Chapter 7

"Does it look like I'm okay?" Zuko managed to grunt out from his position at the base of the tree he leaned against.

"No use being snippy with me," bit out Katara in response. She glanced over at the unconscious rebel and then she turned her gaze to his frozen leader. Mentally she started to mull over a few options regarding what they should do about the men before Zuko spoke up.

"The arrow didn't go all the way through, but I still won't be able to bend properly until it's healed. Would you be able to heal it?"

Katara looked over at him and nodded before moving closer to pull the shoulder of his shirt down. He had left the head of the arrow in which was a smart move on his part. Had he completely removed the offending projectile he'd probably be unconscious due to the loss of blood.

She kneeled next to him and siphoned more water from the waterskin.

"I'll only be able to heal it in increments since I'm out of water from the Spirit Oasis. I haven't been there in a couple of years."

"That's fine," the Fire Lord grunted before closing his eyes at the soothing feeling of the cool water as Katara started to heal his wound.

"What are we going to do with these guys?"

"They'll know something about the rebellion, I'm sure."

"We should question them just in case there are others following behind them."

"Right," Zuko responded. He watched as the master waterbender separated the blood from the water she used, in midair, before allowing the water to return to the waterskin. It was all really fascinating.

Katara began to rummage around in his rucksack. When she clearly didn't find what she sought, she looked up at Zuko, with her eyes narrowed into slits.

"What?"

"You packed moon peaches. You packed sea slugs. Our weapons are here but you didn't pack bandaging materials?"

"I'm sorry. I didn't think that they would be necessary," Zuko defended himself.

"And what would you say about that thought, now? I swear at times like this you seem to channel that brother of mine," sighed the woman as she pushed his rucksack aside. She grabbed a hold of the sash around his waist and pulled it from around his body before tying it tightly above the arrow wound in order to slow the blood flow.

Zuko winced at the pain but kept his mouth shut. The beautiful waterbender placed her hand lightly atop the arrowhead and used her senses to gauge how deeply it was implanted.

"Zuko, I'm sure that this is going to hurt you quite a bit..."

"Why? You're supposed to be healing me! Not making it worse."

"I have to bloodbend the arrowhead out of your shoulder, idiot. I don't want to just yank it out. That would cause more damage and we need to get it now before an infection starts to set in. Who knows how gross these guys are."

Zuko opened his mouth with a witty retort in mind but shut it quickly. He knew the story of how Katara had gained her bloodbending ability. Her waterbending skills had far improved since she had claimed her title of mastery. Though her abilities were made stronger by it's push and pull properties, she no longer required the full moon for bloodbending.

The Fire Lord also knew that her resolve on bloodbending was still strong and she rarely used it unless a situation called for it.

Zuko let out a gasp as he felt the arrowhead being worked out of his arm. She wasn't kidding about the pain. He could feel every painful prick that each blood cell had to endure as she manipulated them into getting the remainder of the projectile from his shoulder.

Finally, it was out. Katara took the makeshift tourniquet from around his arm and wrapped it around his wound.

"This'll do until we get you-know-where," said the waterbender as she quickly cleaned her hands before placing them on her hips in contemplation, "Now, what to do with these guys…".

"Katara, I know that we should ask them questions but we need to get to—we need to get there as soon as possible. They're expecting us," grunted the former prince. He awkwardly hoisted himself up from the ground, swaying just a bit.

"Are you crazy!" the woman exclaimed.

"Not yet. I know that it seems odd, but they're just rebels. We have to get moving," urged Zuko, his normal scowl back upon his face.

"Zuko, this makes no sense. At all. I realize that craziness runs in your family but I thought you

took after your mother."

"There's no time for this. Katara, I left Aang to handle these rebellious affairs. I need to find her. The temple agreed to help me after much begging on my part. I nearly fell to my knees to bequest their whereabouts from my uncle," Zuko whispered strongly.

Katara let out a sound of aggravation before turning to the rebels. She motioned her wrist upward to melt the ice surrounding the burly boss siphoning the water back into the waterskin.

"You are fools," the rebellious man exclaimed as he moved to pick up his unconscious subordinate who he carelessly threw over his shoulder.

"Yeah…I know," Katara sighed and with a rapid movement proving her mastery, she flung her wrist outward to slam the man against a tree.

He slumped to the ground under the weight of the man he carried. The Fire Lord winced at Katara's nonchalant behavior.

"At least now, they'll be out for a while."

Sokka sighed loudly as he began his bedtime ritual of removing his armored uniform. After receiving his orders from Toph, he had returned to his apartment-sized barracks that housed members of the Sword Squad while they were in the city.

The day had been tiring for him. He had ventured to the city early that morning to report his findings to Toph and throughout the day, he'd been paranoid. He watched everyone around him.

Sokka shook his head as he recalled Azula's accusations against the Kyoshi Warriors, the group that was led by his girlfriend of several years.

The warrior sat down on the edge of his bed to remove his boots. What kind of a man was he to question his Suki? This was no way to be loyal to the woman that he would one day marry.

Sokka tossed his boot, not so lightly, across the room in aggravation. He knew that Azula wasn't trustworthy. Oh, he more than knew, however, there was no reason for her to lie. He had noticed the strange behavior of the guards as he made to leave the Asylum. Only time would tell if she was lying or not.

"Great, I caught you in your best state. Shirtless," came a sweet voice from the doorway. Sokka looked up in shock. Suki was standing there, free of her uniform with a sheer pink tunic on over a red camisole top and knee-length shorts.

He studied the grin on the woman's face. How could she be leading a rebellion?

"What are you doing here? I thought you were on Kyoshi Island?"

"I decided to surprise you," Suki explained closing the door. She walked over to the bed and sat down beside the brown-skinned man.

"Yeah, you sure did that," Sokka chuckled nervously.

"You look like you've had a long day. What has Toph been having you guys do?" Suki reached her hand up to his hard forearm.

"Just normal guard stuff. Nothing serious. Yeah, I've had too long of a day. I think I'm just going to get cleaned and then I need to get some sleep," Sokka spoke standing quickly. He noted the dull thud of Suki's hand as it hit the bed.

"Toph mentioned to me that you were starting a voyage to the Fire Nation tomorrow," Suki said when Sokka walked out of his bathroom, freshly washed and dressed in his sleeping robes.

"Yes. We are going to investigate the rebel attacks that Zuko wrote to us about a week ago."

Sokka walked to his small kitchen area of his apartment and rummaged around until he found a package of imported seal jerky. He hopped up onto his counter and observed his girlfriend as he tore open the packet.

"Why is it that only four of your squad is going?" Suki inquired lightly, "Won't you require more?"

"It's a quiet operation. If I show up there with too many of my men, it'll be obvious what we're there for."

Sokka instantly felt that Suki was sorting through his words in an effort to search for information and…it hurt. Hell, it hurt when she mentioned the hard truth that only four of his squad were selected for this mission including Haru. Needless to say, the four that were selected had all been involved in stopping Ozai six years ago.

"Yeah, you're right," Suki spoke, a grin on her face. She walked over to him and stood on the tips of her toes to give the warrior a light kiss. Sokka, knowing that he couldn't jeopardize her trust in him, pulled her close, tightly to his body, and kissed her back deeply.

When he released her, he managed a smile

"You should go. I need to get some sleep."

"Where the hell is it, Zuko?" Your stupid map says that it's supposed to be here," Katara complained.

The two had finally reached the point on the map that marked their destination. But there wasn't anything…there. They were standing in a small clearing in the woods, oval in shape, surrounded by nothing but trees.

Zuko studied the horribly drawn map once again.

"It says that we're in the right location. I don't understand."

Frustrated, Katara narrowed her eyes and stomped to the tree nearest to her, "I guess this tree is going to help us find your mother! No, wait, maybe THIS tree. Or that one!"

The woman stomped around the clearing in anger.

"KATARA!" Zuko's voice boomed loudly. He was just as irritable as she was, but she didn't have to carry on like so.

Katara whipped around toward the Fire Lord, her breathing heavy. He had rolled the map back up and stood there with his hand holding his injured shoulder.

"You should calm down. Being angry is doing nothing for our situation."

"I'm sorry. I'm just over-tired. Getting that arrow out of your arm exhausted me more than I thought it would," she explained, running her hand across her face.

"It's all right. Think about the organization and what clues they usually leave behind."

"Usually it's those tiles with the—so we look around for a Pai Sho tile?" Katara asked in confusion.

Zuko walked around the clearing, his eyes keen on the area around him. Usually when he sought council from Iroh, he was left with some cryptic words of wisdom. Uncle didn't really leave him with anything the last time that they had spoken. The map offered no help. He had studied it front and back while Katara was having her moment of…weakness.

"Do you think there's a stone or something that we have to move for a secret door to open?" Katara inquired, much like her older brother used to do.

At once Zuko went back to the time that he and Aang had discovered that his uncle hadn't killed the last dragons. He remembered the traps that he and the airbender had to go through to realize just that.

"No idea. I'm still trying to figure—," Zuko was interrupted by rapid movement on his right side. He spun around to see someone swinging from a vine, right for him. He ducked down on instinct and whipped his head toward Katara to be sure that she was okay.

The person on the vine flipped up into the air before landing between the two. Zuko stood up, his hand on his injured shoulder, angry that he couldn't really fight. Katara had her own hands positioned on the lid of the waterskin. They both waited for any sudden move of the assailant.

The vine-swinger was clad in all black, tight enough for them to recognize that there was a very slim woman in front of them. She wore a mask.

"What are you doing in these woods?" she questioned, her voice filled with authority. Katara tilted her head at the girl's raspy voice, which seemed very familiar to her.

"Who are you?" Zuko opted to ask instead of answering the girl's own question.

The two watched as she pulled her mask off and a mass of shaggy dark brown hair cascaded downward to settle in the middle of her back. Four tattooed stripes marked her cheeks, two on each side. Katara instantly recognized her.

"Smellerbee!"

The girl turned towards Katara in shock, her arms positioned to fight. Katara had removed her hands from her waterskin, her defenses down.

"How do you know my name?" Smellerbee suspiciously asked in alarm, her kohl-rimmed eyes narrowed.

"It's me, Katara of the Water Tribe."

Smellerbee's eyes widened in amazement. She hadn't seen Katara since the Fire Lord was crowned. She looked different…older, with shorter hair, but it was definitely her.

"And so it is. Who's this guy?" Smellerbee gestured with her thumb.

"The Fire Lord," Zuko muttered with a frown. His shoulder was starting to hurt him more and more, and his stomach being free of a full meal did nothing to help.

Smellerbee turned around, once again in shock.

"Yeah, it's you," she grinned noticing the scar, "Sorry, the mask gave me limited visibility."

"I know the feeling," Zuko mumbled. He was never too fond of Jet's crew, even after the freedom fighter's death. He knew that they had changed and so had he…but he couldn't help it when his pride got in the way.

"What are you doing here, Smellerbee?" Katara asked.

"I'm one of the guards but I was told to guide the two of you in when you arrived. We had received word by way of a hawk that you'd be coming. I apologize for not looking before attacking, Fire Lord."

Zuko nodded.

"Well, let's go. There's a reason you're here."

I APOLOGIZE so much for the lateness of this chapter. There's no excuse besides the ever-present writer's block. I promise that the next one will be out within the next couple of weeks, if not sooner.

Please enjoy and thank you all for the reviews. They mean so much to me!

OH, and to make up for the lack of Zutara moments in this chapter, I have Zutara art for your eyes. Refer to my profile.

I plan to have more up soon.