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 the story on.

Chapter 17: The Rescue Part II

A firebender? One part of Katara's mind asked almost immediately after jumping to that conclusion. No, that was impossible; she'd only known of one person to abandoned the Fire Nation and he'd hadn't had to hide his face.

But at the same time, there was the possibility that a firebender was just a normal person, though she was sure no one else would agree except Aang. Not that the Blue Spirit was normal. She stared at him as he walked up to her, wondering again what was under that mask. Was he an enemy of some sort, tricking her into…? No, he would never do something like that.

If there was one thing she knew about him, it was that under that mask he was a good person. He wouldn't have brought her along after their rescue and tried to nurse her back to health if he'd been an enemy. Even if it had been some plan to gain her trust, he'd proven himself honorable twice over already.

She couldn't explain it, but she trusted him. It was the reason why, when he offered his hand, she just stared at him.

When he dropped to a knee and gently checked her over, she felt something click inside of her head; he cared for her too. He cared more than a captor cared for his prisoner and more than a captain cared for his crew. His reaction to the fact that she might be hurt said it loud and clear.

When he looked into her eyes, she smiled at him and shook her head, "I'm fine, let's go." She let him help her up and followed after him when he continued down the hallway. Her mind drifted as they walked quickly, and she lost herself in thought because she knew he wouldn't let anything happen to her.

Wasn't that what a relationship was based on anyway? Trust? Wasn't that why she'd fallen for him even though she didn't know what he looked like or how old he was? Though, Katara was sure from the old man's comment of "take care of the boy," that the Blue Sprit was at least young. Her parents had been years apart when they married, so she knew that that kind of affection wasn't choosey in the concern of age anyway.

She stopped short when the Blue Spirit suddenly stopped moving, and ran into him anyway. She hurriedly whispered an apology, only to have him grabbed her and put a hand over her mouth. Now she was worried, so she stopped talking to allow him to hear what ever it as he was trying to hear. When she stopped to listen as well, she thought she heard a chuckle echo down the hallway.

When he released her and ran down the hallway, she followed closely behind. He was so much faster than her and she was still a few feet behind him when he rushed into a doorway.

"So you're the one making all that noise," the female solider said matter-of-factly, and got to her feet slowly. Zuko took a step back, drawing his swords and not really knowing what to expect; leave it to his uncle to make friends with someone when he supposed to be a prisoner.

She was tall for a Fire Nation woman; a few inches taller than Zuko. Her hair was black and long, drawn back along her forehead with two small braids. Her wire rimmed glasses rode on the edge of the nose she looked down at him over. "You have no idea how to infiltrate a ship without being detected, do you?" her voice was full of something that sounded a lot like dissatisfaction.

"Be careful," Iroh said from his seat on the floor. "She may look like a lowly soldier, but this woman is in fact the brigmaster."

Zuko gave his uncle a quick glance, wondering why the old man was telling him all this in such a calm voice. A split second was all Zuko took to look at his uncle, and then the woman was in front of him. Her fist appeared out of no where and missed his head, barely.

She scorched the metal wall behind him with a blast of fire so hot it was almost the same color as his sisters. Zuko took a deep breath and glared over at his uncle who held up a finger in warning. "Also, she is a master firebender."

Katara ran into the room as soon as she saw the flash of fire. The Blue Spirit was fighting against a female firebender and mostly running away.

Having seen more than her fair share of firebenders, she'd assumed they used firebending at every move, but this woman didn't. She used fire blasts maybe half the times she attacked with a punch or kick, and she didn't seem very good at it; the Fire Nation woman missed every time she tried to hit the Blue Spirit.

Katara felt pride swell inside her heart as she watched her masked friend fight; almost all thoughts of what he might be fled from her mind as she watched him battle. The two exchanged blows, none of which seemed to land on their targets, and she noticed that there was an old man in the cell on the other side of the fighting duo.

At first she didn't know who he was and assumed he was the one they had come here to get. But as she stared at him longer, she suddenly realized who he was. His face was clearly showing in the well-lit brig and she knew exactly who he was.

General Iroh of the Fire Nation. The man she'd seen fight with Zhao at the North Pole that seemed so long ago. He'd defended the Moon Spirit and tried his best to save it. When that had failed, he'd tried his best to avenge it. She didn't know what to think about him, and seeing him again didn't bring up any bad memories.

But what really didn't make any sense was why he was in a cell if he was a general in the Fire Nation Army. He seemed to notice she was looking at him, and he smiled at her before turning his attention back to the battle.

Katara looked back to the masked man and his foe just in time to see him jump over her, landing on his feet behind her back and aiming a sword at her neck. Before Katara could even blink, he was on the ground on his back, with the firebenders fist to his throat.

Without thinking about it, Katara bended the only water in the room, the hot tea right out of Iroh's hands, and aimed a shot of hot water as sharp as a sword right at the woman. The woman jumped, dodging it, and the Blue Spirit was on his feet within the same second, taking a stance and priming to attack again.

The woman, however, gave Katara a look, noticing the younger girl for the first time. "Two against one, huh? Very rude," she said, straightening. She pushed her glasses up her nose with one finger and sighed. "You win." Of all the tones Katara would've expected, the last one she thought of was boredom.

Zuko's confusion was matched only by his suspicion. He'd know after her first punch that she was missing him with her firebending on purpose. Why she was missing was another matter altogether, and he didn't dare take his eyes off of her.

At least she hadn't attacked Katara for interfering, something he'd be angry with the waterbender about for a long time. She knew her waterbending was useless against firebending when she had such a short supply of water, and to drag herself into a fight where he wasn't sure he'd be able to protect her made him angrier than anything else.

Zuko turned his attention back to the female firebender as she started towards the cell, and immediately moved to put himself between her and his uncle, but Katara got there first.

"You're not going to hurt him." The waterbender said in a stern voice, and the older woman shrugged, reaching into her pocket for something.

"Fine," she said a produced a key that Zuko assumed was to his uncle's cell. "You let the General out."

Katara looked as confused as Zuko felt. "I don't get it. We come in here and you attack him," she said, motioning to Zuko with her head, "but when I join in, you just… give up?"

"Well," the brigmaster said and pushed up her glasses again, "dodging his attacks was hard enough without hurting him. If you'd gotten in the way, I might not have been able to pull any punches."

If Zuko could talk, he'd have demanded an explanation, but before Katara could read his mind and do it for him, his uncle called out for the cell to Katara. "May I come out now?"

Katara looked sideways at him and put out her hand for the key. The woman just placed it in Katara's palm and stepped aside as the waterbender opened the lock. Iroh smiled at her, bowed in thanks and walked out of the cell as Zuko watched the female solider.

He still didn't understand. What was going on anyway? He looked to his uncle for an explanation and the older man smiled.

"Meet Brigmistress Hanae." Iroh said and the woman nodded and bowed to Zuko and then to Katara. "She served in the Navy during the Siege of Ba Sing Se and has been taking good care of me these last few days." The older man smiled at Hanae and turned to Zuko. "It was quiet lucky for her to be working under Sho, if I do say so myself."

"I've been awaiting your arrival for some time," she said with another push of her glasses and took a step toward the prince. "The General wouldn't quit talking about how wonderful you are," she tilted her head but her face remained passive, "if you're who I think you are, anyway."

Zuko shifted his eyes to Katara, hoping she didn't understand. When her eyebrows furrowed in confusion, he released the breath he'd been holding. He didn't make any move to respond, and Hanae gave Katara a quick once-over before nodding in what he hoped was approval. And pushing her glasses up again. What was wrong with this woman?

So uncle had explained everything to Hanae. The old fool was more stupid then Zuko had originally thought. What if she turned on them and ran to Sho? What if she was trying to trick them and it cost them dearly?

"I'm glad we waited," she said suddenly, and turned to Zuko's uncle for the first time. "It would have been quite difficult to play off our original plan, with you escaping on your own. This method makes me look much less suspicious."

"Yes. And I did know he'd come for me." Iroh turned to Zuko and smiled so brightly it rivaled Katara's. When he said it, Zuko felt a warm feeling circle inside his chest.

His uncle trusted this woman completely, and knowing Iroh, there was a good reason for it. The old man turned to her and tilted his head. "But the fact remains that we still have a problem; what are you going to tell the men? From what you've told me, they would be highly doubtful of you, losing to one old man and his bodyguard."

She motioned to the room around them and raised an eyebrow slightly. "Did I not retaliate hard enough?" she demanded, and Zuko got the feeling that even though she was saying it out loud, she wasn't really speaking to them. Suddenly, Zuko understood the reason for their fake fight. She'd been marking the walls to make it seem like she'd fought back. "How dare you! They snuck up on me, and I was outnumbered."

Iroh smiled but shook his head. "Not good enough for me to leave you alone to defend yourself, Hanae."

She looked at him and her eyes narrowed only the slightest bit before she slid the glasses off her nose and very calmly snapped them in half, throwing them across the floor into the cell. Zuko heard the tinkling of breaking glass as they cracked on the metal floor. "They broke my glasses. You know, I'm practically blind without them."

Iroh laughed and Zuko saw Katara relax after having been tense for the whole time. He wondered why she wasn't at least trying to hurt him. Having seen his uncle, she had to know who he was.

And then a thought appeared in his head as if out of nowhere. Did Katara know that Iroh was his uncle? Had she ever really known at all? She'd seen them together before, and he'd thought that their relation was obvious enough to worry about her figuring it out.

Having been so paranoid about making her hurt herself, he'd made the really stupid assumption that she'd paid as much attention to their encounters as he had. Maybe she really didn't know who Iroh was, and that meant she really didn't know who he was. It also meant he could go on treating her the way he wanted to treat her, knowing that Prince Zuko could never care this much for anyone, let alone a woman from one of the Water Tribes.

Suddenly, he didn't care anymore. He looked over at Katara and saw the lonely look on her face, and did the one thing he'd been wanting to do from the moment she'd smiled at him; he walked up to her, turning her so that her back was against his chest, and rested his chin on the top of her head.

He ignored the look his uncle and the brigmistress exchanged, and didn't care at all when the smile erupted on the old man's face. Let him think what he wanted to think; he was probably right anyway, no matter how wrong this was.

Katara had been watching the exchange and kept her mouth shut. Those three seemed to be in their own little world, and she suddenly felt like she was not a part of it. It was very apparent now that the Blue Spirit was Fire Nation at the very least. If he was close to a general, who knew how far up the ranks he really was.

She felt a small prickle of loneliness and was about to hug herself, just as the Blue Spirit did it for her. Taken in his arms and completely surrounded by him, she felt needed; like she belonged. She titled her head to look at his face, not caring that she couldn't see him from this angle.

She closed her eyes and smiled as she leaned further into him, never wanting to be anywhere else.

This is where my Author Notes go...Enjoy.

-rubs hurting feet- yeah so…being on your feet for nine hours straight (9:30 am to 6:30 pm) is not fun. sighs but I DO love my job .

I AM SO SORRY!! I meant to update yesterday but I slept in so LONG!!! It was horrible. I was almost late on my first day! T.T

I will do all that is necessary to make the next two days on time…mostly cause I want to do a special Halloween chapter tomorrow… heheheh SO COME BACK!!!! Even if you read this at 3:30 pm on Halloween, COME BACK!!

I hope you like your super long chapter. I know it doesn't make up for missing a day, but I thought it might help me out a little bit on the forgiveness ..umm… train?

What ever.

REVIEWS? Maybe…?...please?!

PS: Chii sez: There's a difference between an IC and an OC. Honyu is an Insert/Incidental Character, which is basically a means to an end. She has little personality, but since Jamie's a weirdo, she put in her own little twisties. That's why we love her.

An Incidental Character is NOT to be confused with an Original Character, which is fully (or close to fully) developed. Hanae is an Original Character. She's just not Jamie's. I made her specifically for this fic and any future-set ventures. Expect one-shots and/or drabbles.

Return to Top