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 30: Blindsided

A muffled female yell caught Zuko's attention. Recognizing it as Katara, he turned to just in time to see her drop her heel into Sho's instep. Silently applauding her before panic set in, he turned away from his current adversary, fully intending to help her escape.

A jerk from behind him made him spin sideways before pain clouded his vision. It took him the same amount of time to register the fact that there was a fist in his gut as it did to realize who the fist belonged to.

"Concentrate," Hanae growled into his ear. "I am your opponent. Had you been anyone else, you would be dead at this moment."

Zuko's chest clenched painfully as he tried and failed to take a breath. The firebender released his shirt and let him drop to his knees. Gasping, he curled his arms around his stomach protectively and cursed her.

"Hanae," Sho's voice barked from behind him, "control yourself!"

The tall woman took a step back and bowed slightly. "Your pardon," she said ruthlessly and glared down at Zuko.

Her obedience surprised him. She didn't seem the type to take orders, but she let Zuko be and walked past him. Getting control of his pain, barely, he did his best to turn his head to follow her path. She fell into place one step behind the general and Katara. He didn't know when Sho's hand had moved from her mouth to her throat, but it was there now and Katara was staring down at it with wary hatred.

Zuko took a better look at where Sho's hands were positioned; one was behind Katara's back -- most likely holding her arms -- and the other was now loosely around her throat. One wrong move and Zuko knew Sho would burn her. If the older man tried hard enough he could scar her, maybe even kill her.

Zuko would accept neither one.

Vaguely he thought that neither would the Avatar and the brat's voice sounded angrily as if on cue: "What do you want from us?!"

"We are to take you into custody," Hanae answered with a push of her glasses, "where you can do no more damage."

An arm wrapped around his midsection, and Zuko looked up to see his uncle standing above him. "You are the one doing the damage, Sho," he stated and the prince couldn't place the emotion behind it.

"I?" Sho said with a mocking smirk. "Don't you mean 'we,' General?"

"Former general." Iroh said and helped Zuko to his feet. "I've severed my ties with the Fire Nation."

Sho shrugged. "As you like, Former General. Either way you're a traitor. I was going to let you go free, but you appear to be assisting both the Blue Spirit and the Avatar."

"I am assisting no one," his uncle said cryptically, and Zuko knew the old man would deny any relation to him in order to save him. The realization hurt. "We simply happen to have the same opponent."

"Picky today, aren't we?" Sho said and Zuko stepped away from Iroh, ignoring the fact that he could still barely breathe. He focused on Katara. Was she hurt? Had Sho done anything to harm her?

She was angry and that gave Zuko hope.

"Let go of her!" the airbender said and appeared beside the prince.

"Not unless you do exactly as I tell you to."

The avatar sputtered for a second before exploding, "FINE! I'm sick of my friends being captured because of me!" He sighed angrily and dropped his hands in defeat. "I'll do anything you want if you'll just let her go."

"Excellent," Sho grinned and turned deliberately to Zuko. "Now, what will you do?"

Zuko felt the rage rise within him. What would he do? He'd do anything to keep her safe. He'd even kill Sho if he had to.

Aang had done the exact thing Katara had expected him to do. She hadn't expected Sho to ask Zuko for anything, however. It made no sense. The Blue Spirit was just in the way, wasn't he? Why would Sho want anything from him? What did he expect to get?

Unfortunately, Zuko did exactly what she thought he would do, too. Boys are so predictable, she thought as Zuko knelt and picked up his swords before rising again.

"Ah-ah-ah." Katara heard Hanae's taunt from behind Sho. "We tried that already, now didn't we?"

She focused on Zuko and his uncle, not sure what to hope for. If Zuko attacked, Sho would attack. If Zuko surrendered like Aang had, everything would be over. Either way, they all lost.

The sound of something hitting the dirt drew her attention back to the prince. His arms were at his sides like Aang's, his swords at his feet. Defeat nestled itself in the pit of her stomach and she tried to step toward him. The hand around her throat got hot, and she gasped in pain. Zuko took a step forward.

"I know what I want from you," Sho said with satisfaction. Katara felt the skin on her throat tighten as the heat increased. "Take off your mask."

"No!" Katara cried out and started forward. Sho squeezed until she choked on the heat, but it didn't matter.

He couldn't see Zuko's face. He couldn't.

But the prince had already reached for the ties behind his head. She pulled at the hands restraining her and dug her fingernails into Sho's palm. Finally got free.

She had to get to Zuko, had to stop him, had to-

"Katara!"

Zuko stared in horror as Katara crumpled to the ground. Sho rubbed the heel of his hand were it had struck her skull. "Stupid little-" Sho snarled, and kicked Katara aside. "I changed my mind." He took a step back and motioned forward. "I don't care about your face. Hanae!" the order was simple and clear.

The tall woman pushed up her glasses and then took a running step forward. Iroh pushed Zuko to the side and moved as if to interrupt the woman's attack on him.

But Hanae didn't attack him or his uncle. Her first blow landed, instead, on the Avatar. The sides of her hands connected with both sides of the airbender's throat just beneath his jaw and the boy crumbled just like Katara had.

Hanae's next attack was aimed at Iroh and the old man blocked accordingly. Seeing that his uncle had things covered with Hanae, Zuko retrieved his swords from the ground swiftly and headed for Sho.

He'd hurt her. He'd hurt Katara and left Zuko no time to check on her. For that Zuko would kill him.

He started to attack, not caring where or how. All that mattered was bringing the general down in pieces. He wished the son-of-a-ratdog would hold still long enough for him to do so.

His chest hurt from the punch he'd received earlier, but the pain was slowly going away as he attacked more and more. Every swing made him stronger. Every miss made him angrier. Every second that passed increased his want to spill Sho's blood all over the grass. And from the first cut, he wanted more.

Soon the only thing he saw was red, the scent of burning flesh didn't reach his nose until after his target was knocked out of his way and replaced by a much bigger, much more familiar one.

His swords came out of his hands and the red drained from behind his eyes as his uncle held his face. "Zuko," he breathed. There was pity and horror in his voice and fear in his eyes.

What had he done wrong? Why was Uncle looking at him like that?

"I will not let you become your father."

Zuko felt his entire body shaking under his uncle's steady hands. He grabbed the old man's wrists and held on for dear life as he knees gave out beneath him. What had he done? Where was Sho? Please, he had to still be alive.

"Uncle," Zuko choked out, and swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat. Had he..? "He's not….please tell me I didn't…"

Had he killed Sho? Had Zuko gotten what he wanted? Had he avenged Katara? Was she even still alive? He tried to look for her but his uncle wouldn't release him. She had to still be alive.

Iroh hushed him softly. "You didn't. You came very close, but we were able to stop you."

"We?" Had Aang woken up? Had… "Katara?" He hated the weakness in his voice but didn't move to correct it.

"She's fine." For a second he confused Hanae's voice with his mother's. Where had that gentleness come from? Still unable to look, he assumed she and his uncle were no longer fighting. But why? Hadn't she betrayed them? She had tried to kill him, right?

"Get away from her!" he yelled and tried again to go to Katara, only to be stopped by his uncle's strong hands.

"Zuko. Listen to me. You're hurt, badly. You need to calm down or-"

Zuko wasn't listening. Zuko didn't care. "Get away from her!" She'd tried to kill him and was now trying to kill Katara. He'd kill her too if…too…if…

"Uncle," he pleaded. Get her away….

"All right," Hanae said and he heard her move further away. Her voice was again so warm. So like his mother's. Why?! Why did it sound like she cared?

The world spun and his arms went numb; he knew that even though they'd been numb all along, he hadn't noticed.

"Uncle…" The world tipped and went black.

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

Okay, now to explain why this took so long (other than the writer's block). On Monday I saw my best guy friend get into a car accident. A head on collision right in front of me. He totaled his car and almost himself…and well, I was freaking out a bit. It made my life kind of revolve around him and work for about 48 hours.

I'm sorry T.T So sorry you guys! I cannot apologize enough for taking this long.

-bows-

It got so bad that I even ignored Chii for a whole day, and that hasn't happened in years.

I'll have another chapter out tomorrow. It might even be the last one. Maybe. We're not sure.

Oh! And you guys are crazy! Just because I said it would change the rating to M you all thought Chpater 26 was a lemon? … Chapter 26 is a little limy, but there's no lemon! Are you kidding? Katara 14 for goodness sake. Hehe

Chii Sez:

Okay, at this point you're probably wondering why Zuko is so very OOC there at the end. The explanation is blind fury. Blind fury makes you snap just slightly; you can't come down off it immediately. (I know. Blind fury is my particular flavor of anger.) So, Zuko is still a little nuts as of the end of this chapter.

The reason he can't feel his injuries is different, however, and part of that reason is that his burns are so bad that the nerves have been damaged. Third degree burns do that, and one would think point-blank direct fire blasts from a hacked-up general-read-admiral would cause those at the very least.

But nobody's dead.

And that's a good thing.

(Did you like how Hanae took out Aang? I hope you understood how the move worked; it's really hard to explain. I'll try animating it, cuz it's really awesome. XD)

Hey look, my notes are longer than Jamie's! That's definitely a first. Think that might make up for my silence the rest of the fic. Bai!

(Jaime: Yes. She's talkative… sorry… -hopeful- Review?)