Katara's patience was worn thin even more every second that passed. Though she had readied a waterwhip for her own use in defense, Zuko still sat, shivering in the frozen wave of ice she'd entrapped him in. Hell, he seemed to be asleep! The waterbender, while attempting to keep her attention on him, toyed with the now light drizzle. Using her free hand, she reached out and froze the raindrops over the Prince. Moving her hand in rhythmic motions, the driblets of water moved about in the air, mimicking her movements. She chortled as she permitted the frozen droplets of liquid to pummel Zuko's pale face.
His eyelids flickered open and he sent her a cold glare.
"As soon as I can bend, you'd better," he put emphasis on his words by allowing a low growl to escape his throat. "Be ready to run."
"Stop playing your games and get up," she sneered, freezing more raindrops. She suspended them above his lifeless body, making them sway in the breeze. One by one, they fell, hitting his face before bouncing off onto the ground. He cringed at each, craning his neck in a futile attempt to avoid them. Shuddering, he scowled at her.
"I suggest you leave." he whispered as soon as the frozen water ceased striking his face. His suggestion sounded more like a command.
His expression was unemotional, but Katara couldn't help but feel intimidated, though she had the upper hand.
"And why would that be?" she asked, slightly rolling her cerulean orbs.
"Because," he started, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Azula should have sent out some assailants by now. I'm as good as dead."
"And you just want to die?" she wasn't believing a word of this. She bent a snake of water out in front of herself, attempting to look casual as it swirled through her slender fingers.
"I deserve to, if that's what you mean." he closed his eyes. "My life is forfeit. There's nothing I can do but give in."
"You're in denial." she informed him, nodding her head.
"No, I'm in acceptance of my soon-to-be untimely death." by the time these words had been issued out of his mouth, Katara was gone. He opened his eyes when she did not answer, and he peered about the area. Cursing her, he closed his eyelids and waited for the assassins Ty Lee had promised him.
Katara bound through the forest, hoping to make it back to the campsite before the men who Zuko claimed would be coming could come. She emerged into a clearing, surprised at how close it was to where the Prince was located.
"Aang!" she hissed, grappling the sticks that held up the tent. Shaking it violently, she said her sibling's name. "Sokka!"
"Wha-what?" her brother asked groggily, probably reaching about for his trusty boomerang. "Take that you nasties!"
Katara could only duck as a piece of sharpened metal flew out of the tent flap, nearly grazing her shoulder. She turned, waiting for it to come back around. She chuckled as the air born weapon struck the limbs of a tree, becoming engulfed by the branches.
"Sugar Queen?" Toph asked warily, emerging from her earthen tent. Her black hair was messy and tangled, and she didn't bother to fix it as she got to her feet. Instead of looking at Katara, she turned her head toward the forest. "What the?" she murmured, tilting her head. Stomping her foot for better vibrations, she attempted to better 'see' what was bothering her.
"Aang, I found Zuko!" Katara informed the two in the tent.
"Uh?" the Avatar asked, his bald head peering out from the tent flap. The waterbender repeated herself, firmly.
"I found Zuko."
"Zu-who?" asked the Earth King, crawling out of the earthtent the youngest had made for him.
"So?" the monk ducked back into the small tent, intent on resting his sleep-befuddled mind.
"Wait-" this came from the small structure. "What?!"
"Sokka, calm down." she whispered, waving her hands in the air as if to silence him.
"Where's my boomerang?" Sokka asked, finally fully awake.
"Over there." she pulled open one flap and pointed in the direction of the tree.
"My baby!" her brother cried, running for the small glint of metal in the moonlit tree.
"Aang, what do we do?" she asked the Avatar, helping him out of the tent.
"It could be a trap..." he considered his options silently.
"My point exactly." she smiled. "I gave him a taste of his own medicine."
"Did you guys talk?" Toph asked.
"Yes." Katara sneered. "He thought I was really dumb."
"How so?" Aang sounded a little angry that the Prince might think his Katara was in any way stupid.
"He thought he could trick me!" The waterbender rolled her expressive eyes, grinning. "I saw right past his 'Ty Lee-blocked-my-chi' act, and I froze him to the ground."
"Good going, sis!" Sokka announced. Her sibling was attempting, and miserably failing, to climb the base of a tree.
"Did he say anything else?" Aang's earthbending master asked, who was currently pointed in the direction of a group of clustered together willows.
"He said Azula wanted to kill him." Katara paused. "That's a laugh."
Aang didn't seem too convinced. "You sure, Tara?"
"Tara?" the water maiden ignored his last comment, and instead, focused on her new nickname.
"Well?" Aang asked. "Show him to me."
"Fine." Katara crossed her arms over her chest, and walked past him. She strode past Toph, but stopped short. Turning to the young Bei Fong, she spoke.
"Will you make sure no one's coming?"
"Sure. Lead the way," Toph gestured toward the forest with her pale arm. Katara nodded, taking the lead.
The waterbender was attempting to retrace her footsteps, stepping over smaller bushes and shoving her way through the larger ones. Aang, Toph, and the ex-Earth King followed closely, leaving Sokka back at camp with Bosco.
"What...?" Toph tilted her head toward a group of trees.
"Right there." Katara pointed past the trees.
"What is it?" the earthbender asked, sounding quite fatigued.
"It's Zuko." Aang informed her, stepping closer.
"That..." The Lady Bei Fong paused. "That thing is him? It just feels like a-" she stomped her foot for more vibrations. "It just feels like a-a... I don't know, but it doesn't look like Princey."
"You should leave." Zuko informed them. "Unless you want to die."
"There he goes again!" Sokka's sister threw her hands into the air, exasperated.
"He's not lying." Toph announced in a sing-song voice.
"I thought you couldn't see him-" Aang was cut off.
"His butt and arm is touching the ground... I can just barely make his form out in the ice, but he's there." Toph nodded, sure of herself. "And he sure isn't lying."
"Azula really wants to kill him?" Aang and Katara asked in unison. The two gaped at the earthbender.
"In fact, I think he's scared..." the earthbending master raised a brow in the Prince's general direction. "Someone doesn't wanna die, do they?"
Zuko closed his amber eyes, as he was incapable of turning his neck to look away from them. Suddenly, the amazing happened- he smiled. Katara's mouth was slacked so much, that a turtle duck could've jumped into there. The Prince suddenly began to wriggle in the ice, finally capable of movement. She could only stare as he made a strange movement in the ice, but stopped, scowling.
"Still can't bend..." he murmured, relaxing back.
"I think we should give him a chance." Aang said softly, receiving no murmur of agreement, just as he'd hoped for.
Instead, Sokka and Katara were both demanding why.
"Why? He doesn't deserve our trust-"
"We give him a chance." Aang said firmly. "We'll keep a close eye on him."
"WHY?" Katara screeched, reaching for Aang's arm. "You're mad! You're insane! I don't want you getting hurt, or worse-"
"I'm right here, you know." Zuko said coldly. "I can hear you, I'm not deaf."
"Katara, I need a firebending teacher." the Avatar said calmly. "We'll keep an eye on him, I swear. He'll be good, won't he?" He turned his gaze to the firebender.
"I'm not teaching you anything, dammit!"
As it turns out, Zuko decided 'willingly' to teach the Aang a thing or two about his native element. As Sokka recalled, Katara and Toph used combined 'girl-power' to make his mind.
After the Prince found his non-bending body plastered to a nearby tree with ice, along with 'pebbles' being slammed into his sides, he changed his mind. Or perhaps it was after a small unit of regular earthbending soldiers emerge from a group of trees, each intent on killing him.
Maybe it was when Katara demanded a truce, as he owed them a huge favor for "Saving his useless life." Of course, he couldn't object her 'small' favor, when she ever-so politely asked him for it.
No matter how hard he'd pleaded for anything else, he owed them a favor... Didn't he? Soon enough, he would be regretting such a decision to help the Avatar and his companions.