Chapter 6: Resolve

Everything was blank. Nothing made sense to Zuko. He refused to hear Katara's call for him, her hand shaking his shoulder to try and get a response. He gave her none.

Zuko stared down at the mass of black in front of him. The destruction of his home, the place he ran out from a week before. He felt like a cowardly idiot. How could he run off, leaving his uncle in this mess? If he hadn't been such an incompetent fool, none of this would have happened. He wouldn't have let the culprits take his home, and his uncle, who was like a father to him. Zuko was numb; he couldn't feel his body anymore. If only I had been there, if only I wasn't such a immature brat, if only—

"Zuko!" yelled Katara. She slapped both of his cheeks, his face squished in between her hands. He finally looked at her. Her bright blue eyes stared back at him. He didn't say anything to her, afraid that tears would overflow from his eyes when he tried to talk. "Pull yourself together," she stammered. Katara looked back at where his house once stood and returned her gaze back to Zuko. "Your uncle's not dead."

A shock ran through Zuko at her words. His uncle was alive? How? He felt himself frown at her words. Katara continued to look at him, trying to plead and give him some sense of self again.

"I can feel it…" whispered Katara. "When people die… It's like my whole body resonates with that fact." She spoke quietly at him. If her face wasn't so close to his, he might have not heard it. "Maybe, it's because I'm a healer, or something, but, no one died here, Zuko! Please trust me, there's no trace of death here."

Zuko closed his eyes, and let out an unsteady breath. He wanted to believe in her words. He wanted his uncle to be alive, to be safe. His whole body was shaking, but he forced his legs to walk forward. Katara gently removed her hands from his face, but looked at him with a concerned expression. Zuko stepped closer towards what was left of his house. He bent down and lifted a piece of burnt wood from the pile. He could barely feel any warmth from it, so the fire must have happened days ago. Zuko continued to slowly remove the remaining parts, until he cleared out small space around him. He knew what he was looking for. He held onto his last hope as he began to dig through the ash and earth. He felt Katara's eyes on him, wondering what he was doing. Zuko continued to dig his hand into various places in the ground until he hit something hard. His heart thundered nervously against his chest, knowing that if this wasn't what he was looking for, all hope might as well be lost.

Taking in a shaky breath, he removed the dirt and placed his eyes upon the familiar design on a scabbard. Relief and hope flowed through him as he pulled out the heavy scabbard out of the earth, the familiar weight resting in his hands again.

"Katara…" Zuko finally managed to say. "My uncle, is really alive…" Zuko stood up, still holding the scabbard in his hands and turned to her. Katara's face was filled with confusion and worry, but she released a sigh of relief at his words.

"That's… a sword," said Katara, saying each word slowly.

Zuko took another deep breath before speaking. Although he had no idea what had happened, he at least knew that his uncle was alive and somewhere. He looked at Katara with stronger sense of his sanity than before.

"They're Dual dao swords," said Zuko, firmly griping the swords in his hands. "When we first came here, there was a time when I left to do something, but when I came back, my uncle was gone, and I thought something bad had happened." Katara nodded her head, following Zuko's story. "So we decided that when either of us needed to leave the house when the other was gone, we would remove the swords from the wall and put them under the house." Katara's eyes widened with understanding at his words.

"So…" said Katara. "Your uncle wasn't in the house when… this happened?"

Zuko shrugged and shook his head back and forth, "I'm not really sure what happened… but he's alive, and he's out there somewhere." Zuko lifted his head just in time to meet Katara's sudden crashing hug. He was so shocked that he dropped the dao swords at his feet. Katara pulled Zuko into a tight hug around his neck, releasing comforting sighs near his chest.

"Oh, god…" whispered Katara. "I'm so glad that he's not gone. He's alive. It's okay now… He's alive…"

Zuko let his eyes close again, taking in her words, filling him with assurance. He didn't know what he would've done if Katara wasn't there to hammer sense into him. Zuko slowly lifted his arms and wrapped them around Katara's waist, burrowing his face in her hair.

"Thank you, Katara," muttered Zuko. He felt her hands gently pat his back in a rhythmic motion, as he took in her cooling fragrance. Zuko wanted to hug Katara forever, she felt like a safe haven for him, where he could rest and forget about all his worries. The moment was fleeting.

"Stop! Argh—let go of me!"

A familiar voice shouted in the distance. Zuko and Katara promptly looked up towards the sound, and saw a terrifying reality. About 30 soldiers dressed in black and red armor were approaching them. Each of them wore a helmet protruding two pairs of horns, and a white ventilating mask to hide their identity. Zuko noticed a soldier dragging a man in blue with a thick rope around his arms. It was Sokka.

"Sokka!" yelled Katara. She freed herself from Zuko and ran towards the soldiers when a stream of fire was blasted near her feet. These soldiers were fire benders. Sokka grunted and tilted his head to see his sister almost consumed by flames. He looked completely worn out and beaten. Blood trailed from his hairline and from his mouth, his face bruised and swollen. His arms were tied to the sides of his body with a thick rope, restricting his movement.

"Katara! Run away!" croaked Sokka.

"Silence!" yelled the soldier who was holding onto Sokka, and quickly slammed his fist down to the back of his head. Sokka let out a yelp of pain and grew limp, collapsing to the ground.

"No! Sokka!" yelled Katara and started running towards the soldiers again.

"Katara, stop!" yelled Zuko. He finally realized the situation was not in their favor; he quickly sprinted after her and grabbed Katara around her shoulders.

"Zuko let go of me!" Katara resisted against him and tried to shake him off, but Zuko refused to let her run to a fiery death. He could hear her voice cracking as she spoke to him.

"Katara. Calm down, we'll get Sokka back," Zuko urgently said into Katara's ear, as he pulled Katara away from the soldiers. "Plus there's too many of them, we can't fight them all." Katara cursed, but settled down. He could still feel her body shaking in fury and frustration. One of the soldiers in the front stepped forward and pointed at Katara.

"Hand over the girl," he demanded. "If you do not comply, we will force you too."

Zuko was stunned. Why in the world would they want Katara? Nothing seemed to make sense. According to what he knew, she was just some nomad that always moved and lived with her brother. Katara tried to lunge forward and say something, when Zuko pulled her back and covered her mouth with his hand.

"I'm not giving her to you," he spat at the soldier. "Who are you guys anyways?" The soldier seemed to smirk at his comment and took another step forward.

"Brat," he commented, ignoring Zuko's question. "We already wasted enough time at the wrong house here, so I'm not in any mood to negotiate. Hand her over." Zuko growled at his words, referring to Katara like a piece of equipment that could be passed around.

"No," Zuko curtly replied. He then realized what the soldier said. "The house here? You were the ones who burned the house down?" Zuko could feel his rage build up with every passing second. He wanted to strangle the soldier for his deeds. The armored man seemed to be pleased with Zuko's anger.

"And what of it?" the man asked. "The foolish old man didn't even let us in, and attacked us too. So we burned the house down." The men laughed wickedly at the memory. Zuko's entire body began to shake with anger, if he wasn't holding Katara in his arms, he would have charged the men and unleashed his fury. The soldier paused for a moment and walked over to Sokka's unconscious body. He ignited a fire in his palm, and held it up against Sokka's face.

"Isn't this man important to you?" asked the soldier. Katara flailed and struggled against Zuko again when the soldier brought the flame closer to Sokka, her screams of protest muffled by Zuko's hand. "I won't mind burning him to death. He was blocking and fighting us off the entire day anyways… So… what will it be?"

What? Zuko's anger was now multiplied with confusion. He didn't understand what the soldier was saying. Sokka was fighting these guys? A million questions bombarded through Zuko's head. Katara seemed to breath heavily as her body trembled hearing the man's words.

"S-So…kka…" Katara mumbled through Zuko's fingers and pushed weakly against his grip. He felt his heart shatter when tears fell from Katara's eyes. Then she suddenly fell limp in Zuko's arms.

"Katara!" Zuko yelled frantically, trying to comprehend what was going on.

Suddenly a blast of air sent Zuko flying back. He hit the hard ground on his back, causing his necklace to slip out from under his robe. He stuttered and gasped for breath. What the heck just happened? Zuko felt a familiar chill run up his spine. He forced his eyes to open and saw Katara slowly stand up, she seemed to be levitating in the air. Powerful energy whirled around her. The green landscape began to turn yellow then brown, as the water was bended out from it. Thin sheets of ice formed rapidly and covered the dead plants. Thunder shook the skies. The pleasant evening sunlight was now covered in dark storm clouds that hovered over them. Zuko could hear gasps and shocked murmurs from the soldiers at the sudden change of their surroundings. He was no different.

"Don't fear!" yelled the soldier from before. "Capture her!"

At his command, a line of 10 soldiers formed and prepared to attack. Zuko knew that the combined fire of ten soldiers would be too much to Katara to handle. But before the soldiers were able to attack, Katara walked forward and lifted her hand, making a grasping motion towards the line the soldiers. The men screamed as blood erupted from the spaces in their armor. They collapsed to the ground, dead. Screams of horror escaped from the other soldiers as they watched Katara continue to destroy the remaining solders in a similar manner.

"Fall back!" someone yelled. "Take the man and retreat!"

Zuko watched as the remaining four men took Sokka's unconscious body and dragged it along in their escape. After obliterating the other soldiers, Katara directed her attention to the runaways.

"Katara, stop!" yelled Zuko. He was afraid Katara might end up killing Sokka by mistake. She turned towards the sound of his voice. Her beautiful blue eyes had altered into a bloody red. Even with the soldiers' blood splattered against her cheek, she was emotionless, her eyes holding no hint of life. This was not Katara. There was no way the Katara he knew could kill so many men without mercy or hesitation. He watched as she raised her hand towards him, and Zuko braced himself for death.

He waited. But nothing seemed to happen. Zuko cautiously opened his eyes again to see Katara staring down at him. A frown creased her forehead as her deep crimson eyes bore into him. Her arm slowly lowered and she crumbled to the earth.

Zuko stood there in the chilling silence, shocked and dumbfounded. His whole body was trembling with the energy rush, thinking that he was going to die. The dark clouds slowly faded, letting the sun's rays light the ground again. The ice had melted, leaving the dead plants frosted in decay. It was a complete massacre. Broken and bloody bodies in armor were spread throughout the ground; the dark yellow grass was now dyed red. Zuko was in disbelief. He could barely register what just had happened. He forced himself to step towards Katara who was now silently positioned against the ground. He fell on his knees in front of her, his shaking hands reached out for her face.

"K-Katara…?" muttered Zuko. He slowly pressed his fingers to her neck and felt a faint, but steady heart beat. She was alive. Relief washed over him as he let out a shallow breath. Zuko had almost lost his uncle today, and he wasn't ready to almost lose Katara. He looked up at the clear afternoon sky that seemed stunning by itself, but Zuko soon remembered he was accompanied by the smell of blood and the dead soldiers on earth.

A/N: This was a really hard chapter to write.
I had to do a lot of emotionally-describing-breakdowns for both Katara and Zuko. But it was fun nevertheless.
SO. What the heck happened to Katara huh? Heh. I'm quite excited for the next chapters now.

By the way, for some of you who want more of a visual representation of what Katara and Zuko look like in my story, I have drawn out their appearance! (: Zuko looks pretty much the same, but Katara looks a bit different. At least this is how I imagined her. You can really tell I put more effort into Zuko, so I apologize for the bad drawing of Katara -_-. The link refuses to post here, so it is on my profile.

See you soon! ^^