Because it has to be said, I do not own Avatar: the Last Airbender, or any of the names or characters of the show. I merely control them for my own twisted pleasure from this point in my story on.

Chapter 06:

Scars

The pain in his legs told Zuko he was still alive. He should be thankful, he thought, but all he could do is run.

After the third round of arrow, Zuko had chosen the water rather than the ship and had taken the bleeding girl over the side with him. The girl he had draped over his shoulders weighted more than he was used to carrying, but he'd found himself unwilling to leave her behind.

The hunting party that had followed them into the nearby woods had managed to keep up with Zuko's breakneck pace for the first hours or so. However, he'd finally managed to lose them by crossing the river couple of times back and forth.

Zuko stopped to catch his breath, laying the lifeless girl on her stomach, looking down at her. Their pursuers probably thought he was trying to find and join up with the Avatar, but Zuko was just leading them all over to keep them away from where he was really going.

The waterbender wouldn't last much longer with those arrows in her back and shoulder, and he couldn't risk taking her to a healer in the town. He could only think of one other person who might have experience with arrow injuries.

Zuko set the girl on his bedroll when he reached Uncle and his campground. He stripped his head of his mask and the black material underneath it before reaching out to his uncles sleeping form, the panic he had been using as energy to run with no longer had anywhere to go but to his head. "Uncle," Zuko said, out of breath, "you have to wake up now." The old man jumped up at if he was expecting an attack, but when his sleepy eyes found Zuko, he smiled affectionately.

"Nephew," the old man smiled and yawned before continuing. "Dressed so early?"

"Please," Zuko continued, pulling his uncle to his feet and pushing the older man to where the girl lay. "She needs your help." He hoped his voice didn't sound as desperate as he thought it did. Everything was okay now. His uncle would take are of things if only for a little while. Zuko took deep breaths, trying to clam down.

Uncle stared down at the wounded girl and then shifted his gaze back to Zuko. He was wide awake now. "How long as she been like this?" His voice took on a tone that Zuko rarely heard: pure understanding. He knelled down next to the girl and began to look at her wounds closely.

"About an hour." Zuko answered and knelled down next to the bed roll beside his uncle. If he didn't sit, he'd pace, and it was awkward enough to show up with this wounded girl out of nowhere. "It took that long to out run the people chasing us." His voice was full of fury and Zuko didn't care where the rage had come from; it wasn't helping the girl.

"The way her wounds are bleeding, it means she's lost a lot of blood," his uncle said and grabbed a large pot from their supplies. "Find water and bring it here quickly." Zuko nodded and raced off to do as his uncle had said.

He tried not to think, guilt filling him: would he have been able to save her if he'd been paying more attention to their surrounding and not to her smile…? A fire burned deep inside as he realize she was dying because of his stupid mistake. If she died, he was sure nothing would stop her brother from trying to kill him. Not to mention the airbender brat and that blind girl. Together, they might be able to succeed.

Zuko filled the pot quickly, feeling as if he was slowly drowning under all the guilt that lay siege to his thoughts. He rushed back, no longer tired, and arrived back at camp to find his uncle peeling off the waterbender's blood soaked dress to reveal red stained underclothes. If they managed to kill him, he found himself thinking, he might deserve it.

"Nephew, the water!" his uncle's voice snapped him out of his trance. Zuko jumped and set the full pot at his uncle's side.

The older man said nothing, using his hand to heat the water to an almost boil in seconds. Zuko didn't have time to wonder at his uncle abilities at firebending because his mind was full of blood and regret.

His uncle worked on cleaning the blood from around the wounds with the heated water, each gentle stroke revealing bloody arrow shafts and damaged skin.

"Do you have a knife on you?" his uncle asked hurriedly and held out a hand for it. Zuko pulled out the knife he had hidden in his boot at all moments; the one Uncle had given to him as a present when he'd been ten. Zuko handed the dagger to that man now, and watched as his uncle heated the blade to searing temperature to clean it before sticking it in the water.

Zuko watched, awestruck, as his uncle used the dagger to cut deeper into the girls back before popping one of the arrows free. Taking a finger, Uncle burned the wound until it stopped bleeding, leaving behind a red scar that made Zuko reach for his face.

His uncle gave the arrow one last look before looking at Zuko, obviously wanting to ask the prince why the girl had a Fire Nation arrow in her back. But the retried general apparently thought better of it and got to work on the other arrows.

The waterbender had two more arrows in her; one in her shoulder and another that had sliced its way through her upper arm and out the other side. Zuko watched his uncle work in silence, but the older man still had a few things to say.

"There's a major artery in every limb," he explained slowly. "If she is lucky, it was missed by the arrow."

"What if it didn't miss?" Zuko asked, not sure he wanted to hear his uncle's answer.

"Then she will bleed out."

Zuko watched for what seemed like forever, waiting to see the girl's color drain and to watch her die. But he was spared the horror of such a sight: his uncle had done his job well.

"Uncle," Zuko asked when the old man leaded back, finally finished with his work. "Will she be alright?" he ended, not understanding why he couldn't relax,

"If she wakes up within the next few hours," his uncle said, plopping on the ground, "then yes, but she won't be able to move for a long time."

Zuko looked down at the injured girl, worry running through him over what happened if she didn't want up. Suddenly, another thought crossed his mind and it was a terrifying one. If he couldn't move her and bring her back to her friends, then he'd have to care for her himself. He could barely care for himself and his uncle out here, a weak female was all he needed now.

"She'll need to have a salve rubbed on the wounds every two hours," his uncle explained, and Zuko turned to see the old man rummaging around his one of their bags. "I'll make it right now: the burns will heal quickly that way." He paused for a second and gave the waterbender another look. "The damage inside them, however, will take much longer to heal. At least this way, she won't bleed out."

"How long is a long time?" Zuko asked after a few long minutes.

His uncle didn't look at him when he answered. "Two weeks at most; any sooner and she might lose the use of that shoulder."

Another word caught in his memory. "Define 'move'," Zuko demanded, panic running through him.

"No quick shifting," his uncle started, then turned to look Zuko in the eye, "and definitely no waterbending."

Zuko blinked in surprise: so, that's why the old man hadn't asked any questions; he'd known all along whom the girl was. And by her injuries, his uncle could most likely deduce how she'd gotten hurt.

Zuko waited until his uncle traded off into the forest to look for herbs before reaching over for his Blue Spirit mask. If the waterbender woke up and saw Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation, she would most likely 'quickly shift'; quickly shift right out of bed and into being crippled forever.

He didn't know her thoughts on the subject, but Zuko knew he would rather die than lose his ability to bend.

He watched her closely; he counted every rise and fall of her scared back and hoped that she woke up. He told himself it was because her friends would try and avenge her. He told himself it was because he couldn't use a dead girl as bait.

Zuko told himself these things, but as he watched her for a long time, he was no longer sure he believed them to be true.

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Katara awoke to a searing pain along her left arm that seemed to increase with every second she was awake. Within moments of being awake she was already in tears. It hurt so much it felt like she was being burned from the inside out.

Katara panicked, trying to remember what had happened, but only remembered bowing to the Blue Spirit and then nothing but pain shooting through her back before everything went black.

She felt cool hands touch her back and looked up, expecting an enemy, but instead saw a familiar blue mask attached to set of crossed legs in front of her. Something very cold touched the burning spot on her arm and it immediately went numb for a few second before the burning sensation returned, only slightly weaker than before.

Through her tears Katara noticed that she wasn't on the ship anymore, unless the ship had a garden of pure green tall things. She took deep breaths as she tried to wait out the pain, but found that it didn't go away.

She moaned when a wave of pain rolled through her. This hurt was much worse than burns on her hands when Aang had accidentally burned her during training. Then the memory hit her: she'd all but forgotten she could heal. Her sprits rose when she remembered she could mend herself.

She tried to lift herself off the mat she was lying on but found an unmoving hand holding her down. She lifted her head around again and saw the masked man holding her down and shaking his head.

"You don't understand," Katara said with a pleading voice. "If I can just get in the water, I can heal myself with my waterbending"

Again the masked man shook his head and slowly rotated his shoulder.

The movement made her wonder, and she tried to move her own. Instantly pain laced through her and fought the need to through up. She understood what her masked friend was trying to tell her; her arm was useless for now, and without it she wouldn't be able to move, let alone waterbend.

"My arm…" Katara asked through painful gasps, "will it… be okay?" She was sure her heart would stop when he took a few seconds to make any movement. Then, he nodded and titled his head.

Worried, she tried to move to rest of her body and found that the main points of her pain were coming from her left arm, left shoulder and a spot directly in the middle of her back.

She looked up at the Blue Spirit again. "My friends, did they make it out okay?" she asked, and the masked man nodded slowly. She breathed a sigh of relief, and asked her next question. "Are they around?"

When he shook his head, she wasn't surprised. Why would her brother let this guy touch her so casually? Suddenly scared and lonely, she turned to lay her head back down on the ground. She felt like crying again.

A hesitant hand touched her back, and it rubbed something on her burns again. She hissed in pain, but it eventually got more and more tolerable. The Blue Spirit was gently massaging around the burning spots and eventually moved to other places on her back.

She didn't know how he knew where she was sore, but it didn't matter after a few minutes.

"Thank you," Katara whispered and it didn't take her long to drift off into sleep.

This is where my author's notes go...Enjoy.

Have you ever hurt yourself or gotten sick at school and then the moment you got home and saw your mom, you started crying. You hadn't been crying at all during the time at school but as soon as mom was in sight you turned into a whimpering baby?

Didn't even have to be your mom. A best friend maybe?

Yeah, that's what I was trying to convey with Zuko. Did it work? I mean, he's all manly and stuff, but I still wanted him to silently be freaking out when Uncle took over, cause uncle is his rock and he didn't need to be as strong anymore. And it's a very human response.

Also, as I reread this, Zuko's giving Katara a massage was sounding really OOC, and then I was all: "Well, uncle most likely told him to make sure her muscles stayed relaxed so she wouldn't make things worse."

So there . -fangirlish giggle-