Chapter Two:

-Zuko-

I walked through the woods quietly trying to forget the conversation Uncle and I just had with no success. For some reason the idea of going to the Avatar for his help was ludicrous, but at the same time…almost…welcoming. No, no, no! Get the idea out of your head Zuko! It's not going to happen! It wouldn't matter if I got down on my knees and begged for hours! The Avatar and those two friends of his would never take me in and let me join them.

With how my luck has been going the Avatar would probably air bend me into the nearest tree as soon as I came anywhere near a single one of them. The water tribe warrior – well in all fairness I could take him easily. He's only ever actually hit me once or twice in all the times we fought against each other. All the other times I have been able to take him because he is always busy trying to run or make sarcastic remarks to distract someone else. Plus he really needs to learn to be quiet when he tries to sneak up on people. I mean seriously, doesn't he know the best way to sneak up on people is to stay quiet and not blurt out that you're attacking?! The water bender would…The water bender would…

She would…wait…what was her name again? Kat…Kata…C'mon Zuko think, it's right on the tip of your tongue. Katar…Katara. That's it! Her name's Katara!

Katara would…would…actually it's pretty hard to tell what she would do. Out of all three of them she has to be the most confusing. One minute she could be kind, sweet, caring, motherly and the next she could be furious enough to trap you inside of a block of ice! I cringed at that since she had actually trapped me in a block of ice once when I attacked her at the North Pole. She really had gotten better with her water bending compared to when I first met her; of course it didn't help my case that she had a full moon to help her. I still remember when she had me trapped in there she had this little smirk on her face that probably said something along the lines of 'ha-ha not so tough now are you.' Oh that was so aggravating, but at the same time, that little smirk was almost … cute.

Wait a minute! Cute! I just used the word cute to describe the water bender! That's it I'm out of here! I'm going back to the cave and I'm going to sle-

All of a sudden I heard movement behind me. From the thuds I could barely hear it sounded like the person was running. Great just what I need, to be spotted and turned over to Azula. I ducked behind a tree with my hand gripping my duo swords ready to fight back. However who I saw took me completely by surprise, especially since they had just previously plagued my thoughts.

The water bender went running past me, breathing heavily. What really surprised me was the fact that the Avatar and her warrior brother were nowhere to be seen. That's weird. I knew I should have just turned around and left, but a small part of me was nagging at me to follow her. Even more surprising was the fact that the nagging part won so I was quietly following the water bender as she ran towards the cliff, only to trip over a tree root as she neared it.

I didn't know what to do. Here I am watching my own enemy run through the woods by herself while I am crouched down behind a tree debating whether to just leave or go up to her just so I can figure out why she's alone and why her breathing is so shaky.

Then she started to do the one thing that actually scares me; she started to cry.

It wasn't those soft sobs like I heard her do once when I had captured the Avatar in her village. It was full out crying your eyes out kind of crying. She started to stand so she could look up at the moon, maybe she thought it would be comforting, I don't know, and that is when I got a better look at her.

Her long light blue dress with white along the edges of her sleeves, neck and down near her feet was covered in dirt and grass stains along with her dark blue pants that she wore underneath. There were tears in her pants around her ankles and the bottom of her dress, or what's left of it, was in tatters. Quite honestly, with the way her dress was now compared to the last time I saw her, it looked like this dress had been the only thing she had been able to wear for over a month or longer. I also noticed that her right sleeve had a huge tear mark at her shoulder like someone had grabbed her roughly and she had tried to run away. The water bender's long hair was out of her normal braid for once, but it looked like it had been tugged out by force. I couldn't see her face because she still had not turned around, but I didn't think I was ready to see what could have possibly happened.

The more I watched her cry the angrier I grew. I could feel my inner fire burning inside of me, begging me to let some of my anger and frustration out through my fire bending. I didn't because I don't want to scare her, but I could feel hot steam escape from my nose with each breath I took. Something bad happened to her and from the looks of things she is all alone with no one to take care of her. This didn't make any sense. Why was she alone in the first place? Why wasn't she with her friends? Why weren't the Avatar and that idiot brother of hers looking for her?! Unless…they didn't even know she was gone. Or maybe they got separated during their travels and she's lost.

Ok it's pretty clear she's lost, but that doesn't necessarily explain why she's in this condition in the first place. If she was just lost and was running to try to find her way through the woods, the most that would have happened to her is maybe a slight tear here and there, but that's it. Something's not right.

I was so absorbed in my own analysis from what I had observed of the water bender that I didn't even hear the footsteps until she let out a horrified gasp. I turned my head to see a man much older than her (but not that old, most likely he was somewhere in his thirties), whom I could tell was a citizen of the Fire Nation, approach her with a sneer on his face.

All it took was seeing that one sneer and almost everything began to click together. This man had been holding the water bend-I mean Katara against her will. That's why she was running! She had been trying to escape and must have thought she had gotten far enough away! My inner fire started to intensify as my anger increased. I kept my fist clenched together to try to control myself just a little longer to come up with a good enough plan of attack to almost no avail.

The only thoughts running through my mind were how dare he! How dare he hold her against her will and terrorize her! All she has ever done is try to help and protect people and this is what she gets in return?! I don't care if she's my enemy or not she is still a young woman and you treat her right!

Katara was still standing there, but she slowly tried to back away towards the woods. Now unfortunately I am even more confused and it's distracting me, but I can't help it. Why is she not fighting back with her water bending? She could have frozen him ten feet in the air by now with the water from the lake, but she just keeps backing up.

The fire bender advances towards her saying, "Did you really think you could get away from me that easily little girl" in a rough slightly slurred voice; he must have been drinking, but not to the point where he is intoxicated and has no clue what he is doing. He grabs her roughly by her hair and she yelps out in pain.

And that is the final straw!

I burst out from behind the tree, duo swords in hands and shout at him, "GET YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF HER!"

He tosses her aside and she rolls over on the ground near the edge of the cliff, but thankfully she does not roll any further. The man charges at me, his hands ablaze from his fire bending. I use my duo swords to conjure up my own flames, which are stronger than his, and they cause him to go flying towards the trees. I sheath my swords as he glares up at me; not much of a fighter if he's giving up already. I grab him by the collar of his shirt and knock him out with my fist.

That was close, I thought as I looked around for where Katara was and began to panic when I didn't see her. I heard whimpering and ran over to where she had been and was horrified to see her dangling from one of the jutted out rocks on the cliff. She looked up at me with tears streaked down her dirt covered face.

I immediately fell down onto my stomach and reached for her. "Grab my hand!" I shouted. Katara looked at me unsure as if to trust me or not while she was still crying silently. "C'mon! You can do it!"

Katara started to reach for me and just about touched my fingers when she started to slip and screamed, gripping the rock with both of her hands.

"Try again!" I demanded. Katara just shook uncontrollably from her crying. So I shouted again. "Reach for me!"

"I can't!" she cried. It was the first time she had spoken throughout this entire situation. I wasn't about to take her giving up on me lightly.

"Listen to me!" Katara looked up at me again. "You have to trust me! Grab my hand! I won't let go! I promise!" Katara stared up at me, sorrow filling her eyes, but finally she reached her hand up to me and I caught her around her forearm as she did with me and dug her nails into me. It hurt slightly but I didn't care. "Just hold on to me and I'll pull you up!" I shouted.

She nodded and I pulled with all of my strength. Katara helped a little by pushing off of the rock beneath her foot. When she was about halfway up I stood and brought her the rest of the way. After her feet touched the solid ground she continued to hold on to my arms to regain her balance and she breathed heavily.

"I told you I wouldn't let go" I whispered in my usual rough voice; I had tried to make it softer but with no luck.

Katara didn't respond. She looked at me once and then suddenly her eyes closed and she fell forwards into my arms. I caught her but stumbled a little. She was going to be passed out for a while, that was easy to tell. I slowly shifted her weight so that I could pick her up more easily and I carried her back-bridal style-to the cave so Uncle could take a look at her. Her neck hung back over my arm and I wanted to shift her so her neck wasn't like that, but I didn't want to keep jostling her.

As I was carrying her I noticed how light she felt and when I looked down at her again I could tell she looked like she was at the beginning stages of starvation. For some unknown reason I could think of I brought her closer to my chest like I was trying to comfort her.

Now all I can think is what did he do to her?