Chapter 14: The Rebellion

It was late afternoon during the first week of winter, and I was standing on a hilltop looking into the busy bay. I had a fur coat wrapped around me, and Dad was close by. We were both silent for a while as the bitter wind blew past, chapping our faces and giving us Goosebumps.

"Katara," said Dad at last. "What do you want to do? You don't seem happy."

"I should be." I had a perfect husband, and I was doing the thing I loved most: helping people. But something still wasn't right.

Dad put an arm around me. "Let's go away, Katara. You need a vacation. Bring Aang along and we'll go visit Sokka at the University. Or we can visit home. Or anywhere." His voice was inviting.

But I shook my head. "We'd be leaving Zuko to do everything."

"Maybe he could come. His advisors could take over. Zuko has things he wants to do too, you know. Like looking for his mother."

"Dad—I don't know."

We did not discuss it further; at that moment we were interrupted by Beka. The maid was breathless and frantic as she ran up to us. "Lady Katara!" she shrieked. "There's terrible trouble in town!"

I was attentive at once. "What happened?!"

"Oh, just follow me!" Beka cried, running. "It's going on now!"

Dad, Beka, and I rushed into town. Not far from the palace, on a street where a lot vendors set up shop, flames were spreading rapidly. Zuko and a small troop of bodyguards and soldiers were there, apparently fighting with a gang of shabby-looking fire benders. The smoke blocked me from seeing the details. A cloud of fear covered me—would the so-called Bender's Plague prevent me from helping? I hoped not; Aang had just imparted a bit of his energy to me yesterday. There was only way to find out.

I jumped into action, bending all the water from the nearest fountain and drenching the flames. I extinguished enough of the fire for me to bound into the midst of the fighting and see what was going on. A fallen coach was burning quickly. Zuko was struggling to move someone out of the wreck, while his bodyguards defended him from enemy fire.

With a roar of red flame, two of Zuko's defenders were down. I drenched the carriage to stop the blaze, and then froze the fore bending gangsters in cocoons of ice. The coach stopped burning, but I was still surrounded by a ring of fierce conflagration. The roar of it filled my ears and the smoke of it filled my lungs as I tried to extinguish it. Through the corner of my eye I could see Zuko lifting a girl's limp body out of the wreckage of the coach. The lines in his neck stood out and his face was knotted grimly; his muscular arms bore the precious cargo solemnly.

I stopped what I was doing to put out the fire directly in Zuko's way, allowing him to escape from the blazing arena. I followed him. As soon as we were out, Dad and a bunch of soldiers rushed to pour buckets of water on the fire. They were successful in stifling the flames and dragging out the gangsters I had frozen. Zuko put the girl down on a cloth and she was instantly surrounded by medical staff. Zuko's face was filled with rage. His red cheeks and long, smooth, black hair were soaked in sweat. The girl he had saved was Mai.

My heart ached. "Zuko!" I exclaimed, running to him and putting a comforting arm around him. "I'm sorry. Don't worry—I'll fix it. I'll heal her." I was down beside Mai in a second, running healing water over her burns and cuts, of which there many.

Zuko didn't speak, just stared down with his face taut, his temples throbbing, his hard eyes glued on Mai.

After a few minutes I stood up. The fire was out and Dad was guarding the prisoners. "It's okay," I assured Zuko. "Mai's got a few scars, but she'll be fine."

Dad came up and bowed. "Fire Lord Zuko, we've captured some of the people responsible for the incident. They're peasants. They said it was an attempt to strike the aristocracy, and not to directly injure you."

If it was possible for Zuko's face to get any fiercer, it did. "How dare they make excuses!" he shouted, storming over to the frozen prisoners. He roared and unleashed a flood of fire onto them.

"Zuko, don't!" I cried.

If someone hadn't stopped him, he would have killed the prisoners. Fortunately the fire bending he did do was only enough to melt the shells of ice around them. Hakota bound them securely and led them inside. Three of them were able to walk, two others injured so badly they had to be carried. Two of Zuko's men were severely wounded as well, and there was one casualty. I helped take the wounded into the palace and healed them as best as I could. Both men and women had been a part of this fight. I shuddered, thinking that any of these could have been my friends or family.

In fact, one of them was my friend.

"Lady Katara?" The voice belonged to Freda. She was on a cot with one of her arms badly burned were she had raised it to defend her face. Her flaxen hair was spread out under her head and she looked pitiful. I was astonished and abhorred to find her here. Why had the peasants revolted? I thought it was the middle class who were Radicals.

"Freda, why?" I demanded. "Zuko is on your side."

"Didn't you know?" Freda asked weakly. "The Fire Lord announced in court that he wouldn't make any serious steps toward reform for another few months. So we had to make the decision to stand up for ourselves."

So this was it. An official announcement. The lower class were now openly violent toward the upper and middle, who in turn hated the lower class. Zuko, caught between and trying to be fair, was taking too long about decisive measures. There would be no peace now, with the open violence of the Radicals and the peasants.

I looked down at Freda, who was in agony with her wound. "How could you not tell me about this?"

Freda struggled to speak. "I—tried. The knife in your room…a few months back. It had a message in the h-hilt."

What? The knife hadn't been a threat—it had been an urgent warning, no doubt expressing the intentions of the lower class! How could I argue with them? They were fighting for fairness. And yet how could I support them after they attempted to murder Zuko's dearest friend? I felt as confused and at a distance from the rest of the world as Zuko himself.

"There are other easy of getting attention," I told Freda.

"I know," she answered, practically gasping. I started healing her arm at once. I couldn't stand seeing her in pain any longer. She sighed in relief as the treatment began, and her voice became more relaxed as she went on. "I never wanted to attack without giving proper warning. I wanted to ask you to argue our case to the Fire Lord first."

"I would have done it. And you shouldn't have attacked in any case."

"Sometimes fighting is the only way, my Lady. We believe the noblemen are going to strike at the Fire Lord and take over. Especially now that he is suffering the Bender's Plague. But if we strike at the noblemen first, it's a double win: the Fire Lord is safe and the military commanders are revoked."

What? Zuko—and the Bender's Plague?

I looked behind me and saw him standing there with his fists clenched. "Your plan makes sense," the Fire Lord said. "Until you see that man over there, burned to death while he was trying to save my girlfriend!"

"What are you going to do, Zuko?" I asked him.

"Don't call me that," he snapped. "I don't know what I'm gonna do! And don't you dare try and tell me!" He stormed away, fire balls welling up around his fists.

Needless to say, I could not ask him about the disease.

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After the incident, Aang came back from a nearby town. He advised Zuko to beware of conspiracies among the noblemen, and to work on a plan to be fair to the peasants without encouraging their violence. While such a plan was discussed and debated in council, peasant attacks saw a sharp increase. Toph sent a lot of letters telling about what she was doing to prevent too many fights over the Colonies. It had been almost two and a half years since we defeated Ozai, and still the Fire Nation was in terrible shape. The Water Tribes and the Earth Kingdom prospered, but here, we were on the brink of a civil war.

One night, after a luxurious dinner and stroll calmed my usually overloaded mind, Aang and I went up to our room together. I woke up the next morning in a delirium of delight—the world seemed to be a brighter place after a long, romantic night with Aang. He was now sleeping like a baby with a smile on his face and his quickly growing body wrapped in white blankets. I kissed his forehead tenderly and climbed out of bed.

A boisterous knock on the door made me jump. Aang raised his sleepy head, startled. Quickly, I whisked on a bathrobe and opened the door, brushing strands of dark coffee hair out of my face. Beka was there, her usually pink face pale with fright. Her large eyes were even larger with fright.

"Oh, Lady Katara!" she panted. "You'd better get down there!"

"What happened?!" Aang and I chorused together.

Beka diverted her eyes from Aang's bare chest and huffed, "There's been another fight! We gotta hurry!"

In minutes Aang and I were down where the action was. I had a horrible, sick feeling in my stomach. Between the palace gate and the beginning of upper class neighborhoods there was an empty space of about fifty yards. Here, there was a lot going on. Soldiers were trying to keep the curious civilians away from the center of action, where a band of Zuko's soldiers and my dad's men were fighting peasants. The former were hiding behind an overturned cart while the latter rained fire balls on them. When they could, the soldiers bended back at them, and my dad's men threw well-aimed water tribe spears.

As Aang and I rushed out, the skirmish was just ending—and my side won. But between me and the victorious soldiers, Zuko and a bunch of servants were dragging wounded people onto makeshift mattresses. This scene had become all too common: the bloodshed and violence. But I'd never seen it this bad this close to the palace before. I learned from Beka that a gang of peasants had tried to get over the wall early this morning, when there were few guards around. "Only the warrior Hakota was there at first," Beka buzzed beside me. "He fought them himself until the others came."

Hakota—my dad! Where was he? I looked at the overturned cart, but he was not there. I think I knew the truth the moment I noticed that Hakota was not celebrating with his men, but I didn't accept it. Not until my eyes locked onto Zuko, who was just dragging a man's body onto a cloth. No… my mind was already denying the truth. No. My feet were already running to get to the wounded man. No! My tears were already falling.

"Dad!" I exclaimed, dropping to my knees beside him. He was covered in burns, but the main injury was a stabbing wound in his chest. Apparently he had gotten close enough to engage in sword play, and his enemy must have gotten lucky. I scanned the wound with my healing hands and broke down into hysterical sobs. I thought about Mom, burned to death in front of my eyes, Jet broken by internal injuries, Aang cruelly shot in the back—all of them hurts I couldn't heal.

"Calm down," Aang said, getting beside me for support. "We can think of something! You can heal him!"

"No, I can't!" I cried in agony. "The burns, yes—but some injuries are internal. I don't know how to heal this deep of an impale…" my trialed off as I started crying again. Suddenly my world was crumbling; the floating canoe of my life had sprung a leak. I desperately tried to rebuild the falling walls, to bail out the flooding waters. "Dad!" I cried, throwing my arms around his unmoving body and willing his eyes to open. "Dad, you can't leave me!" Tears had come to Aang's eyes and my own face was soaked.

Zuko pulled Aang to his feet and said in a choking voice, "You should get her out of here. It's too late."

But Aang shook his head. "She needs to stay!"

Hakota's eyes flickered open, focused on me tenderly for a split second, and then went wide in pain. The burns all over his body were agonizing, blood was seeping through his clothes and pooling under him, and he was gasping for breath. I felt someone grab my shoulders; then Zuko's voice said, "Let's go!"

I tried to resist, but my whole body was shaking and I felt like I might fall.

"Do you want to watch him die?!" Zuko demanded of me. He'd let me stay if I wanted. "Do you want to watch?!"

I said nothing. I was as still and dumb as a scarecrow, and all of my senses were failing. It seemed like the world turned upside down and I was falling. Zuko caught me and rushed inside, and through a mist I saw Aang trying to help the dying Hakota. I remembered no more.

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"What happened?" I asked when I woke up later. I wanted it all to be a nightmare.

Aang was beside the bed, gazing out into space. He broke from his melancholy trance and took my hand. Then, in a shaking voice, he said the words. "Katara…your father is dead. I don't know how much you remember. You fainted. Zuko took you inside."

As I thought. A great wave of bitterness and emotion flooded over me, knocking the breath out of me like the wave attack in water bending. I knew this would be like other deaths I'd been through—I would stuff it, shoulder my burden, and stagger on. I would redouble my efforts at protecting my loved ones. But it was unlike other deaths too—this one would bring me as much bitterness—if not more bitterness—than even the death of my mother. I was filled with hate and grief.

Aang wrapped his arms around me and held me tight, tears falling from his loving eyes. "Please don't be too sad, Katara. I won't be able to stand it if your heart breaks!"

I'd hold it together for him. Or I'd try. But there was one thing I had to do. I got out of bed and marched into Zuko's room. The guards tried to bar my way, but I knocked them aside with my bending. Hot, salty tears flowed anew as I confronted Zuko. I was just as abrupt and harsh as I had been that day when I threatened Zuko's life.

"Listen. I don't care what you say. I don't care what cowardly excuses you have. We are going to wipe out those peasants. We're not going to let them get away with this. They're going to pay."

"Stop it," Zuko interrupted. "You're in no condition to think about major decisions after what just happened. I'm the one in charge here, Katara; not you."

"I should be the one!" I shouted feverishly. Then, sniffling and sobbing, I retreated to my room.