Katara has read both the Fire Nation school textbook and A Short History of the Royal Family within a few days. Though she has become increasingly horrified at what the Fire Nation teaches their children, and begrudgingly impressed with Fire Lord Aika, who introduced a mandatory education system 400 years ago and, despite all of her advisors' pleas, refused to marry, she has found nothing that might help her escape. The only mention of the Boiling Rock is when the latter book includes it as one of Fire Lord Azulon's great achievements, adding that no one has ever escaped the prison in its 57 years of activity.
She tries to ignore the last part. The Boiling Rock is probably full of hardened criminals who would jump at anything to escape, but she needs to rescue her dad. She'll figure out how to help him once she escapes, once she finds him, once she knows for a fact he's even there.
That's another issue. If she does make it to the Boiling Rock and her dad is nowhere to be seen, then either Azula lied and the Fire Nation don't have him, or it means they do, but in a different prison. And if the second one is true, then how will she figure out which one it is? How will she ever find him, and make sure the Fire Nation doesn't follow through with their threat?
Ikuro knocks on her door to ask if she's having tea today, and she tells him that she'll join him in a minute. Listening to him walk away, she decides she's tired of waiting for the right moment, wondering if people will get suspicious, worrying about everything that could go wrong. If she doesn't figure out something, whether it's foolproof or littered with flaws, she may never see her friends again - and if she doesn't get back to them, she won't be able to warn them about the Fire Nation's plan to end the avatar state. She will get information about the Boiling Rock in some way or another, and her best bet to get it is Ikuro - so she will try her hardest to do that.
.
"So, how have you been finding the books you got?" Ikuro asks, pouring ginseng tea into her cup. She bites back a smile- Ikuro has brought up exactly the topic she wanted him to.
"Oh, they're all really interesting. I've just finished one about the history of the Fire Nation's royal family."
"Ah. I'm sure you're in awe of the sheer amount of atrocities our past few leaders have managed to commit," He says, sarcasm in his voice.
She smiles. "More in awe of the way the book describes them as if they're amazing," She says, rolling her eyes. "But… there was one thing that I was curious about. The Boiling Rock, I think it's called?"
He raises an eyebrow ever-so-slightly; if she wasn't so worried that he might not give her information, she wouldn't have even noticed. "Ah, the Fire Nation's highest security prison. It's quite notorious." He pauses. "What interested you about it?"
She frowns slightly - apparently he won't just divulge everything he knows about the place, like he does with so many other things.
"Oh, um- the book said that no one had ever escaped from it. Is that really true? Or do you think the Fire Nation made it up?"
"It's hard to tell. Of course, my nation lies about things like that all - but I wouldn't be surprised if that particular fact was true," he tells her.
"Why not?" She asks, trying not to act too interested.
"As I said, it's the Fire Nation's highest security prison. They take that sort of thing very seriously."
"Mhm. Because they have a lot of guards? Or is it just - difficult to get to?"
His eyebrows raise much higher this time. "Both. Why are you so curious about this, Katara?"
She bites her cheek, breaking eye contact with him. "I don't know. I..." She pauses for a long moment before looking back up at him; when she does, she feels something inside of her snap, after all this time of waiting and worrying and trying not to give herself away. "Look, I don't want my dad to die in prison, okay? And the Fire Nation have- if I don't… if I don't do something-"
He seems to struggle with himself for a moment, his eyes remaining more intense than they were before. "Katara, he won't, I promise you. If you stay on this ship, if you just let the mission go ahead, then the Fire Nation won't harm your father."
She stares at him. All this time, she had assumed he hadn't known about the blackmail - Zuko hadn't seemed to, and she couldn't think of a reason for the crew to have been told, so she'd guessed that it was only Zui and possible Akemi that knew. Somehow, it feels like a betrayal - to have never discussed it with her, to claim to be so anti-Fire Nation and then just let the Fire Nation blackmail her. She feels her jaw clench in anger, and he must realise, because he immediately begins to speak again.
"Zui didn't tell me about the threat they gave you. I was told by - a group that I'm part of," he says, voice lowered when he mentions the group.
"I don't care what group you're part of-"
"Katara, please! Keep your voice down-"
"Well, I don't care. How can you say you're so against the Fire Nation when you won't even help me? The Fire Nation ruined my tribe and tore apart my family with all of the atrocities you criticise them for and now - now they've imprisoned me and my father and you don't even seem to want to help!" She snaps, unable to stop her voice from raising.
"Katara, I never said I didn't want to help," Ikuro says, his voice steady.
"But you're not going to, are you?"
He looks away from her, and she already knows his answer. "The Fire Nation is ruthless to anyone that stands in its way. It's too risky for you to try to escape - for yourself, your father and the rest of the crew."
She clenches her fists. "But if you could tell me where the Boiling Rock is-"
"No. It's still far too dangerous." He tells her, his voice uncharacteristically stern. He pauses, taking a breath, and when he speaks again, his tone is gentler. "There is a time and place, Katara. If you try to escape, especially now… it will be of no benefit."
"No benefit to what?" She demands; he remains silent. "I just want to see my friends again. I want- I want everything to go back to normal. Is that too much to ask?"
She feels tears prick at the back of her eyes at the thought of Sokka and Toph - and the knowledge that things will never go back to normal; not without Aang. She tries to blink them away, but he sees his eyes soften with concern nonetheless.
"Katara, I'm sorry - it was cold of me to say that. I understand that your situation must be difficult and extremely stressful, and I can see why you want to get back to your friends. I admire how much you care for them, and believe me - if I could stop the Fire Nation from ever capturing you, then I would in a heartbeat. But you're here now, and I can't help you to do something that will endanger so many people."
She looks at him for a long moment, trying unsuccessfully to calm herself down. "Are you not going to try to stop the mission or rescue the baby, then, even though you know it's the right thing to do? Because it will endanger the crew?"
He appears conflicted for a few moments, as if he isn't sure how to answer her, before his expression grows resigned. "Yes, it is." He says, looking away as if he feels guilty. Yet, Katara sees something else in his eyes - something that mirrors how he looked all those weeks ago, when he wouldn't say a word about how Zuko was banished.
He looks like he is hiding something. Katara almost opens her mouth to question him, but she stops herself - after how this conversation has gone, she decides that whatever he isn't telling her may not be something she wants to know.
"Thank you for the tea. I should go practice my waterbending," She tells him, standing up and walking towards the door.
"You're welcome." He says. She doesn't look behind her as she leaves the room.
She doesn't go above deck to waterbend. She told herself that she would get the information she needs, and she refuses to give up for today just because Ikuro didn't react in the way she'd expected. Yet, who would tell her about the Boiling Rock, when even the most anti-Fire Nation refuses to? She immediately rules out Akemi and Zui, and decides against both Lee and Megu only a moment later, thinking back to all the times they have praised the Fire Nation. She considers Kazuo, but he would probably tell Ikuro that she was asking, and it would seem suspicious to ask him, considering that she barely talks to him.
That leaves only Zuko. If she were to be honest with herself, she didn't need to rule out the entire crew to know that Zuko is now her best chance for getting information about the Boiling Rock. In fact, she has thought about asking him previously, but always decided against it. She wishes it was because the idea of asking him for anything repulses her - though that is part of her reasoning against it - but for the most part, it was because she didn't agree with the tactics she would use to get the information. She could rely on the chance that he feels so guilty about what happened in Ba Sing Se that he gives her all the answers to her questions, but she knows that that's a very slim chance, especially with the questions she'd be asking.
No, if she really wants this information - if she wants to escape, to rescue her father, to be reunited with her brother and Toph, to save an innocent child's life and to save the avatar cycle, she reminds herself - then she will need to rely on something far less flimsy.
She swallows the building lump in her throat, and walks towards Zuko's room.
When a knock comes at his door, he doesn't expect it to be from Katara. He also doesn't expect Katara, as she stands in his doorway slightly awkwardly, to look so hesitant, her eyes so void of anger. It seems far too similar to how she looked at him when he woke from his nightmare, and though she hardens her expression after a short moment and immediately holds her head up a little higher, he finds himself biting back worry at what she has to say.
"We need to change our agreement," she states, her voice so firm that it's hard to imagine the look in her eyes seconds before. "It's getting difficult for me not to talk about… what I saw you dreaming about. If you're going to make me keep your secret, I need something in return."
If he were thinking straight, he would notice that she doesn't even refer to his scar when saying how difficult it is to keep it a secret. If he were thinking straight, he would consider the possibility that she's lying. But he isn't thinking straight, his mind suddenly clogged with anger at the fact she's blackmailing him, and worry at the thought of the crew finding out exactly who gave him his scar, and how he still has nightmares about it three years later.
"What do you want?" He asks, a familiar bite in his voice.
She pauses for far too long, her blue eyes fixed on him but closed off, completely unreadable.
She looks away. "Tell me everything you know about the Boiling Rock."
He furrows his eyebrows, the demand seeming strange. He wonders briefly if one of her friends is imprisoned there, but decides it's unlikely - she was put in Capital City Prison, and there's no reason why one of her friends would be seen as more of a threat. In fact, from what he's seen of the past avatar's allies, she's the greatest threat.
"Why do you want to know?"
"Just tell me."
He narrows his eyes but, unsure of any reason to object - though there must be something, if she's blackmailing him to get this information, if she's so secretive about why she wants it - he begins telling her what he knows.
"It's the Fire Nation's highest security prison - no one's ever escaped, probably because it's completely surrounded by boiling water." He pauses; she raises an eyebrow slightly, waiting for him to continue. "It's only for the people that the Fire Nation wants around the least - murderers, skilled opposition groups, war-"
Oh. It suddenly clicks. War prisoners. Katara said previously that the Fire Nation would kill her father if she didn't go along with this mission - and to do that, they would need to have him imprisoned.
He doesn't need to finish what he was saying for her to realise he's figured her out. The sheepish look flashes in her eyes again.
"You think your father's in the Boiling Rock?" He asks. She says nothing, but clenches her jaw.
"Katara, there's messenger hawks on this ship," he begins, and there it is - her name, again, on his lips as if it's natural, as if there's no reason for it not to be there. "If you took the ship off course, they would alert the Fire Nation-"
"Where are the messenger hawks?" She interrupts, as if she doesn't care that she's essentially confirming her entire plan to him by asking. Does she really see him as that little of a threat?
"I don't know. My people don't exactly trust me, if you haven't noticed," He snaps. Judging from the faint guilt that enters her features, she has noticed. "The hawks would alert the Fire Nation, and… your father would be dead by the time you got to the Boiling Rock. You'd be followed by another Fire Nation boat that would put you back in prison for the rest of your life."
He says it too gently. He says it as if he's ashamed of his nation. Out of the corner of his eye, her fists clench.
"Not for the rest of my life. The rest of the war." She corrects, as if it's automatic; as if there's a difference. "And you don't know that my father would be dead. I could get to him - I don't think any other Fire Nation ships would be sped up with waterbending."
"You'd need to use a lot of waterbending to get there in time - enough to be noticeable. Any Fire Nation ship that saw that would shoot you down"
She scoffs, crossing her arms. "What, they'd just shoot down their own? Without even checking?"
He feels himself stiffen - yes, they would - and looks up to meet her eyes. "Don't put it past them."
She goes silent for a long moment. "How do I even know any of this is true? You could have lied about all of it."
"Why did you even ask me, if you just think I'm lying?" He snaps, annoyance curling in his stomach.
"I'm not saying you're lying! I'm just saying you have plenty of reasons to not want me to escape!"
He pauses. Truth be told, he hadn't really considered any of those reasons, but he suddenly remembers that he needs her if he wants the Southern Water Tribe to trust him - and more importantly, they're in the middle of the ocean, and if she wants to take over the ship, he'll probably won't make it out alive.
Perhaps he should have thought about those reasons before he told her that the Boiling Rock is surrounded by water. He crosses his arms, not wanting her to realise that he wasn't being as calculating as she must have thought.
"Well, is it a surprise that I don't want to be waterbent into the ocean to drown?"
She narrows her eyes. "So you were lying!"
"No! I wasn't!" He argues, voice raised in frustration. He takes a deep breath before speaking again, trying to remain calm. "Look, I don't know for sure if what I told you about would happen if you tried to take over the ship and rescue your father - but I'd be surprised if at least something similar didn't. I know the Fire Nation and I know their policy. They don't… take chances."
"I know they don't," She says, her voice dark. He tenses slightly, thinking back to all the burned people he saw in the Earth Kingdom, all the refugees in Ba Sing Se - someone on the other side of the war would know the Fire Nation's temperament far too well.
"I get that you have your reasons not to believe me, but I'm not lying. You'll just have to trust me on it," He says. She narrows her eyes angrily, and he immediately realises what a bad choice of words that was. "Not that you have to... trust me. I just meant take my word for it. If you want to take my word for it, I mean - you don't need to."
She raises an eyebrow. "Yeah. I don't." She says, her tone harsh. Yet, she looks away for a long moment, and when she speaks again, her voice is slightly softer. "Thanks, though."
She says it reluctantly, and so quietly that it's barely intelligible, but she says it. And then she clenches her fists, turns on her heel and walks out of his room so quickly that he isn't sure if she heard him say you're welcome.
Thanks for reading to the end of this chap! Finally a zutara interaction lol… i honestly had no motivation to write this chap because I just kept thinking about all the cute romance-y pining stuff I want to write and like :((((( its gonna be so LONG until I can write it I genuinely think this fic is gonna be like 200k works or some shit (i mean i kinda have nothing to base that on but I mean… i REFUSE to rush development smh)
Next chap is gonna be where it all kicks off tho… Katara makes a new plan and it will involve a certain someone…. Hmmmm.. ALSO note Zuko said that Katara's the most capable of Aang's friends because at this point I'm pretty sure he's never seen Toph bend or at least has never gone up against her.. Even so though I think Katara and Toph are pretty even? I mean Toph is AMAZING and one of the most clearly powerful characters but the stuff that Katara pulled off in southern raiders and the last agni kai... kinda legendary ngl
Also! I'll be participating in the quarantine zutara month and posting my entries on here :)) and also I finally figured out that you can actually reply to reviews on ffnet so sorry I never replied to anyone's! I was being dumb lol I always felt bad for not saying thank u so here is a big thank u to all the lovely reviews on this story :)))