Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender or anything pertaining to it.

Ethereal

Chapter 6: The Smuggler's Hold

"In times of panic, it would often be seen that two opposed forces can join to create a perfect harmony." - The Creation, Chapter 4:19.

His hand dropped and she whirled around to see familiar features; a strong jawline, almond shaped eyes, dark hair, and beautiful amber eyes. "Zuko," she breathed.

His eyes were wide with fear and his hands were trembling, holding onto her upper arms. "My sister, she - she set me up."

"I do not understand," her eyes searched his while her mind screamed at her to move. "What is 'setting up?'"

His grip tightened a bit on her arms as he hissed, "We don't have time, siren."

"Why should I trust you?" Katara's eyes began to blacken as she broke free of his grasp. "You could be lying."

"I'm not," he protested. "My uncle, he told me once the guards started searching for me to arrest me that you were leaving, and I needed to go with you. He said that you could help me out if I promised to protect and return you to the ocean."

Iroh wouldn't send his nephew to her if he wasn't trustworthy, part of her thought. He must really be desperate. But what if he was lying? What if he only suspected his uncle of helping Katara, and if she led him to the passageways, he would arrest her for trying to escape. Moreover, she was wasting precious time arguing with him. Any moment, a lone guard could pass by, or even worse, she would lose her window of opportunity to escape with minimal security and with that, her head start.

But something about him was desperate, pleading. He was begging her for help. She looked into his eyes, concentrating and trying to make a judgment.

"We must make haste," she whispered, going towards the black tapestry and pulling it aside for him. "Go before someone comes."

The tunnels were long and winding, more so than Katara remembered from when Wei Lin first showed them to her. However, she now had a map, and an ally who could read the characters. Though she still had reservations about allowing him to accompany her, she was thankful for his company in those regards. Finally, after what seemed like ages, they saw an arch that was not covered by a tapestry, but merely an iron gate. With a lock on it.

"Do you have the key?" the prince asked his companion.

"I-I-I do not know of any key," she admitted, searching quickly through her bag to see. "He never said there was any lock, I don't-" Panic began to set in. They were so close, but there was no key. What were they supposed to do now?

"Move," he commanded. Her first instinct was to snap back and demand he not just throw around orders at her, but the determined look in her eye told her to back down. She moved a few steps backwards when he pulled a knife from his belt and pressed it against the rusted lock. He gritted his teeth a bit, applying pressure to the lock before it finally snapped and fell to the ground.

Katara quickly moved to push the gate open and began sprinting towards the tree line when she suddenly felt herself jerked back.

"We need to make sure it's clear," Zuko explained. She gave an exasperated sigh, but nodded at him and let him peer around to make sure there were no guards patrolling before they ran into the jungle. His eyes darted over to her briefly, then resumed surveying the area. "On the count of three, we run. One, two, three."

She didn't need another invitation. She ran faster than she thought she could towards the jungle. With each step, her legs felt heavier, and her chest felt like it was contracting. Her heart was pounding in her ears, and her lungs filled with the crisp, raw air and it burned. Keep going, she told herself.

Katara and Zuko ran into the jungle for what felt like forever until they could no longer see the crimson banners that decorated the walls of the palace or the lanterns of funeral procession - only trees and flowers and bushes. Then she stopped and wrapped her arms around a tree, gasping for air. She pressed her cheek to the rough bark of the tree and closed her eyes, wishing for a cool drink of water.

"We need to keep moving," he said. He too was panting, but not nearly the way Katara was. She attributed it to his familiarity with legs, having had them his entire life. She shook her head to disagree, still gasping for breath. "Listen, siren, we don't have time to stop and - "

"My name is Katara," she snapped finally. "Not fish whore, not fish bride, not siren, and not any other horrible disrespectful name your people have called me. Katara."

"You really want to discuss this now?" Zuko's fist clenched a bit. "When we have people after us. No, not just people - an entire nation."

She glared at him and released her grip on the tree, moving closer and closer to him. "I do. And I want to discuss why I should feel remotely motivated to travel with you. Your sister may not like me, but I am nothing to her. You are her fugitive wanted for assassinating the king. It is more dangerous for me to travel with you. And what do you offer me? Protection? Passage back to the Glacierlands? Put me in an ocean and I will make my own trip back. I do not need you."

"Because you would so clearly blend in here with your dark skin and blue eyes. Not to mention you can't read and you still don't sound like a native speaker of the common language. You would get targeted in a matter of moments. Furthermore, these are my lands. I know this island, and how to sound like one of them, and I can move us through with as little attention as possible. Plus, traveling with someone is less suspicious than traveling alone. Not to mention, I am trained swordsman, and I can hunt, track, fish, and cook," he spat hotly at her.

Wow, Katara thought to herself as her slightly darkened eyes returned to their normal shade of sapphire, he really wants to stay with me. But why? He seemed like such a loner. She thought he would have leaped at the opportunity to wash his hands of her and go forth on his own. He must have really thought about this, her conscience concluded. Or he's scared.

"Fine," she finally said. "I shall follow you. But we are equals. And do not make me change my mind." The siren resumed walking deeper into the jungles, passing him by as he wiped the sweat from his face with the bottom of his shirt.

"Hey! I thought I was leading, si- Katara."

It was going to be a long journey back to the coast of the island.

As dusk began to set in, Katara found herself listening to the 'music' of nature. Behind the siren sitting at the edge of the cave, a small fire crackled and muffled the soft noises of a sleeping prince-turned-fugitive. The waves of the ocean crashed against the rocky cliff, and a small drum of thunder promised a storm in the distance. Occasionally, a flock of birds would swoop by, but they were eventually drowned out by the sound of rain.

She brought the small waterskin to her dry and cracked lips, trying to return a small bit of moisture to them. She was simply exhausted. Running. That's all she had done, and even worse, she had baggage. And he had a bad encounter with poison jungle broad leaves. A rash broke out over his entire body, and he had been sleeping away the unpleasant fever in a cave he found and insisted they stop in.

"Mom," he groaned a bit in his sleep. The siren turned to look at him. Pitiful. Almost as pitiful as she was. On second thought, he was more pitiful than she was.

While she had been taken from her family and friends forcefully - he had to abandon it. His mother was not in the picture (the gods only know what happened to her), his father was dead, his sister accused him of treason and had him branded a traitor of the state, who knew what was going on with his uncle, and his fiancée was one of his sister's dearest friends. At least if, when, she got home, Katara would be welcomed by her brother, father, and sisters of the sea.

He stirred a bit from his bed, grumbling a bit and Katara shook her head back to her reality. She reached to take the broad leaf sitting beside her and scooped some of the thick paste sitting inside the pot onto the leaf. The siren rubbed the white creme onto the red splotches littering the young man's fair skin. Her cobalt blue eyes narrowed as she focused on her task, not even becoming aware of a pair of golden eyes now fixated on her form.

"How do I know that isn't more poison you're rubbing into my skin to incapacitate me?" he asked. The siren wondered if he really meant to question whether or not she was trying to kill him.

She gave a soft snort, "Because unlike you, I am a woman of honor. I said we are partners. Where I come from, partners take care of one another." Partners in her native language also meant lovers, but she elected not to mention that as she had learned recently it had a second meaning in the common language.

"And how do you know that it's going to help?" he demanded.

Katara sighed a bit, "I just do. I cannot explain it. I just know certain things. I feel connected to nature, and I just, I just know it." She grew silent as she concentrated on her work. "Roll over so I can get your back."

He silently obeyed her command, moving to scratch at his arm when she lightly slapped his hand and wagged a finger at him to say, "No." He sighed a bit and clenched his fists to try and abstain from the temptation.

"You sound less like my grandmother when you speak," he said as she smeared more of the gooey substance on his back.

"I beg your pardon," she frowned at him.

He exhaled sharply. "I meant, it's better than that weird way you spoke it on the ship. No, I mean, well, I meant that it sounds more normal than it did before. It's good. Keep practicing." Was that actually a compliment?

"We are fast learners," she commented lightly, then placed a hand gently on his shoulder to indicate she was done. She wiped her fingers clean on the hem of her shirt, then went to take a sip of water from her waterskin.

"And you adapt," Zuko said, turning to lay on his back again before propping himself up on his elbows.

A small smile tug at the corner of her mouth, "And we adapt." She looked to the entrance of the cave; a cascade of rain was coming down now. "What is this place?"

"Smuggler's hold," he said, staring off a bit. "The Dragon Court is supplied by some of the world's most accomplished smugglers. They use these to store supplies until they can move it on the underground market to potential buyers. Luckily, we didn't run into the smugglers. They're not really a friendly group of people."

"And how did you know it was here?" Katara inquired curiously.

He shrugged. "Like I said, the Dragon Court is supplied by some of the world's most accomplished smugglers. Let's just leave it at that." Vague answer, but she decided to at least be thankful for a secluded area to rest in. She couldn't remember the last time she slept, and the longer she sat still, the more her body reminded her of it.

Silence.

"Thank you for helping me," Zuko finally said after what seemed like an eternity. "I-I know you didn't have to, and I know you didn't want to, but-"

"I do not want your thanks, I want an explanation. And I want you to tell me why I should trust you. What do you offer me?" the siren interrupted, looking directly at him. She moved towards the cavern wall and leaned against it, feeling fatigued.

He tried to sit up, before giving up and laying back down flat on his back. "It doesn't take a genius to figure out Azula and I have a terrible relationship. My father was never proud of me. I was always some kind of a disappointment. But Azula was his prodigy; she was perfect in all the ways I was a royal mistake. She's had her eyes on the throne since she was born, probably, and my dad has spent everyday of his life wanting her to be the crown princess.

"Anyway, I was thinking about what I was going to say at my coronation. Then Mai was there, asking me why I did it. 'How could you murder your own father,' she said. I connected the dots; Azula set me up to take the downfall so she could get what she's been wanting since day 1. Wouldn't be hard to convince others either. A disgraced prince comes home and weeks later he drops dead. She couldn't have planned it better if she even wanted to."

"Why were you disgraced?" Katara asked, closing her eyes to rest for a moment.

"I wouldn't worry yourself with that. It won't matter in a few days anyway; you'll be home," he replied.

She nodded, starting to feel herself succumb to sleep. "I suppose that is so."

When she woke up the next morning, the fire was out and instead of sitting up against the cave's wall, she was lying down on a thin blanket. The ground wasn't much more comfortable, but she imagined she received better sleep lying down than sitting up.

"Well good morning, my beauty," a deep voice said, almost laughing when she moved to sit up quickly and back away. A sharp, cold blade was quickly pressed against her neck. "How did you sleep?"

Posted: 06/06/2012