Katara was alone in her dark, strange room in the Fire Nation palace, where the dim candlelight caused shadows to loom over the windowless walls. She'd found a pretty little Fire Nation doll on the floor somewhere else in the Fire Nation palace, which gave her some comfort, but it was still unsettling to be alone in a place like this. She found herself homesick, wanting to see daddy and silly Sokka again. Why did mum want to come with Auntie Ursa? Sure she would have missed the lovely Fire Nation lady, but she never wanted to leave home.

Suddenly hard, quick knocking at the door interrupted her thoughts. Katara put the doll down and cautiously opened it to find a girl around the same age as her in high-quality Fire Nation garb, smiling deviously.

"Hi, you're the water girl that just came, aren't you? Zuko was just complaining to me about how apparently mother keeps trying to get him to talk to you." Mother didn't bother to even mention her to me, though. I'll show her that was a mistake by making this girl like me. Even if she is a filthy, worthless little water peasant.

Katara blinked at the self-confident princess. "Um…yeah."

"I'm not as stuck-up as my brother, you see. As long as you're a good little girl, the amazing Princess Azula will be your friend. I'm already a master firebender, you know." Azula lifted her head and flicked a lock of hair behind her ears.

Katara's eyes shone in admiration. "Really? That's so amazing! I can't do a single thing right with my waterbending yet."

"Then do you want to practise with me and my friends? We're all amazing martial artists and if we spar with you, I'm sure we'll have you pulling awesome moves in no time."

A worried frown came over Katara's face. "But what if I still can't do anything right? Won't it be dangerous to spar?"

Azula placed her hands on Katara's shoulders from behind. "Relax; we'll go easy on you. Trust me, we won't go overboard." She led her to a little courtyard with a beautiful turtle-duck pond, where two Fire Nation girls were waiting amongst the spring flowers.

The soft brown eyes of the girl doing a handstand lit up at the sight of her friend. "Azula, where have you been? Mai and I have been waiting for ages!" she laughed as she landed on her feet, her long full plait swaying and falling onto her back.

The other girl with jet-black hair in buns rolled her eyes at her. "You can't sit still for five minutes, Ty Lee. For crying out loud, Azula's the only one who can be bothered keeping you under control."

The Fire Nation princess smiled and pushed a nervous Katara forward. "This girl here is a waterbender from the South Pole and we'll be sparring with her today".


Soon the turtle-ducks were quacking and beating their flippers against the water in distress. Katara was on her knees in the grass before the pond, her little body aching all over. Her chi had been blocked and she was covered in cuts from Mai, and burns from Azula. Her favorite blue dress, the one that had been made especially for travelling away from the South Pole, was ruined. Her loosened hair fell in front of her face as leant forward, panting and tasting the salt of her tears.

"You… promised you'd go easy on me."

Azula looked surprised and just smiled with Mai and Ty Lee on either side of her. "We did go easy on you. You're just too weak to face proper martial artists. Don't be such a cry-baby. Everybody goes through this in training. Don't you want to get stronger?"

Katara looked up and glared at the cruel princess. "That doesn't mean you can just use me as a practice dummy like that!"

She picked her heavy body up and charged at Azula, who nimbly dodged Katara's water as Mai kicked her down to the ground with a thud. Katara's head hit against a hard rock and blood trickled down her forehead, mixing messily with the dirt and tears on her face.

She struggled to lift herself off the ground, the world spinning before her eyes. She could vaguely hear, as if from far away, the crackling of fire as Azula prepared to burn her again.

"Hey! Stop!" A voice rang through the courtyard. Katara squinted in the direction of the sound, barely making out a blurry red figure.

"Zuko?" she whispered softly before falling unconscious against the damp, solid earth.


It was dusk when Katara opened her eyes to find herself lying under a warm, soft, blanket back in her room. Despite the aching pain under her bandages, the room was now full of bright torches that made her feel safe and even cheered her up. And on a wooden chair next to her bed was Prince Zuko, who had fallen fast asleep with his chin on his chest.

She groaned in pain as she took her arms out from under the blanket. Zuko rubbed his eyes and looked at her sleepily. "So you're conscious again. How are you feeling? My sister's absolutely nuts."

Katara laughed. "I'm ok now, thanks to you looking after me. You were ignoring me before, but now you're being quite nice."

Zuko's cheeks flushed pink. "Don't get the wrong idea. I only carried you back here and got the palace doctor to fix you up because I knew it would piss Azula off. She ended up throwing a rock at one of the turtle-ducks. Besides, mum would probably have lectured me about being mean to you again if I'd just left you there." He crossed his arms and glanced away, then looked back at her. "But… I admit it was kinda cool the way you kept standing up to her. You didn't stop even when you were hurt all over."

Katara laughed softly. "Thanks"