ARC TWO: BODY
The Eighth Chapter
Ecstasy
"What's this?" My voice, so low and dangerous.
"It's nothing," she says – hastily, I think. "It's nothing…just a precaution." She attempts to snatch it from me, but I hold it out of reach.
I look at the little handgun, silver and gleaming in the light. Turning it over, I shake a cold, heavy bullet from its capsule. The pod rests on my open palm, seemingly glaring up at me like…
"A precaution for what?" Somehow I had stalked over to the opposite corner of the room. I turn my back to her, pale fingers closing tightly around the weapon and ammo.
"We're fighting a war," she whispers. "I need to be ready for anything."
I tense, turn, and hurl the gun. It crashes into the wall above her head; she flinches at the impact, but doesn't make a sound.
"This is no war!" I shout, fire running through my veins. I feel as if sparks will soon fly from my fingertips, and silently, briefly, I take comfort in the fact that the house is empty (You and her, Zuko. You and her) and no one can hear. "It's a goddamn gun!"
I calm, almost trembling. War. Why did everyone compare it to war? This isn't war. This isn't a nightmare. This isn't some dramatic novel. This is real life, and I am tired of being a pawn in someone else's game.
Katara cowers, shifting to the farthest corner of the bed. She's afraid of me, I realize.
I approach, and I lean down to look her in the eyes…those giant blue eyes, narrowed by hardship and suffering and loss of innocence.
"I know what you've done, Cat." Everything seems to freeze over with that name spoken. "I've seen your work. Where do you think that scout of yours, Sneers, went? When you left him bruised and bloodied and rejected?"
"That wasn't me," she protested fearfully. "That was Boomerang…it was Boomerang." It becomes a mantra under her breath, as if the possibility of her fault is diminished with each word.
I only smile wickedly, because I know now how to prove my point.
I pull up my shirt, showing her the small, newly-healed stab wound on my abdomen.
"Do you see this, Cat?" Blue stares. Blue stares at me. "You attacked me. Under unfair circumstances."
Just then, Katara dies and the Cat is reborn. "No!" she shouts. "Stop!"
Taken aback, I only look to her…
"Stop." Voice cold and commanding – she really becomes Boomerang's sister. "I did what I had to do. You would've killed me. It was fair."
"I wouldn't have killed you."
"You would've killed Boomerang, too, if it weren't for Flighty and me."
"He's my enemy."
"Then I'm your enemy, too," she asserts. "Isn't that what you were thinking two nights ago? That you lay with your enemy?"
"Yes," I snarl. "That's exactly what I was thinking." And then I kissed her.