if she could do this.
Katara blinked in the bright sunlight. And when her eyes adjusted, there he was: Aang. He was standing on the other side of the arena—a sight she genuinely hadn't known if she would ever see again. Katara's heart thrummed wildly in her chest. She thought she might cry. Or run to him. Or run away! Suddenly she cursed herself for never having figured out what she should say to him, for never having planned out the right words!
She admonished herself to get her emotions under control! What was wrong with her? She needed to keep herself together!
Willing herself to calm down, she walked towards Aang. In most ways he looked exactly the same, and yet somehow totally altered. Gone was the contagious spark of joy he'd always exuded. He stood when she approached, his body strangely stiff. Katara noticed a small split on his lower lip.
"Master Katara," Aang bowed formally to her when she stopped several paces away.
"Avatar Aang," she replied, her voice quieter, less sure than she intended.
They stood awkwardly for a moment, neither one knowing what to say next. Aang avoided her eye. It felt so wrong. Like her best friend had forgotten her name.
There were too many things she couldn't say.
Are you okay? I missed you. I worried I'd never see you again.
I heard about your engagement…
I still love you.
The words she couldn't speak blared loudly between them.
"What happened to your lip?" Katara asked, wishing she could recall the question the minute the words were out. What a stupid thing to ask!
Aang's hand moved to his split lip, his eyes darting to the second story balcony. Katara followed his gaze: Azula stood at the banister, watching them both cooly. Aang's eyes then turned to the floor under his feet, his face draining of color. "It's nothing."
The sight of the Crown Princess seemed to snap something into place for Katara. She was here because she had a job to do. And clearly she was being observed to see that she did it. She had to focus. Focus on teaching Aang. To keep Sokka safe. To keep them all safe.
Katara gathered her wits and huffed out a great sigh. "Well, shall we begin then?"
Together they began to work through some of their basic katas, routines they could each do in their sleep. Guiding a small stream of water in the air, Katara tried to let her thoughts go, to let her body simply lead. The ease of these katas was just what Katara needed, the familiarity soon bringing her heartbeat back down to a semi-normal pace.
Katara tried not to look at Aang. But even without looking she could sense him there, guiding the water as easily as she did, their movements as in sync with one another as a single wave moving back and forth on the sand.
Suddenly Katara regretted all the time she'd squandered with Aang—all the hours they'd spent talking about everything, but really nothing at all! She knew they both had, in a sort of unspoken pact, decided to avoid topics that could be problematic. Neither wanted to challenge the tentative bliss they'd make-believed into reality. But now Katara regretted not telling him so many things. About the Air Nomad genocide, the hundred years of war, and what the Fire Nation was doing now. She wished she'd answered his question about why she was here, and told him about her brother, and about the Rebellion. She'd known those topics could have easily earned her immediate execution. But now that didn't seem as big a tragedy as having squandered her chance! The alternative now felt so much worse. Forever knowing that she could have told him, but never did. And now she never would. She knew that not telling him was its own kind of betrayal: it was choosing to let him stay in the prison of lies the Firelord had fashioned for him.
As she continued the kata, Katara looked up at the surrounding balconies: Yuyuan Archers paced ever-attentive on every side (more of them than usual, she noted), the Crown Princess herself watched them carefully, her claw-like nails tapping the banister. For a moment Azula caught Katara's eye—and the princess smiled, triumph clear in her golden gaze. Her eyes dared Katara to challenge her.
Katara broke her eyes away from Azula, and took a deep breath, moving deeper into a lunge. She couldn't risk stirring up any trouble. Azula looked more than ready to act, if she saw any.
But Katara knew that now more than ever—with Sokka's life now in the balance as well—she absolutely couldn't afford any missteps.
….
Azula's nails tapped consecutive staccatos on the wooden railing. Thus far today she had not observed anything taboo in Aang's waterbending instruction, but that fact didn't seem to lessen her discomfort.
Of course she knew that the other elements were all inferior to Fire, but there was something especially aggravating about observing waterbending. The softness, the constant redirection, the seeming inherent intimacy of it. She knew that so far today nothing between Aang and his teacher could be construed as inappropriate—they had not even gotten close to one another—but even so, something about the way they moved in tandem still rankled her. The way they both coaxed the water, like a caress, seemed as sensual as a touch.
"You'll never really own him you know." The boredom in Mai's drawl was unmistakable.
Azula glanced to the side. Mai wasn't here. But she answered under her breath anyway. "You're wrong. I already own him."
"Sure. Believe what you want. But you don't own Aang anymore than you owned me."
"I did own you!" Azula spat. But she quickly bit off her words, noting the quick glance of the Yuyuan closest to her.
Azula wished that Ty Lee was here. Her presence always seemed to ground Azula. But of course Ty Lee was off with her new fling again today. Azula rolled her eyes thinking of how shamelessly her friend was pursuing that inventor from Research & Development. Azula scoffed; Ty Lee didn't seem to even care that he was a lowly tribesman.
But the thought quickly doused Azula in a cold flush. She was self-aware enough not to miss the hypocrisy of her thoughts as she hungrily watched the way Aang's Air Nomad tattoos glimmered in the slow, languid movements of the water kata. Azula knew she was a hypocrite. That Aang was from an inferior race, and yet she still desired him. But Azula had long since decided not to care. Who could ever be truly worthy of the Crown Princess of the Fire Nation anyway? If not the Avatar, she justified, then she didn't know who.
She smiled, knowing that she had won. Aang was hers now, and soon to be officially so. The engagement party would take place next week, and then, after three days of celebration, the marriage would be performed at sunrise on the last day.
But even now, before the marriage, she already owned him—couldn't she still taste him in her mouth from just a moment ago? And still feel his hands on her body? Surely he loved her now too? At least it felt like he did. The way he stirred her.
Azula's eyes turned to the water peasant and narrowed.
Azula had been ready to get rid of the waterbender, but Zhao had balked, claiming that Aang still needed Master Katara to teach him waterbending. Azula was as happy as ever to disregard Zhao, but when she thought of what Father expected—a true 'Master of All Four Elements' by the time they left for the Earthlands—Azula had decided to allow Aang to continue training with the water wench. It would only be a short time yet. And honestly Azula could hardly care less about the peasant, beyond her usefulness to them now.
So she allowed this. For now. Her hawkish eyes watching for any reason to change her mind.
…..
"I'm sorry, Katara."
Aang's voice was hardly audible above the rushing wash of water. They had moved on from the warm-up katas to new material: today they were calling up the entire contents of the large water vats and commanding it to go this way and that at their will. Although definitely advanced, these moves were not nearly as difficult as they were visually impressive. Aang guessed that Katara had chosen them for this very reason.
The added bonus was that it was loud. Which was why Aang felt that he could say anything at all to Katara.
For a moment he wasn't sure if she had heard him above the splashing din. Aang knew the words were inadequate. But he couldn't think of any words that could possibly fill the immensity of what he felt.
But Katara's answer finally came, even as her eyes remained averted from him. "I know."
Aang didn't doubt that Katara already knew of his engagement to Azula—he wondered if there was a soul in the Fire Nation who didn't know by now—but even if there had been a chance she hadn't heard… Aang had seen by one look at her that morning that she knew. And his gut had filled with shame, with mourning, and with the terrible, gnawing truth that he could never be with the one he truly loved, even though she stood right in front of him.
"I didn't mean to… I mean, I don't want to marry Azula…"
Katara's jaw clenched, in anger at him or someone else he didn't know. She still kept her eyes away from him as she moved the vast waves back and forth around the arena.
Aang didn't want to marry Azula. But he knew what happened when he disobeyed the Firelord: those he cared about got hurt. Like Appa. And Master Bo.
Master Bo had been Aang's first Earthbending Sifu. He'd been a short man—shorter even than Aang had been at fourteen—but Master Bo was solidly built, his head as hard and bald as a boulder. And Aang had liked him. He'd laughed easily even as he'd pummeled Aang with his grueling exercises. Earthbending had been difficult for Aang, the element that had caused him the most trouble without a doubt. But he had learned under Master Bo, even if slowly.
Master Bo had liked to talk, and laugh, and he'd told the most fantastical stories while they'd trained! About ancient lion-turtles who'd carried the world on their backs, and a library holding all the world's knowledge that was buried in a desert, and about a spirit that stole your face if you showed emotion.
He'd told him Avatar stories as well. Of Avatar Hong who had bent the air and water in the sky into a rainbow as a wedding gift for his childhood sweetheart when she'd married another man; of Avatar Kyoshi who'd cut an island from the mainland with lava and her fans; and of Avatar Roku who had quarreled with his friend resulting in a hundred years of war…
"And what stories will they tell of Avatar Aang?" Master Bo had turned towards him in the arena that day, stopping his story and his instruction to look at Aang in a rare moment of sobriety, the twinkling mirth his eyes usually held no where to be seen.
It had been the last thing Master Bo had ever said. For an arrow had hit him a breath later—a Yuyuan Archer having shot him down. Aang had screamed, and nearly gone full Avatar State, but the archers had shot him as well, with tranquilizer darts they always kept at the ready. The darts wouldn't kill, but they were strong enough to drop a full sized charging komodo-rhino.
Aang had woken in a bed in the Physician's Wing sometime later, drenched in a cold sweat, his dreams having been full of the real life horrors of his teacher being murdered, as well as the inexplicably imagined horrors of burning air temples.
To this day Aang had never been told why it had been done. He'd been assured that Master Bo had deserved his fate. But Aang had still always blamed himself, sure that somehow he had been the reason the archers had shot his teacher, his friend.
A new worry plagued him now: Aang worried about Katara. He had no idea what crime she had committed to become a prisoner—he had purposely avoided pressing her about it—but it really didn't make any difference to him. She wasn't safe here, as his teacher, and he needed to find a way to free her. He didn't know how, but he would. He owed her that much.
Master Bo's question came back to him in the haunting voice of his dead Sifu. What stories will they tell of Avatar Aang?
What stories would they tell of him? Aang feared the answers.
"So why are you going to go through with it then?" Katara's question had been so delayed, it took Aang a moment to remember what she was referring to. Oh. His marriage. Of course.
Aang pulled on the wave he had just sent across the courtyard, calling it noisily back to him."I don't really have a choice." Aang tried to smile at her, but he felt the action pull his split lip open again. He tasted blood and shame and Azula in his mouth. He looked down in disgrace.
"Don't you?!" Katara's voice accused, even as she moved her own wave. "Everyone has a choice." Her voice cut him. But Aang could hear the hurt in it as well. He had hurt her, and this was something he would forever regret. It was a complicated feeling, because he knew he would regret hurting her, but he also knew that he could never regret having loved her.
Aang wanted so desperately to do what was right! But he had no idea which way to find it! Thus far he had only learned how to avoid suffering, for him and those he cared about. And that was by doing whatever the Firelord asked. Didn't Katara realize he was protecting her too!
He wanted her to understand! "Katara, don't you realize I'm not free!? To choose what I do, where I go, or even who I spend my life with… I belong to the Firelord."
"You belong to the world!" Katara exploded, turning toward him for the first time all morning, passion burning in her blue eyes. "Not just one nation!"
The water he'd been bending hit the stone floor with a resounding slap and he turned towards her. "I don't want to belong to anyone!" Aang retorted heatedly, the frustration of so many years packed tightly into his words. But as he looked into Katara's beautiful, tenacious eyes, all the world cracked and fell to pieces, and his love for her felt like real, physical pain."Except for you…"
The two locked eyes for just a moment, both wanting what was so far outside of their reach.
But then Aang felt a zing shift in the air and his eyes shot over Katara's shoulder. Then he yelled.
…
"Why did you leave, Mai?" Azula asked the phantom, not taking her eyes from Aang and the water peasant.
Mai sighed. "You know why, Azula."
"No I don't!" Azula bit out the words. "I can't possibly comprehend why you would choose Zuzu over me!"
Azula felt Mai next to her, looking down on the waterbending lesson with her. Mai sighed again as though their conversation were as boring and tedious as their old schoolmarm's lectures on etiquette. "I'd think you would get it now. I know how you look at him." Azula's eyes refocused on Aang bending large waves of water across the courtyard. Watching him filled her chest with a warmth that had nothing to do with her firebending.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Azula dismissed her old friend's words, but she felt a blush rise to her face.
She continued to watch Aang. Relying on another person's sentiment had never been enough—it hadn't been with Mai and she worried it wouldn't be with Aang. But she had taken care of that problem. She had ensured that he would have to love her. Forever.
But Azula's thoughts turned to her mother. Mother was no longer here with Father. A pit of worry began to drop open within her. What if marriage to Aang was not enough?
Azula looked down on the training arena and watched the watebender with unease. Did Aang have feelings for this girl? She had no proof. But a jealous disquiet still pecked incessantly at Azula's mind when she looked at the two of them down there.
"It's not going to be enough," Mai's voice drawled out apathetically.
Azula could see now that Aang was talking to the pretty waterbender. Azula leaned forward, straining to hear what was being said, but the splashing was too loud, covering their low words. Perhaps it was no more than a question on his instruction?
The waterbender turned towards him; whatever she was saying, it was passionate. Azula's skin prickled, the hairs on the nape of her neck standing on end, like a badger-cat preparing to defend its den.
The wave Aang had been bending splashed solidly on the floor, forgotten as he answered the waterbender. The girl's back was to Azula, but she could fully see Aang's face. And what she saw in his eyes was unmistakable.
Azula felt an invisible punch to her gut.
"Shoot her," Azula told the closest Yuyuan Archer. "Kill the waterbender."
The taut thwang from the bowstring releasing its arrow rang out as clear and beautiful as a musician's final stroke on the guqin.
…
"I don't want to belong to anyone!" Aang word's reverberated in her ears. "Except for you…"
Except for you.
Katara felt an echoing ache mirror in her own soul. She locked eyes with Aang for one unguarded moment—his love for her absolutely plain on his face.
But then Aang's eyes snapped to a place above her shoulder, and he yelled out, grabbing her roughly and yanking her with unnatural speed to the ground. They both hit the stone floor hard. Katara cried out as pain shot up her wrists, her hands having reached out to brace her fall.
She winced, but then her eyes fell on the arrow: one solitary arrow, longer than her arm, stood wedged firmly in the floor where she'd stood, its shaft still vibrating. Cold fear washed over her.
Frantically she flipped over on her back, looking to where the arrow had come from. Aang was already on his feet standing in a defensive crouch, his attention directed up towards the balcony. Katara looked up as well; Princess Azula stood at the railing, her arms crossed calmly across her chest, her golden eyes watching Katara. The princess smiled.
Another arrow shot down towards her, but Aang's arms whirled, the wind catching the feathered back of the arrow in a swirl that flung it off course. Katara watched the long shaft clatter to the side of the arena.
Aang yelled something and Katara looked his way, but she was too shocked to comprehend what he said. A great gong began to clang somewhere, its penetrating sound loud enough that she could feel it in her teeth.
More arrows rained down, this time from every direction. But Aang was a force of nature! Knocking them off course as well as sending offensives back at the archers who shot them. Katara saw one archer near the Princess fly back from the railing and hit hard into the wall behind him, a condensed bludgeon of air having knocked him backward. Aang planted his feet and punched the sky, sending a towering column of earth busting through the balcony behind them with a great splintering of wood, causing another archer to fall to the stone floor with a sickening crunch.
Everything was moving so fast! But Katara herself felt like she was swimming through rice pudding—her thoughts all sluggish and muddled, her body hardly able to move.
Suddenly Aang was crouching at her side, pulling her arm. "Katara! I've got to get you out of here!" But his attention snapped away as he grabbed at the air; several small projectiles with bright red tails were snatched out of the air as though gathered in an invisible fist mirroring Aang's. Aang's hand moved as if dropping something and the objects clattered to the floor. Aang yelled to Katara, "Don't touch those! They're tranquilizer darts! They won't kill you, but one prick and you'll drop in five heartbeats!" Katara stared wide-eyed at the darts, pushing her body away from them.
The banging of the gong continued to reverberate throughout the arena, and within Katara's head. Yells, the pounding of feet, and the thwang of more bows releasing their arrows could be heard between the gongs. Aang bent a sheet of water into the air, freezing it just in time to catch one, two, no—three arrows!
Again Aang spoke to her. "Katara! I wasn't planning on so soon, but I guess it will have to be now! I can get you to Appa—he can fly you away to somewhere safe!"
Katara's mind finally began to crank slowly into movement. Aang wanted to what? Get her out of the Fire Nation? Now? "But what about you?!" she yelled to him, his attention drawn elsewhere as he pulled a rock wall up to protect their backs.
Aang looked back at her, regret burning in his eyes like a live coal. "I have to stay. I can't go with you."
Katara's mind was too overwhelmed, too frazzled to keep up. What? … Leave him here?
Aang's voice barely carried over the noise. "But I can get you to safety! If we go now!"
Everything was happening so fast! Katara couldn't think clearly.
Suddenly their attention was drawn to the great doors as they cranked heavily open. They could see soldiers outside them waiting to flood the arena. Aang moved quickly, calling the water from the floor into a crashing wave that froze thickly around the door on impact, preventing it from opening further. A temporary stop.
But the balcony began to flood with soldiers, and fire rained down upon them. For now Aang was protecting them both, but Katara knew that at some point even he would be overpowered.
"Katara! We've got to go! Come here and I can set you free!" Aang held out his arm to her. She didn't know what he had planned, but Aang scanned the sky with his eyes, so she guessed he planned to take them straight up somehow.
But still she hesitated.
Katara's eyes were drawn to an imposing man who strode onto the balcony, his red cape billowing pompously. Zhao!
Suddenly Katara's mind was moving again, only now it was spinning too quickly! Sokka! She couldn't leave now! Zhao knew about her brother! What would happen to Sokka if she left?!
Katara's eyes scanned the ground, landing on the darts Aang had dropped several paces away. She scurried towards them, picking one up in each hand.
"Katara!" Aang yelled turning towards her again after batting away two fire blasts. "Come on!" His arm was stretched out toward her, beaconing for her to hold onto him. She stood. His eyes implored her, "Please! Now!"
Katara looked up at the balcony again. She saw the Princess, as calm and confident as ever. She saw Zhao, their eyes locking for a moment, his gaze holding a chilling promise. Then she looked down at the bright red darts in her hands.
Katara stumbled toward Aang and he smiled with relief at her—"I can get you out, Katara!" he reassured. His attention was drawn away once again as he turned to shield them from a new wave of fire pouring from above. "Take hold of me!"
But instead of walking into his offered arm and clinging to him as she wished, instead Katara brought her fist down hard onto the back of Aang's shoulder, the tranquilizer dart in her hand driving sharply into the muscle there. Aang's head snapped back to look first at the dart, and then at her, his eyes wide in surprise. But the surprise quickly turned to something else—bewilderment, shock!
Betrayal…
He turned his body fully towards her as though he'd forgotten all about the battle raging around them.
"Katara?" he croaked in disbelief…
But Katara's hand was already up, and driving the other dart into his chest. They locked eyes for one… two… three heartbeats—
—and then Aang crumpled to the floor.
…