Better stay out for now, Katara. It's too dangerous here.

Chapter 2

How strange. Katara had gone back to sleep with the express hope of seeing Zuko again. For a moment, she had seen the distinct image of dark stone walls and a winding staircase. It had hung, suspended for a moment or two, before turning suddenly black. It was almost as if someone had shoved a hand over her eyes, blocking her vision. All Katara recalled after that were a few bits and pieces of 'normal' dreams. Walking along the snowy city walkways, dancing under the moonlight with a dark, handsome prince, bending the earth like Toph. They were good dreams, but they were not the dream, and that frustrated her.

Zuko. She could still see his brilliant amber eyes whenever she closed her own. Her heartbeat sped as she considered his gaze. No scar. That had thrown her. He had seemed almost alien without it. Foreign, pale, and beautiful. More man than boy now, if the muscled body she had seen was true to life.

He was alive! Katara had been worrying over his welfare and whereabouts for the past two months, after a clumsy Fire Nation cover-up made it clear he was no longer in power. Oh, certainly, the official story was that Zuko had taken ill, that his Speaker had taken dead, and that his right-hand man, General Hen, had taken off, branded a traitor. No one had heard so much as a peep from the Fire Lord confirming or disconfirming anything. The only information in support of the story came from Zuko's new purported Speaker, whom the Fire Nation people inexplicably accepted as Zuko's voice without so much as an election.

Katara didn't buy any of it. At least, not that Zuko was merely convalescing. And, based on the sudden activity in the rest of the free world, neither did any other government. Appearances had to be kept up, of course, Trade routes with the Fire Nation remained open, as did communication, such as it was. Plans had to be drawn up. Defenses had to be increased. And now that Katara knew Zuko was alive and in prison, a Fire Lord had to be rescued.

But where was he? All she had to go on were stone stairs and wooden doors – not exactly unique in the realm of dungeons. If only she could dream of him again, maybe she could ask him to tell her more. But it would have to wait until tonight. Today she had a war to declare.

With purpose, she pushed aside her white comforter, throwing her legs off the bed and standing, allowing herself a yawn. The curtains were slightly open, letting a stream of morning sunlight into the room. "Umi?" She heard some rustling blankets, some hurried footsteps, and the old servant appeared at her side. The woman had insisted for weeks that she stay in Katara's room, and Katara had finally relented, with the exception that Umi at least sleep next door. Umi countered by insisting that the door between their rooms remain open. Katara and Umi made a game of closing and opening that door whenever the other wasn't looking.

"Yes, mistress?" Another annoying quirk. Katara was, in fact, head of state, and her cabinet had urged her time and time again to carry herself in a manner that fit her high position. She just couldn't get used to the jargon of it all. 'Mistress' this and 'Madam' that. She wasn't royalty!

"I'm heading to the high council meeting a bit early."

"Two hours early, milady?" Umi let her disapproval bleed into her tone, but Katara ignored it.

"I have papers to go through before we begin. Have cook send me a small breakfast. Thank you."

Umi let her off with a scowl this time, which was just as well. Katara would craft the perfect argument to convince her cabinet to declare war, and if she lost a bit of sleep because of it, then so be it.

When she arrived at the stateroom, it was pitch black. Regretting her lack of firebending, she grabbed a candle from the hallway and lit a few of the torches recessed in the tapestried walls. Taking a seat, she spread her papers before her, information from a trusted network of spies she now controlled in every nation. Ittaliurvik may have been only a city-state, one of two newly seated in the Southern Continent, but information was often better than an army – and certainly cheaper.

Fire Nation. Speaker claimed everything is hunky-dory. People were beginning to wonder if the Fire Lord was really sick.

North Pole. Building their defenses, though no armies had attacked since the Great War. Citizens worked in fear, but knew nothing.

The Northern Air Temple. Colonists work tirelessly to improve mechanized weapons for the Earth Kingdom army. Food was scarce.

Southern Continent. Particularly unclear, even though Ittaliurvik itself rested at the northern tip. General Hen, former Fire Nation army general, had defected. No, he was exiled. He took 100 men with him. No, a thousand. He was amassing an army to attack the Fire Nation, the Southern Water tribe, the Avatar himself.

Half-truths bathed in secrecy and couched in uncertainty. But together, they suggested something Katara had only recently acknowledged.

Her own realization was based on a week-old letter from the Avatar himself. The Fire Faction has risen. Prepare yourselves.

The Fire Faction. Rumored to be one of the most extreme political groups on the planet. Nothing but global dominance would satisfy them. They had loved Ozai's rule because Ozai was an imperialist. Zuko was a proven enemy simply because the word 'reparations' was in his vocabulary. If they had gained any power at all, the world had much to fear.

But the fact that the Fire Faction was now to be reckoned with wasn't spoken of in Ittaliurvik. It wasn't spoken aloud anywhere. People were too afraid to speak the truth. War was coming. And now Katara would use every bit of the guile she had built as head of state to convince her cabinet it was so.

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Zuko woke in a cold sweat, nausea keeping him immobile for now. He dragged his hand down his grimy face, wiping dirt into his scraggly beard, forgetting yet again that he had it. He had tried – successfully – to achieve the dream again. He held the word in high esteem, now; it wasn't a dream, but the dream. Because it held hope for escape. Because it held her.

But this time, she hadn't appeared. And as before, his body had been completely immobile, held by invisible chains. He had been paralyzed, and she wasn't there to free him. The despair of his situation – of his imprisonment – crossed the boundary between sleep and awake, compressing itself into a single moment and plunging into his gut with all the force of an earthbender's attack.

Hopelessness woke him; despair was his companion as he rose, and his insane father chose again to remember who he was.

"Zuko, why do you even bother waking up? You couldn't even lead the Fire Nation I ruled for decades."

Zuko vaguely wondered how Ozai had known about Zuko's exile. Well, a Lord in prison was no longer a Lord. Don't think about her…

"I suppose it was to be expected from a spoiled prince. Your mother used to wake you up every morning. Remember? Every morning."

He sounded almost nostalgic, but Zuko knew better.

"You were a whiny, coddled brat even then. She was a fool to nurse you that way. You were never destined to be as powerful as your sister. She should have given you up as I did from the beginning."

Zuko's back was broken with the memory of his horrible dream, so he allowed himself a counterattack. "Shut up, old man." Surprisingly, Ozai quieted. Perhaps he was slipping back into insanity. But Zuko was losing his composure, as well. Maybe it was Ozai's bout of quasi-sanity; perhaps the effects of the dream were messing with Zuko's decision-making capacity. He bowed his head and spoke something he had held locked in his heart for years. "There must have been a time when you loved me." Poor move. The former Fire Lord did not answer; he merely chuckled, then cackled, then threw his head back and roared with laughter. He did not stop until the guards opened the door and beat them both.

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

More exposition! Bored yet? To reassure you, yes, there will be plenty of Zutara moments. I already have a lot of them written. But it's not going to be too easy…hehehehe

Thanks for the reviews, by the way! They are lovely things.