A/N: BEWARE! THIS WILL BE RATED "M" FOR A REASON!

"Aang! What are you doing!" Katara cried out before one of the pirates that was holding her smacked his hand over her mouth. She immediately turned her head to the side, trying desperately to escape from his grubby-handed grasp. He yanked her towards him and tightening his grip on her wrist and dug his short nails into her cheek.

"I've still got that knife." He warned, growling into her ear. This sent waves of fear through out her body. She squeezed her eyes closed, trying to not allow him to see just how frightened she really was.

"No!" Katara's eyes shot open at the sound of Aang's shout. She glanced back in his direction and watched him jump up into the air and then slam his staff onto the ground. It wasn't long before her and the two men holding her were on the ground. One of the pirates that had been guiding Zuko back onto the ship turned around and picked her up from the back of her dress and shoved her farther onto the deck. Aang had sent a violent gust of wind in their direction. Katara turned her head and helplessly watched as a pirate jumped up from behind Aang and punched him the back of the head. She watched him fall to his knees and struggle to keep his eyes open. She flinched back as she saw another pirate come to Iroh and hit in him in the temple, knocking him out immediately.

"Get goin'." The pirate that had picked her up demanded. He shoved her into the front door of the ship and down a hallway before they entered a small, short stairwell that led to a small cell in the ship and the storage room. One pirate held Zuko by wrist bindings while one slipped a key from his pocket and unlocked the cell. The man holding Zuko pushed him into the cell. Zuko slammed into the wall before falling backwards. His wrist bindings came undone and allowed him to prop himself up with his elbows.

Katara let out a small "eek" when the pirate that was holding her suddenly pushed her into the cell. She turned before she hit the wall. Her bindings fell from her wrist as she slid down the wall to sit.

Two of the pirates made their way up the stairs as one pointed to Zuko saying, "You know the drill, boy." Zuko turned and leaned up against the wall. The pirate's face twisted in anger. He slipped through the door of the cell and kicked Zuko in the side. Katara gasped and sunk into the corner of the cell. "Do I have to teach you this again!" He asked, pulling a small blade no bigger than his hand from his pocket. Zuko held his side and groaned out something Katara made out as a "no". She watched in confusion as Zuko stripped himself of his shirt, shoes, and pants leaving him in nothing but a thin pair of shorts. She froze at the sight of the burns, cuts, and bruises that covered his body. She wondered how much were from the explosion and how much were from the pirates beating.

The prince was literally covered in wounds. She had a hard time finding a patch a clear skill. Not to mention he seemed to be covered in a small layer of a mixture of what seemed to be dried blood and dirt. He couldn't of been with them for more than a day and he had already nearly been beaten to a pulp. This caused Katara to sink farther into the corner when the pirate turned to her.

"You too, girly." He growled, pointing to her with his knife.

She breathed in, scrunching up her face. "Excuse me!" She breathed out.

"You heard me!" He picked her up by the collar of her dress, then threw her back down into the corner. "Nuttin' but yer wrappin's." The grungy man held the point of his blade to the tip of her nose. "Now!" He demanded.

Katara sunk even farther into the corner and glanced over to Zuko. He had made himself comfortable in the other corner of the cell. She looked the pirate in the eye and strongly blurted out, "No."

The bandit grabbed her by her dress again and lifted her up from it. "If you don't do it we will make you do it!" He shook her, causing her dress to come loose. He then spun her around and yanked her dress off by the back of the collar. He pushed her down onto the steel floor of the boat and taunted her with her outer robe. "You need me to help ya with the rest of yer garments or are you a big enough girl to do it yer self?" He asked, leaning over her. She kicked him below the knee and quickly got up, bolting towards the door that still hung open. He grabbed her by her shoulder just before she stepped out of the cell and pulled her down onto the ground. He then threw himself on top of her, pressing all of his body weight onto her. He grabbed her by the throat and held his knife up to her cheek. "You're not to be tryin' that one again." He said, sliding the tip of the blade over her face. "Wouldn't want this to slip." He flicked his wrist with knife in hand, leaving a small cut on her cheek. She dug her nails into his arm and tried desperately to kick him off of her.

The outlaw pushed himself up, rocking back onto his toes and simultaneously tore her pants from her legs. He stood up and motioned for her to remove her shoes on her own. She continued to lay there, glaring at him. He scowled and took his knife out once again, holding it by the end of the handle between his pointer and thumb, swinging it in the air as a warning. She sighed out and kicked her shoes off in defeat. He laughed and made his way out the cell, closing and locking the bar doors behind him.

Katara sat up and slid to the back wall of the cell. She looked over towards Zuko. He had brought his knees up to his chest and covered his head with his arms. She breathed out and shook her head with disbelief.

"So you're just going to sit there!" She asked. "You could have done something. You could have firebended!" She said, throwing her arms up and letting them fall to her sides. She stared at him, waiting for a response.

He slowly picked his head and rested his chin on his arm. "Yes," He breathed out. "because I've so much energy and fight left in me." Katara furrowed her brow and bit the inside of her mouth. "Just do as they say. It's a lot easier. We'll probably be here a while." He mumbled, turning his head to rest his cheek on his arm.

"Gee, you'd think a prince would be more readied to get his freedom back!" She spat out.

"Don't talk to me about freedom." He growled.

"What is wrong with you? You can chase us non-stop for weeks and then all of a sudden when you're in trouble you give up?" Zuko lifted his head and looked at her as if she had grown an extra head. He then put his legs down and extended his arms out, showing her the damage that had been done to his body within just one day.

"I did fight!" He snarled. "There's too many. They're older, bigger, and stronger than I am. I don't know about you, but I would like to get off this ship alive and if that means obeying a bunch of low-life brutes like these for a little while, so be it." He then returned to his earlier position and glared at her, waiting for a response.

Instead of replying, she stared at him. He watched her eyes dart across his body. From his arms, to his legs, to his face. He had welts, cuts, bruises, burns. Just about any kind of wound you could name he had on him. She lifted her hand to her cheek and wiped blood from the small cut she earned herself. She smeared the blood on her hand and looked back to him. He had covered his face again. She noticed he had blood smeared all over his body and she wondered how much of it was his. He had said that he had fought back, but how hard? None of the pirates she encountered today seemed to have any wounds, unless they were covered. Perhaps he had burned one or two so badly that they had the burn victims laying in a make-shift infirmary on this small ship. She imagined two ugly, dirty, nearly toothless pirates laying on thin mattresses in a spare room with bloody bandages wrapped around their arms, torso, and legs. By the looks of Zuko's body, he had either done something to earn that beating, or he had just been bombarded. She went back him saying that he fought and figured he earned it somehow, that sounded more like the Zuko she knew.

Katara sighed and mimicked Zuko, pulling her knees to her chest and covering her head with her arms. She wondered if Aang or Iroh had gotten up by now and what they were doing. She then realized that they had been knocked out while the ship was leaving. They no idea which way they went and possibly no way of finding out. She didn't even know where they were. She shook her head and held back her tears. How were they going to find her? What if they can't find a trail and give up? Would they go to the North Pole to continue Aang's training? How long was she going to be on this blasted ship? Would she ever get off? Ever see land again? Heck, even ever see the sky again? Water? What would they do to her?

Her breath caught in her throat and she had to try even harder not to cry. She felt her heart drop down into her stomach. She was sure she was going to be sick with worry.

Suddenly Sokka ran through her mind. 'Oh, no.' She thought. She knew that he was going to be not only worried sick, but absolutely livid when he found out that the pirates had been allowed to snatch her up. She could just see it now, Iroh and Aang returning to camp, Sokka realizing she was gone, him blaming and probably threatening poor old Iroh. Aang vouching for his new teacher, Sokka becoming enraged, turning on Aang, and then probably storming off, only to go cry in the woods. Their father had told Sokka to protect his baby sister, and allowing a bunch of pirates to capture and take her as prisoner wasn't exactly qualified as 'protecting' her. She was sure that he'd feel like a failure, he'd feel as if he had let not only her and their father down, but the whole tribe. Her heart sunk even deeper into her gut and silent tears began to stream down her face. How would she ever get back to her brother? Back to her family?

She wiped her tears on her now sleeveless arm. She had just leaned back and rested her head on the wall of the ship, looking up to the crackled ceiling when she heard her stomach growl. Katara placed her hand on her bare stomach and realized that she hadn't even gotten the chance to eat breakfast before these brutes snatched her up. Now she was wondering when she was going to see food again, if she ever was.

She curled up even more and rubbed her arms. It was cold in here and the steel hull of the ship wasn't helping. Though she personally needed to go to the North Pole, she hoped these pirates hadn't made any plans on going there anytime soon, or she'd surely freeze to death down here.

It was still day time, so perhaps they would give them at least a thin blanket or small pillow to use during the night. She then scoffed at her own thought. Why would they ever do that? They didn't care. They're probably going to leave them in here to rot. Katara knew that she and Zuko were of no worth to the pirates. If the pirates were ever to abandon the ship, a banished fire prince and a water peasant's skeleton would be probably be found years later by some curious fool who happened to stumble across the old, battered ship.

Katara laid down onto her side and let out a sigh. She then prayed to the ocean spirit to shift the waters, somehow lead the boat to place for a perfect opportunity for her to somehow escape. She prayed to the moon spirit, asking her to watch over her once night came. She closed her eyes and hoped sleep would take her and allow her to stop thinking of her worries.

!

Zuko lifted his head up, just enough to able to see over his arm. He watched as Katara wiped her face and leaned her head back. He lifted his chin and rested it on his arm again. He heard her stomach growl and watch as she placed her hand onto her bare, empty stomach. 'She must have not eaten anything this morning' he thought. He hadn't eaten anything either, not since he ate with his uncle on his ship that was now blown to bits. He wondered if the pirates were ever going to feed them. 'When and what, if anything'.

Zuko rested his cheek on his arm and watched as his cell mate curled up and rubbed her arms. For him, it wasn't cold at all. The heat that radiated off of him kept a small area around him nice and warm, but she was a waterbender and her body was naturally cool, so Zuko figured that for her it must seem as if it were nearly freezing and he was sure the cold steel wasn't helping.

He watched as she lay down onto her side and huff out a burst of air. She was going to try to sleep the day away. He wished her luck, knowing he couldn't do it. He had always had trouble sleeping, even when he was sleeping in one of the Fire Nation's finest beds back at the palace. He would merely close his eyes and wish he was sleeping for hours upon hours. He pressed his back up against the wall and stretched. This was such a horribly small cell. She was barely five feet away from him.

Zuko sighed and tugged on a loose string from his shorts. He couldn't believe this. He couldn't believe what they were doing. They were physically abusing them and mentally abusing them by making them seem powerless and vulnerable. He knew exactly what they were doing by not feeding them and making them strip down to nearly nothing. Starving them to make them physically weak and trying to embarrass them by taking their clothes making them mentally weak. Though Zuko wasn't insecure about his body, he had been training long and hard for years. He knew he was well built and physically fit. But he knew Katara was at least a year younger than him and he knew that girls always seemed to be worried about what they looked like, especially in front of the opposite sex. He bet that for her, this was so awkward and odd to be showing so much skin in front of a bunch of men she doesn't know. Around her brother and the avatar it was surely different, she had lived with her brother all her life and the avatar was too young and probably too sheltered to even know what a serious physical attraction felt like, meant, or could lead to.

His attention left the now sleeping waterbender when he heard footsteps coming from the stairs. One of the pirates that had taken Katara onto this ship had a small bowl of something in his hands. Zuko watched as the brute smirked and dropped the bowl of what looked to be rise on the ground. He then kicked it under one of the horizontal bars and made his way back up the stairs without saying a word. Zuko leaned forward about to reach for the bowl, then stopped. He didn't want it, he realized. His stomach was empty, but he didn't want it.

He leaned over to his right and looked up the stars. A small amount of light from a candle flickered. He let out a sigh and thought of his uncle. He was alive. Zuko let out a big sigh of relief. He didn't know what he'd do if his uncle hadn't survived the explosion. Zuko was so happy that he had his uncle to get back to, but what on earth was he doing with the avatar? Zuko growled and crossed his arms over his chest. Zuko had no idea what to think about seeing his uncle with the last airbender.

Zuko tensed and pressed his back against the wall when he saw Katara start to stir in her sleep. He didn't know what she was dreaming about, but he still felt that she was lucky. She got to sleep while he had to wait this out. He had no idea how long they were going to be here, he had no plan of escaping anytime soon. Not after the beating he got after trying to escape the first time. He wondered why they didn't do anything to punish him for trying it again. Zuko cringed at the thought of them sitting around a table plotting his next beating. Maybe they were waiting for him to heal before they caused even more damage. What would they do? What could they do? They had plenty of weapons to choose from for torture.

He thought of where he had been just days ago. He had his own ship, his own crew, a trail on the avatar, a chance to return home, to regain his honor, and he was with his uncle. Now look at him. Bloody, dirty, hungry, nearly naked, beaten, a prisoner to people so low in ranking. He was a Fire Nation prince. He was royalty. What was he doing here in this hell hole? His uncle had always told him that everything happened for a reason, what in the hell was the reason for this? He wondered. Maybe he would starve here, or be beaten to death. Maybe this was his ending. Maybe this is where he was meant to die.

'No'. He thought to himself, squeezing his arms. He would not die here. Not like this. He would get out of here one way or another. 'But how' he asked himself as he leaned his head back onto the wall. He wasn't going to fire bend at them again, not for a while. He had nearly caught the whole ship on fire. He remembered the series of events and leaned over to his right again, looking up at the ceiling above the storage area. The wood was all nearly completely black. Had he set the ship horribly on fire and not been able to get out, he would have burned in here alive. If he was going to do any fire bending, he was going to have to do it very cunningly.

Zuko sat upright and tried to get comfortable but it was useless. He couldn't live like this. He huffed and laid down onto his stomach, using his arms to support his head. He was so exhausted, but he knew he wasn't going to be sleeping anytime soon. He could try, but he'd just end up laying there for hours. He nearly let out a small chuckle when he realized that he was probably going to end up laying there for hours anyways. He shook his head at himself. Like he had someplace to go, or someplace he needed to be. Please, he was a prisoner in a small, jankie, stolen ship in the middle of he had no idea where.

He watched as Katara turned onto her back and sat up, rubbing her eyes. She squinted at him and looked around. She noticed the small bowl of rise and looked over to him questioningly.

"I've already had mine." He lied. She nodded and took the bowl into her hand.

"How long was a I asleep?" She mumbled.

"A while, I guess." He shrugged. She took a small bite of rice before placing the bowl down next to her. She crossed her legs and studied him. It wasn't long before he noticed her gawking at him. "What?" He asked sharply.

"So, do you have a plan as to how to get out of here?" He scrunched his face and glared at her. He was too tired for this!

"No." He said blatantly. She rolled her eyes and scoffed at him.

"Who are you?" She asked sarcastically. "What's wrong with you, don't you want to get out of here? Be free again?" She mocked. Surely he didn't have any worries. He was just hell-bent on catching Aang because he was a heartless monster, just like everyone else from the Fire Nation.

"Why are you so hooked on that?" He asked angrily, lifting his head off his arm.

"You were some great, spoiled, posh prince that just had to hop on a boat and go searching for the avatar, the last hope of the world. You could sail all over the world with all the money in the world and yet you chose to go searching for Aang. I had to work and slave away all day nearly all my life!" Zuko's mouth dropped as propped himself up with his elbows.

"You think I wanted to be on that ship!" He breathed out a small laugh in astonishment and shook his head. "You don't know anything about me or what I've been through. So don't act like you do and be quiet!"

"Don't you tell me to be quiet!"

"Fine, than shut up, peasant." He hissed.

Katara strangled the air in frustration and leaned towards to him and pointed, "Who do you think you are, Zuko! You're in here too, aren't you? You're just as low as I am right now!" He winkled his nose and glared at her. "We're both lost. We're both prisoners." She ended softly and looked down. Zuko eased back down and rested his head on his arm again. She was right. They were both lost and they were both prisoners. He suddenly knew that he wasn't going to be able to get out of here without her. They shouldn't be arguing, they should be trying to figure out a way to get off this boat. He opened his mouth to apologize, but quickly shut it. He wasn't about to apologize to her. She's the one acting like she knows everything, some Wan Shi Tong wanna be. He scratched his head and tried to block out his uncle's voice telling him to swallow his pride. Zuko grumbled and stopping trying to push it out. Little voices like this were his only connection he had to Iroh. Zuko knew he needed to listen. He knew he needed to be the bigger man and apologize. Zuko sighed out and thought of what to say. He opened his mouth, only to shut it once again.

He looked up at her. She was sitting there with her arms crossed glaring at him. He wan't going to apologize, he decided. At least not now, not yet. He saw her arms and face fall and he wondered what was going through her mind.

"What do you think they're going to do to us?" She asked softly.

He looked down for a second before looking up and blurting out, "Beat us to death." She was obviously taken aback by his words. She sighed and looked down, playing her thumbs before she looked back at him and scooted a little closer to him.

"What happened, exactly?"

"Like you care." He huffed, sending eye daggers her way. Her eyes widened and her mouth slightly opened as she tensed.

She took in a deep breath, trying to calm herself. "I'm just trying to find out what happened, Zuko." She said putting one hand into the air and letting it drop back down, annoyed. "What I should expect." She hissed.

Zuko looked around the small room and saw the scorches and knocked over merchandise from the struggle of the night before. He had just got on to her for acting like she knew everything when she didn't. Even though she of course wouldn't be learning the truth as to why he was so bent on getting the avatar, she would at least know what he had gone through in his night on the marauder's stolen ship.

He sighed and sat up before starting. "Um." He paused and looked around, trying to figure out where exactly he should start and which words to use. "Admiral Zhao had just taken my crew, and I was in my room and I heard their footsteps running about the ship. At first I thought it was Uncle, but then I realized it was far too light to be him. So, I began looking around and I found my Uncle in the kitchen, brewing some tea and I slipped on some blasting jelly. Him and I followed the trail out to the deck and saw them leaning over the edge, I guess they were grabbing something to light the jelly with. Of course, we got into it with them and I accidentally lit the trail with my fire and the pirates jumped on me as I told my Uncle to jump off the ship before it exploded. The pirates pulled me off the ship just before it blew. The worst burns are on my back, but everything else is from them." He paused again, but this time he looked at her to make sure she was listening. She was, he could see the concern on her face. He wondered if it was fake or not. "I fought and struggled and they beat me on the dock. Then some man came up telling them to stop. They knocked him out and stole his ship. They tried to put me in the cell but I fought some more, this time with more fire power," He stopped to point out the marks on the walls and ceiling. He heard a small gasp from her. "But there's so many and all but one is bigger than me. I knew if I continued they'd kill me for sure. They'd beat me to death right there on the floor." He nodded his head towards the floor. Katara hadn't noticed before, but there were smears and small, dried patches of blood on the boxes and floor in the location he was motioning in. "So I stopped and they stripped me of my armor and anything else I had on me other than my thin clothes. They put me in here and made me take those off myself."

Katara sighed and looked down. Zuko had nearly died twice in one night and was now staying on the ship of his potential murderers. She still wanted to know why he was after Aang, but she figured that she shouldn't ask that just yet.

"Well," She began, glancing up at him. She swallowed hard before continuing. "I'm sorry you had to go through that." It almost seemed as if she was forcing the words from her mouth, but Zuko accepted anyways, and assured that he was okay.

Zuko was just about to say something when loud footsteps starting coming from the stairwell. Zuko looked up and Katara turned to see who it was. It was the Captain, holding something behind his back with a smirk on his face.

"You two love birds having fun in your little cage?" He taunted. His prisoners looked at each other with confusion, then back to him. "Don't play stupid," He growled. "I know this little water bender is your girlfriend," The Captain said, taking his hand from behind his back and holding out Katara's necklace. Her eyes widened and her breath caught in her throat. "We found this in one of your armors pockets." He said, taking the other side of the ribbon and rubbing it between his fingers.

Zuko pressed himself against the wall as far as he could in astonishment when he saw Katara jump up, grab the man at least twice her size by the shirt collar and pull him to the bars of the cell. "Don't you ever touch this!" She warned, snatching her necklace from his filthy hands.

"Why you little-" He then reversed their position and grabbed her by chest wrappings, picking her up to look her in her eye. She dug her nails into his arms as far as she could and bit down into his hand. "Ah, so I've got another fighter in my hands, aye?" He asked no one as he sent his arm through one of the gaps in the bars, hitting her in the shoulder. She released her mouth from his now bleeding hand and spat into his face. "Ugh!" He cried out in disgust, dropping her and wiping his face. "You'll be regrettin' that!" He pointed at her, warning her of her future punishment. He then simply turned and stomped up the stairs.

"Katara!" Zuko wailed, grabbing her by the arm. "Why did you do that!" She looked down at his hand before snatching her arm away from his grasp. She turned and picked up her necklace. She rubbed her thumb over the stone in the middle.

"This is my mothers necklace, Zuko. It's all I have left of her." She said as she brought it up to her neck and tied it. She then fixed and tightened her wrappings.

"Oh," He said softly. "I'm sorry-"

"You should be!" She snapped at him. "The Fire Nation took her away from me!" His face scrunched up and he threw his arms into the air, fire trailing not far behind.

"You are such a little know-it-all!" He yelled and pointed at her. She turned, glaring at him. "You think you're the only one whose had it rough, whose been through things!" Her face fell and she leaned away from him. "You think you're the only whose lost a mother to the Fire Nation?" He stopped screeching at her to hear a response, but before she could even open her mouth, he continued. "The Fire Nation stole my mother away from me as well, Katara! Maybe if you listened as much as you spoke, you'd learn something!" He spoke with his hands, leaving a trail of fire behind them. "You're not the only one affected by the war, Katara. The Fire Nation isn't immune to the war just because it's late Fire Lord started it. No one is immune, no one is safe! Not even me! Or my mother!" He yelled, leaning towards her. "I'm human, just like you." He said, sinking back into his corner of the cell, pulling his legs back up to his chest. "You're not the only one." He finished softly, resting his arms on his knees and burying his face into them. "At least you have something." She heard his muffled voice.

Katara sunk down and rubbed her mothers necklace. She huffed and wished for mother to just appear. To just show up in front of her, tell her what to do and hold her. She looked over to Zuko and tried not to cry. She had no idea and he was right. She did assume too much. She had always assumed everything was all silver and gold in the Fire Nation, but now that she thought about, things must be pretty bad there as well. Earth Kingdom and Water Tribe warriors weren't the only ones dying in battle. She was sure that there were probably thousands of fatherless, motherless, or completely orphaned children in the Fire Nation just as there were everywhere else. The Fire Nation must be in pretty bad shape if their own Fire Lady had been taken away. Katara was puzzled at this. How could they take their Lady away? She wondered and wanted to ask but she knew for fact now was not the time.

She then curled up into her own corner and hoped for sleep again.

!

Katara wiggled out of her sleep and immediately knew it was night. Even if she couldn't see the moon, she knew it was in the sky, she could feel it. She didn't know how long she had slept and didn't get a chance to try and figure about memories of her previous argument with Zuko rushed to her. Suddenly her heart was in her stomach again and she felt terrible for him. She didn't know when he had lost his mother, but she knew he couldn't be much older than her and that she had never heard of Ozai having a Fire Lady, so it must have happened in his childhood. She sniffed and had trouble controlling her tears.

She looked over to him. He was laying down up against the wall, facing it. She wasn't sure if he was sleeping or not, but she quietly crawled over to him and gently pressed her hand against his shoulder. "Zuko," She called softly.

"Hmm?" He murmured, she must have woken him up.

"I'm sorry." She choked out. He heard the struggle in her voice and turned to her. She must have been crying.

"It's okay." He turned up onto his left side, back against the wall. He extended his left arm out to her and she looked at him with an obvious confused look on her face. He put his cheek down onto his shoulder, she mouthed 'oh' and laid down next to him, resting her head on his forearm.

"I'll promise to listen as long as you promise not to yell." She whispered.

"Mhm." He agreed. She sighed and wondered what she was doing. She was laying next to the prince of the Fire Nation, she was warm, but she was laying next to, no, on the guy that had been causing her all kinds of trouble. But this was the only place that she would get actual human contact. Those pirates were just monsters, she was sure of it, and if she was ever going to get away from them, she knew she needed Zuko. This felt wrong, it did, but this was the most comfort she had been in since she had been curled up in her sleeping bag just about a day ago. He was the only warm thing she had, he was her only human contact, he was her only hope of escaping...he was all she had left right now. She decided that she had might as well make the most of it while she could and she allowed herself to ease up. She had to pretend his arm was a weird, warm rock to do so, but it worked. Zuko was her only way out. She needed to get on good terms with him, and she supposed this was the odd start.

A/N: I really hope you enjoyed it. Please tell me what you think!