Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Avatar Characters. Nickelodeon owns them. If I owned them I would make so many twists, it isn't funny.
Story Title: Ghost Town
Category: Romance/Mystery/Horror...
Rating: T for Teen
Pairings: N/A Yet
Summary: Katara gets seperated from the group, and instead finds herself in the middle of a town completely destroyed by the Fire Nation troups. But is it really destroyed? And is she really alone?

A/N: I actually started this chapter this morning, only to finish near the end of the day! I'm not proud of this chapter, but its okay. At least I am keeping my chapters at a consistent length, for now. Maybe they will get longer as the story goes on. ...Zuko is so out of character its not even funny. Please review! Enjoy! - Solar Beam

Chapter Two:

"Get off of me, you stupid peasant!" The girl was shoved off of him and she rolled onto the floor beside him. The people who had stopped curiously to see what all the yelling was about just laughed, saying it was a "lover's quarrel", and walked on by. The girl got onto her hands and knees, facing him as he sat up, rubbing the back of his head. "What was that for?" he snapped at her.

Katara was breathing heavily, not sure why she had stopped him from eating in the first place. She was just a good person, she supposed. "You can't eat any of the food or water here, Zu—Princey!"

Zuko sat there a moment, and then his head swung toward her and he growled at her. "Did you just call me Princey? My name is not Princey! My name is—"

Katara quickly covered his mouth with her hands, wincing at the touch of his warm skin against her cold hand. "Don't say your name here, not your real name." She looked around at the people who had stopped suddenly and looked at Zuko, their eyes filled with hunger. "I don't know why we shouldn't, but I just know…we shouldn't."

Zuko shoved her hand away from his mouth and, grumbling, pulled himself up. Katara scrambled upward after him. She patted down her dress, and glanced at the passing townsfolk suspiciously, "Just trust me on this. No food, no water, no name. Come up with something different." Zuko glared at her, and turned to leave. Why was that peasant talking to him anyways? Why did he have to sit here and listen?

She grabbed his arm. "Seriously, you have to listen to me!" He yanked his arm away from her and began walking, grumbling about crazy girls in crazy towns surrounded by water. She cupped her hands to her mouth and yelled after him, "Zuzu?" she paused, was that any better than Princey? "Zuzu you have to listen to me! Zuzu!" She screamed after him until the people passing by gave her strange looks. Katara blushed and stomped her feet slightly; well fine, if he didn't want her help then he could just stay here for all eternity.

She spun around and continued walking, storming pass vendor after vendor, ignoring the enticing smells of chicken, fried rice, noodles, and many others.

"Hi!" Zuko stopped and looked at the girl who now stood in front of him, her arms behind her back as she leaned forward with a kind smile. Her hair was dirty brown, strands of sunlight yellow coming down, going down her back and braided in pigtails. She wore a brown dress that went to her knees, lined with forest green. Her smile was bright and kind, but it only made Zuko sniff.

"Hello," Zuko shoved past her, further into the crowd of people. He heard footsteps all around him; he felt himself drowning in the crowd. Talking, laughing, merriment; it all sent shivers down his spine. He half felt bad for leaving that peasant girl, the water bender, alone in the vendors but he felt she could take care of herself. She might be crazy, but she isn't stupid or weak, he thought, looking down at the cobblestone street. Someone shoved past him, and held out one hand to his chest to stop him. That same girl stood in front of him.

"You're kind of cute. My name is Akemi, what's yours?" When Zuko didn't answer, the girl pouted and poked him in the chest with her index finger a few times, pulling at the fabric of his peasant shirt. "You know that scar you have? It's strange, why would you have something like that over your eye?" Zuko shoved her hand away and walked past her. She, amazingly, kept up with his fast pace. "What happened?" she paused, "Did you get in a fight with a fire bender? Or did your family do that to you because you did something wrong?"

Zuko stopped and faced her. "It has nothing to do with you. Leave me alone." He shoved past her once more, but the girl just kept right up to him. Zuko could feel himself slowly becoming fuzzy, his mind becoming slow and it was hard to think.

"Please tell me your name!" she begged.

Zuko stopped once more; he cocked his head and looked at the girl next to him. "Akemi, right?" She nodded a smile on her face. "If I tell you my name, will you stop bugging me?" The girl smiled shyly, rolling backward on the balled of her feet and coming forward once more, an innocent look plastered to her face. Zuko sighed. There was something important he needed to remember about names. What was it? He shrugged. "The name is Zuko." He shoved past her, but the girl was suddenly in front of him.

Her eyes were no longer the coaxing dark green that they had once been, now they were black and hungry-looking, and when Zuko stared into them for too long he forgot who he was. Her teeth were no longer straight, but were fanged. She snarled, and a few others like her surrounded him. Zuko looked at them, a bit of terror itching its way into his foggy mind. Everywhere he turned black, hungry eyes lulled him into them. Suddenly all the other bodies disappeared and it was just the girl, Akemi. She grinned, not smiled, but grinned. A hungry grin, with fangs, but Zuko didn't notice. Something inside him told him to run, but he was just intoxicated with the beautiful girl that stood in front of him with the brown hair and green eyes.

"Zuzu?" called a voice from behind, "Where are you?"

He started to look back, but the girl grabbed his chin and forced him to look into her eyes. "You are mine," the girl said hungrily. Zuko looked into the girl's eyes, and finally his mind was lost. All he thought of was to give his master complete and utter loyalty. The girl began to breath in deeply through the mouth, and Zuko began to feel weaker and weaker.

"Zuko!" Suddenly the girl, Akemi, was tackled. Zuko shook his head, his mind not cleared but he was out of the trance. He looked around in confusion, and then down. That pesky water bender was on top of Akemi, punching her in the face once, twice, three times before Akemi shoved her off and pounced on her. Akemi looked down hungrily at Katara, a smirk on her face. Katara gasped; the girl had fangs!

"There are other ways for us to suck the life out of our victims, girl!" Akemi breathed; her voice was scratchy and dark. The girl grabbed Katara's wrist, and she pulled her head back, taking in the night air before ducking her head down, beginning to open her mouth to bite into Katara's wrist.

"Get off of me!" Katara screeched, trying to kick the girl off. Akemi got her mouth over Katara's wrist, and got just the points of her fangs into her wrist before she was pulled off and thrown to the side. Katara lay there a moment, breathing hard. People were just walking by, not taking any notice to the commotion in the middle of the street. Katara shut her eyes tight, pain searing from her wrist into her arm. She pulled herself into a tight ball, not noticing who her rescuer was or what he was doing to the girl.

A bloodcurdling screech filled a dark alleyway, where a girl was being burned alive against the wall. She writhed in pain, breathing hard and cursing to the Prince that stood above her. She felt all the life she had sucked out of pass victims escaping her body, and like diamonds in the sky they filled the air and drifted away. Zuko spat at the girl's still, ashen body and turned to go back to the water bender. "You okay, Peasant?" The girl didn't answer; she was rolling back and forth on the street, from side to side, tight in a small ball of pain.

"It burns," she screamed, "put it out!" Water in the troths on the side of the street began splashing against the side of their holders in reaction to the girl's pain. "Put it out!" her scream became louder and louder, and panic seared through the banished prince for the first time. The girl was actually in pain! He wasn't good with this kind of stuff. He looked around, crouching next to the girl.

Suddenly someone was beside him. A woman, with light brown hair and cerulean blue eyes and tan skin, was now crouching beside him, looking at the girl. "Kattie," the woman said softly, afraid to touch her daughter who was now lying still on the cold cobblestone, whimpering.

"Get away from her, wench!" the boy next to her cried, afraid that she would do more harm.

"I am the girl's mother!" the woman replied angrily. She shoved the boy aside, but she did not touch her. She covered her eyes. "Kattie, Kattie, Kattie," she repeated her daughter's name over and over again. And then she remembered what she gave Katara before she left; the canteen. "Where's her canteen?" she asked the boy.

The boy shrugged and began searching her daughter delicately. Finally, he found it strapped to her side and he tugged it out of its wrap. He looked inside and then sniffed the contents. "It's just water." He began to hand it to the woman but she just shook her head and pushed it back toward him.

"Poor it in the wound, then make her drink some, and then drink some yourself."

"How do I know you won't trick me?" the prince answered meekly. He didn't even see why he had to help this girl anyways. The woman gave him such a hard glare, that he knew she was not tricking him. He did as she told him. He took Katara's hand in his, palm up, and poured some of the drink on her wound; three bite marks. Then, he grabbed her chin in his hand and forced her to open her mouth. Her breath was coming out shallow now. He poured some of the drink down her throat, and after a few minutes of nothing she shot forward, coughing hard. He drank some himself, and then he topped it and looked at the girl in front of him as she coughed harder.

Slowly, Katara opened her eyes. Her wrist was pulsing, but wasn't on fire anymore. She looked at her mother a few moments, confused. Her mother pointed beside her, and Katara looked to her side and there was Zuko, crouching beside her with her canteen in his hands. She yanked it away from him, snarling at him. "You're an ass." Her mother's eyes widened at her daughter's use of the curse word, and then she grinned.

"Why am I an ass?" he asked angrily.

"You should have listened to me, you idiot! I told you not to drink or eat anything here. I told you not to tell anybody your real name! You are such an ass! You are a big fat ass with no sense at all!" She stood on shaky legs, glaring at him as she began to walk away. Her mother just watched her walk away, and then she smiled sadly and disappeared in the opposite direction. Zuko glared in the direction of Katara, and then stomping his foot, he followed in pursuit. She was still weak, and she needed to dress the bite marks.

"Wait up!" he called as he slid between crowds of people, keeping an eye on the peasant's hair. Finally he caught up to her, keeping fast pace with her. "You need to dress that wound."

"Leave me alone," she growled.

"It'll get infected," he pointed out.

"I said to leave me alone. I don't want your help, and you don't want mine. Why are you even here to begin with? How did you get here?"

Zuko was silent. He didn't want to tell her that the only reason he was here was because he had stormed off from his uncle after he refused to use lightning on him, and then he had heard a familiar lullaby that his mother had once sang to him as a child. That's how he had gotten there. He didn't tell her. "Why are you here?" he retorted instead.

"It'll sound crazy, and I'm not in the mood to talk to you." She turned a sharp corner and came to a dead end in an alley. She kicked her foot against the wall of a building and turned on him. "I heard my mother singing to me; a lullaby from when I was a child. I couldn't believe it. My mother, who had been killed years ago, was singing to me now, calling to me." She sighed heavily, shrugging.

Zuko didn't say anything for a while. "Let's dress that wound," he said, reaching for her.

Katara jumped back and swung her arms in front of her. Water from the canteen on her other side, the water from the world outside of this town, formed a water whip and slapped him across the face. "Don't touch me. Don't help me. I don't need you." Zuko snarled.

"You are so stubborn!" Flames licked the palms of his fists, forming small fire daggers. Katara didn't even wince at this. She just glared at him, and Zuko noted it was the same glare her mother had given him. He was trying to help her, trying to prove that he was changed. He was no longer after the Avatar, what was the use when he wouldn't be accepted into his nation anyways? He was an enemy of the Fire Nation. He spoke with clenched teeth, "We both need each other right now. If you haven't noticed yet, we are the only normal ones."

Katara looked at him angrily. He had no idea what he was talking about. He didn't know the history of the town, so how would he know? Of course, Katara didn't know that Zuko also had a relative in the town, lost and unable to get out. His cousin, Lu Ten. He had told Zuko of the history, but he hadn't warned him of all the things Katara had tried to. "Look, peasant, we are the only living beings here. We need to stick together. Get out of this together." He thought for a long time. They couldn't trust anybody here, not even her mother, not even his cousin. His cousin had coincidentally forgotten to warn Zuko, and for that Zuko did no longer trust him. But could they really trust Katara's mother?

"You're crazy," Katara grumbled, beginning to walk past him. He grabbed her wrist. He couldn't get out of here without her.

"My cousin, like your mother, is here. He told me the history of the town, what happens every night and every morning. He wants to help me get out of here."

"Then what is the problem?" Katara asked, yanking her arm out of his grasp but with no avail. He held it tight.

"The problem is that he didn't warn me about any of the things you tried to. Look what happened? I don't think we can trust anybody in this place. They are all lost souls that couldn't escape their fates. They are all stuck here, and if we don't get out of here we will join them. We need each other, and you know it."

Katara glared at him. "Are you saying that I shouldn't trust my own mother?"

Zuko slammed his free hand against his forehead. "That's just it, peasant, she's not your mother!"

Katara snarled. "Call me Kat, for goodness sakes my name isn't 'peasant'! And how dare you say that she isn't my mother. She is my mother!" With that Katara pulled her arm out of his grasp and she ran. She ran out of the alleyway. She ran down the street and around a corner. She ran until she couldn't run any longer. She ran until she got to a familiar door, where she slowly pushed it open and peered inside cautiously. What she saw sent chills down her spine.