N.B.R.

The setting of this story is before Katara has mastered water bending but has found out how to heal and when Zuko still has Katara's necklace, A.K.A when Zuko still has his cute ponytail !!!

The Demon on the Dance Floor

"Aang! Aang where are you!?"

Katara's voice was hoarse and dry. She felt her head spinning violently. The fall off Appa left her feeling sick and hurt.

"Don't worry we'll find him he couldn't have fell that far away" comforted her brother. Katara looked at her brother worried. He had fallen into a large tree and then had hit the ground, he was limping terribly and a large cut on his arm was creating a great mass of mess on his clothes. She had tried to clean up the wound but Sokka had objected and said that finding Aang was their main priority right now. Katara wasn't doing that good herself. Cuts and bruises covered her body but they weren't to bad, or not as bad as Sokka's sores at least. The chill of the night air caused Katara to shiver.

Aang where are you?

She closed her eyes but continued to walk. She hoped nothing bad had happened to him, he was still like a child that thought everything was a game. At times she wished he was more mature but no matter what Aang always did manage to pull through in hard times. Katara felt a hand on her shoulder.

"He'll be alright Katara. He's the Avatar what can happen to him?" said Sokka. Katara smiled a bit than continued frowning.

A lot can happen to him

Sometimes Katara wished this Avatar journey could be easier. It was hard trying to keep undercover and run away from any Fire Nation armies. Not to mention the lack of money always bothered Sokka when they didn't have much to eat. And not to mention Zuko. What kind of person was he? Wanting to capture the Avatar and rule the world. He also stole her necklace! The last thing that reminded her of her mother, the most important thing in her life and he just took and tried to bribe her with it.

Some prince he is!

Katara felt anger rush through her veins. He was the typical kind of prince. The princes that thought he was the ruler of the world and thought no one can beat him at anything, the prince that got whatever he wanted and when he wanted. So much for the fairytale princes where, they were strong, brave and handsome, prepared to rescue a poor damsel in distress without being asked too. Prince Zuko was definitely not that kind of prince. He was worse than a typical kind of prince. He was a mean, selfish, hot headed, nasty prince that had an anger management problem and a big one for that too.

Nasty, angry prince. Nasty, angry prince.

Katara suddenly giggled to herself.

Angsty prince. Angsty prince. Angsty prince.

That was the perfect word for the deranged prince. 'Angsty'. A mixture of 'nasty' and 'angry' and yet a wonderfully connected to 'angst'. That was definitely Zuko. Katara giggled silently. Insulting Zuko was fun especially from the position she was in even one of Sokka's jokes right now would probably crack her up. The joke died away and Katara started to feel worried again. She was worried about a lot of things now. If her father was okay, if every back home was doing alright, if they would be able to help Aang master all elements before the comet arrived but most of all if Aang was alright. After all the hope of the world laid on his shoulders and without him everything would be gone. No more water benders or earth benders anymore, people would die even more than they were now. Katara could see it happening. Day after day the fire nation taking parts of land until it was gone, every thing covered in the red banner with the burning flame. All people who rebelled killed instantly. This was why they needed Aang to defeat the fire lord. Or everything would be doomed.

Katara pondered on the thought.

If Aang had to destroy the fire lord he would have to do the same to Zuko or he would take the throne and continue the century war like his ancestors had before him. There is just no good blood in that family thought Katara and she was sure of it. She even started to wonder if the women in the family were just as bad as what she had seen of the fire nation's royal family. All of them were just blood thirsty crooks who wanted to take more land and became the ruler of the world. That was her nightmare for the world. She needed to take Aang to the North Pole as soon as possible so that they would be one step closer to reaching their goal.

"Katara look"

Katara looked up. They were already out of the forest but the sight was not a happy one. A few meters in front of her the huge fire nation ship was docked. Zuko's fire nation ship.

"Oh no. Aang please don't be"

Suddenly the front of the ship started to open. A large crowd of fire nation soldiers came out. Katara and her brother leapt back to a bush and his, peaking through a gap in the rather spiky plant. They were all laughing, but their joyful laughs felt like ice down her back. Could they possibly be happy about the news of going home? The news that the avatar had finally been captured?

"Sokka do you think he might?" Katara started worriedly. Her brother showed no reaction to the scene that was going on he looked straight at the crowd with his serious face on.

"He might be" he answered sternly. Chills ran down Katara's back she felt herself go cold with the fret of Aang being captured. Katara got rid of all the anxiety and turned to her brother.

"We have to help him Sokka" said her solemn voice. Sokka quickly turned to her and made a face to ask if she was joking.

"We don't even know if he's on there Katara and we might get captured as well what would happen to me if Gran-gran found that I let you purposely go on a fire nation ship that was still in use to find your boyfriend?" asked Sokka trying to convince her that going on the ship was a B.A.D idea.

"Aang is not my boyfriend he's a friend. And this is not about you Sokka it's about the world's future if they get Aang everything would be doomed. Besides did you see that crowd there's probably not a single soul but Aang on that ship" reasoned Katara and she jumped out of the bush and started to race to the ship.

"Katara hang on I'm coming with you" shouted her brother. Katara stopped and smiled at her brother. He really does have a heart. They both silently crept to the boat. It was actually quite small compared to other fire nation ships. A tiny boat for the angsty prince how lovely Katara thought evilly. The more she thought of Prince Zuko the more she hated him. When they were both at the starboard side of the ship they both jumped into the water it was freezing cold but Katara ignored the icy feeling. There was a ladder built in on the ship, and they quickly scurried up.

"I'll make sure that no ones on the deck" said her brother who was above her. Katara looked into the sky above her. The chill of the night made her shiver intensely and the wind blowing was no help at all. She hoped they would find Aang quickly and then they could go someplace where it was warm. She imagined a nice fire keeping her warm. How could something so horrible be something so nice? Fire was dangerous and deadly but it kept people warm and not to mention everyone needed it, who wanted raw penguin meat anyway?

"Coast is clear" stated Sokka and they both hopped on deck. It was like a graveyard no one was there just the eerie black machines that groaned in the darkness of night. Katara tiptoed to a door that led to a stairway to go down. She looked back at Sokka.

"There's bound to be a staircase going up. You take that one I'll go down" she instructed her brother nodded and left her view. Katara started to walk down the metal steps as quietly as she could, they still didn't know if anyone was around and it was too risky to make any big noise. If she ran down probably a huge clanging sounds would be made and someone near the ship would be bound to hear that. Katara made to the next level down and decided to keep going prison cells would be at the bottom of the ship most presumably the soldier's cabins had to take at least two floors of the ship. She continued her journey down the fleet of steps until she reached the bottom. It was a long corridor with around ten doors on each side and Katara was sure that Aang was in one of them. Katara started with the right side of the long corridor but it was an empty cell that looked like it had never been used before, Katara suspected that because it was still in good shape, prisons she had seen weren't that much of a beautiful scene. She went on through the doors but they were all the same, cells that hadn't been use at all except the last one that had a few dirty rags in it, a privy pot and a very foul smell. Katara's hopes started to fall down what if Aang wasn't on the ship what if he had been taken along with the crowd of people to mock the citizen of the town that their last hop was gone? Katara brushed the thought away.

Aang isn't over there. He has to be here I know it

Katara leapt over to the other side of the room. They weren't cells on this side but instead contained rhinos which Katara rapidly closed the doors on; she didn't want to get killed while trying to rescue someone. Then she came to the last door. Katara closed her eyes as she gripped the handle of the door with fear. Aang please be in here, oh please. Katara opened the door and looked inside. A beautiful carpet lay in the middle of the room embroidered with insignias of all the four nations and other designs. Why would Zuko have a carpet with all the nations' emblems when he was so head on to destroy the other nations? Katara started to observe the room a bit more. A unlit chandelier hung in the middle of the room from the ceiling and six flame lit lamps were in the room. Four of them in corners of the room and two next to a desk that was made out of a dark type of wood that gleamed with polish. Katara entered the room and stood in the middle of it to see the desk a bit more closely. There was picture and a candle that was still burning on it along with a piece of paper on it. The room was a shrine. She walked closer to make out who the person in the picture was. It was a woman and a very beautiful woman too. Her long brown hair went on her shoulders and the robes of gold and red. Katara gaped at the picture. The woman looked like her mother. Not the appearance but the way she looked at whoever painted the black and white picture. She looked happy but wasn't smiling; you could tell she was cheerful just by her eyes that seemed to shine even though it was a black and white painting. Katara smiled at the painting of the lady whoever she was a bowed to show her respect. Then she looked at the piece of paper. Handwriting was scribbled all over it writing the same sentence every time.

I'm sorry mother, I'm sorry I couldn't save you. I'm sorry mother, I'm sorry I couldn't save you.

It wrote the same thing all the way down the piece of paper, back and front but with a different sentence at the right corner of the page.

I'll make you proud one day, proud that you can call me your son. Zuko.

Katara started at the note. Was Zuko actually a human? Did he actually have feelings deep down inside of him? Katara had already begun to think that Zuko wasn't human at all and didn't feel anything even if someone was pleading for his help and he was the only one who could help them. Katara turned away from the shrine and looked around the room then smiled. She knew what kind of room this was. It was a shrine yet it had the shape of a small ballroom. Suddenly she felt an urge to dance. She knew that if this was a ballroom that the person that the shrine was for danced. Maybe just one dance to show my respect. Katara had no idea of who the lady the shrine was made for was but some reason she took a liking to her, just from the picture. After all she did seem pleasant and not like anything that she had expected from the royal family's bloodline. Katara thought of what dance she should dance. She knew a few but they weren't complicated. She decided to do her favorite dance that she had learnt; her mother had taught her this dance maybe that was why she liked it so much. Katara got in the stance of the first position and closed her eyes while dancing with an imaginary person. The dance was a called the 'whispering demon' because in the end the boy that danced whispered something in the girls ear, it was usually a small compliment but Katara remembered that her mother said when she danced the whispering demon with Katara's father he had whispered 'I love you'. Katara giggled a bit at the thought and started to dance humming the music in her head. She imagined that people were in the room too, in lovely ball gowns and suits dancing the same dance and that the chandler that hung was lit and spreading light across the room making it a beautiful scene. She didn't put a face on the person she was dancing with though, she didn't know who to picture. Aang was too much of a brother for her to dance with and she knew Sokka would never dance even if her life depended on it. Katara for once remembered she didn't know many guys that she liked romantically. Nether the less she kept on dancing. She did the steps perfectly and to her surprise didn't hit anything in the room back home she hit so many things while dancing that she almost made a crystal cup fall once.

The end of the dance was coming closer. Katara loved the end of the dance. The male dancer at the end would wrap their arms around the waist of the girl and then he would whisper the words he had to say. She thought it was especially romantic and had dreams about it when she first learned the dance. Imagine if she found her true love while dancing this dance? That would be such a dreamy moment, Katara felt dizzy just thinking about. Katara felt giddy, the next step was it. She decided she would just imagine it since she was dancing with no one. Katara finished the last step smiling but then she froze.

She felt warmth around her waist and back and she could feel a breath on her ear.

"Hello beautiful" whispered the voice. Katara opened her eyes and span around still in the warm embrace of her capture. She looked into the eyes of the person. They were demon like eyes, gold eyes – Zuko's eyes. The prince looked down and her and smiled evilly. Katara wanted to pull away but she couldn't. She felt warm and her body resisted moving even a little bit. Come on body move! She looked back at the prince's eyes.

"Look's like we've got a fish out of water"

T.B.C