Trigger warning for graphic torture.
Katara paced in her small cell as she thought about what had just happened.
Zuko was a firebender.
He had literally blown fire into her face.
How could she have let her guard down so carelessly? It was obvious that he had just been pretending to be kind to her. Probably so that she'd trust him and spill her secrets (what secrets did she even have?) or convince her to not fight back against the men who hurt her or to use her for something evil or or.
"Grrrrrrhggg!" Her frustrated groan echoed in the empty room. What I wouldn't give to freeze that stupid smirk off his face. I'll DROWN him if I get the chance…
Still, the more reasonable parts of Katara's mind couldn't ignore the facts. He hadn't done anything to hurt her. He brought her water. He gave her no reason to believe that anything he had told her was a lie. He was just a prisoner, like herself. He hadn't wanted to hurt her.
But he was a firebender.
Even Katara, a waterbending master, knew that she would have stood no chance against Zuko if he was able to produce such a controlled flame with only a breath. Even with the small amount of water at her access, she was tired, hungry, and injured. And the cramped room would have gotten so hot in an instant, making it even more difficult for her to bend. Yes, had the boy chosen to attack, she would have been very much screwed.
But he didn't attack her. He just left. While she wasn't certain of what his motives were, Katara knew that the next time she saw him, she would be prepared. She would get answers. Whether that involved kicking his ass or not would be up to him.
Confused as she was, the possibility of getting explanations made her all the more determined to get through the night without freaking out over the plethora of questions she had.
Why am I here?
What do these men want from me?
Why did a firebender bring me water?
Will I ever get to see my tribe again?
Curling up on the cold ground, Katara ignored the aching in her head and the pang of hunger in her stomach and gave into exhaustion.
.
When Zuko returned to his bunk after his encounter with the water bending girl, his three roommates were already asleep. Careful not to wake anyone (especially not the cranky firebender who slept below him), he climbed into his bed and lay above the covers, knowing that sleep would not come easy for him tonight.
He didn't know what possessed him to firebend at the girl. She had to have known that this was a Fire Nation prison, and with the war going on, anyone from the Water Tribe would have a right to be hateful of anyone with the power of fire. He certainly hadn't intended to frighten her. So why did he do it?
I wonder what she thinks of me, Zuko thought. Was she beginning to trust him after she had let him go? Did she hate him for seeing her in such a dirty, bloody state? Did she want to see him again?
He didn't know why the girl's feelings mattered, anyways. She was in here, just like him, and just like everyone else. The only difference was, while he and the others had become accustomed to the life in the prison, she did not. She was new. Innocent. She didn't know how things worked. Maybe Zuko could be the one to show her? Just as soon as Zogen, who pretty much ran this place, found it fit to release her into the general detainee areas. It didn't usually take that long. All Zuko had had to do was bow and kiss his boot. He didn't even care how humiliating it might have seemed. It's not like he had anything better to do.
It's not like he had anyone better to be.
Zuko thought bitterly of the day he'd been taken here, and felt his scar start to tingle in remembrance. Yes, he had felt nothing then. He still feels nothing. He just does as he's told, doesn't try to make friends or enemies. His mind doesn't reel with schemes of escaping, or of cherished memories of the people he misses. He just exists. An empty shell.
But this girl. He doesn't even know her name, but she's made him feel… something. Being attacked with her ice and stuck on that wall was the most alive he'd felt in a long time. She challenged him. She certainly challenged Zogen, if the angered look on his scarred face as he left the room was anything to go by.
Maybe that's why he had revealed his fire to her. To challenge her. Just to see what she would do. Would she slit his throat with a blade of water the second she could? Would he even get the chance to see her again?
Crossing his arms behind his head, Zuko replayed in his mind the image of her fierce blue eyes and strong, but gentle, hands as she used the water. When he eventually drifted to sleep, the last thing he thought about was her brief (but stunning) look of shock she had given him just before the door had closed to separate them.
.
It seemed that hardly any time had passed since Katara had fallen asleep when she was awoken by the sound of heavy footsteps that were way too close to be from outside the room. Opening her eyes, still heavy from her limited sleep, she only saw a large boot moving towards her before feeling a sharp pain in her head and blacking out.
.
When she dizzily came to, Katara first became aware of the dull ache in her head. As she went to reach up to check it for blood or bumps, she became aware of her second surprise of the day: her arms would not move. Shaking her head violently (which hurt like hell) to clear her foggy vision, Katara noticed that she was in the standing position against the wall across from the door. Upon farther wakefulness, she realized that her limbs would not cooperate due to the heavy chain that bound her wrists over her head.
Katara's breathing accelerated, knowing that this compromising position could only mean something bad was going to happen.
Her fears were proven when she felt the first hit knock the wind out of her lungs. Where did he come from? she wondered as the guard pulled his arm back to aim another one at the soft muscle of her side. On her other side, she had just enough time to turn her head away to prevent another hit from breaking her nose again. Using her free legs, Katara kicked out to her right side, barely managing to make contact to the guard's knee. Apparently, he still felt it enough to take offense, though. Stepping in front of her, mindful of her thrashing legs, he waited for his opening and slammed the heal of his boot onto one of her knees, curling his lips into a smile when he heard something pop. Pain shot up her leg as Katara barely managed to hold back a scream. Without the support of both of her legs, the metal cuffs on her wrists dug into her skin as she sunk a little lower in her restraints.
As she was spitting out blood from a slap to the face, the door opened to reveal the same man with the scar on his face that had spoken to her yesterday.
The two men dropped their arms and bowed to the white haired man, greeting him with a unified "General Zogen."
"Is she ready to talk?" the snake man, Zogen, asked the guards.
"Talk about what? I don't even know what you want!" Katara all but screeched. The guards just shrugged.
"A fleet of ships from your village was spotted near Fire Nation waters a few weeks ago. They managed to evade capture then, and disappeared after that, but my Lord is very much interested in finding them. I had heard that Chief Hakoda had a single daughter, the only waterbender in the tribe. And from letters confiscated by Fire Nation dragon hawks, it seems that he was communicating with a bender from his home. Seeing as there is only a single bender remaining, I was charged with finding out what she knows of his location," Zogen proudly explained.
Katara was shocked into silence at the mention of Hakoda, her father. That is, until the man who had taken out her knee punched her so hard in the stomach that she was certain her insides would end up on the ground in front of her.
"My- my father?" she managed to choke out. "He le- left years ago. No one in the village ever heard from him. We thought they were all dead!"
Zogen shook his head at her. "She's lying. Get her to talk," he ordered.
As the general looked on, the other two men shared a confused look before seeming to mutually agree that a change in tactic was necessary. The larger of the two made sure that the chains on her wrists were properly tightened before kneeling down to lock her feet into place with the lower cuffs. Katara struggled to kick out at him, but he held her thin ankles together with just one hand as he clicked the metal into place. Now without any way to defend herself, the girl felt dread sink heavily into her stomach.
She watched apprehensively as the smaller man lifted the metal rod that all guards keep in their belts. Katara flinched and closed her eyes to wait for the pain.
Only it didn't come.
She opened her eyes when the smell of smoke invaded her nostrils. The guard had produced a small flame in his palm and was heating one end of the rod. Realization struck her like a ton of ice-bricks. Her limbs began to tense up and struggle against her bonds, even though Katara knew there was no way to get out of this. She tried to gather some moisture from the air onto her lips, hoping she would be able to freeze the men where they stood. But there was no water to be bent. She could do nothing as the flame went out and the red-hot rod was brought closer and closer to her stomach. Katara put as much fire (bad choice of words there) into her glare and lifted her chin to look right at her torturers, determined to not make a sound, no matter how much it hurt.
Of course, she hadn't been prepared for it to hurt so much.
The heat of the metal scorched her clothing even before it made contact, and the sizzling sound hit her a split second before the pain did. She knew it was only the small circle of heat from the tip of the rod that had touched her, but it felt as if an entire pot of boiling tea at been splashed onto her stomach. Luckily, the pain ended almost as soon as it began, and she was able to loosen her jaw that had kept her teeth clamped shut just as the smell of burning wool hit her nostrils.
Releasing the breath she didn't know she was holding, Katata spit another blood-loogie at the man watching with disinterest across from her. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to put as much heart into it this time, and it landed a good two feet away from hit boots. She was struggling to come up with a unique curse word that her brother had thought her when she felt her robes being roughly opened.
As much as she struggled, she was soon left in only her bindings and light leggings, leaving the majority of her torso and arms completely bared to her torturers. At her sudden feeling of exposure, Katara began to struggle more desperately, especially when she saw the rod being heated up again.
She pushed aside the prideful voice inside her telling saying that begging was below her and pleaded to the men. "I don't know anything! Please, I don't know where the fleet is and I don't kno-"
Her words were cut off when the tip of the rod lay against her bare skin, this time being pushed into her side as her skin bubbled. As soon as it was removed, another equally as hot rod—from the other man, she assumed—burned her flesh even farther. Katara let out a scream, unable to prevent it as tears of pain and anger sprung to her eyes.
She could smell more smoke as the rods were being heated once again. This time, half of each was turning red, rather than just the circular tip used to carve deep holes into her body. Katara closed her eyes allowed herself to give in to the pain as the rods covered more surface area, forming two angry red welts across her neck and stomach. The latter was even more tormented when the rod was turned to the side that had not yet touched her, burning almost to the line of her pants, dangerously close to the sensitive skin there.
Her desperate wails of "please please stop" eventually turned into inaudible howls of pain as they continued to mark her with burns. Katara was crying freely now, unable to hold back as the heat seemed to scorch her insides as her most sensitive nerve receptors were attacked. The men had learned what made her scream the loudest. They knew that the soft brown skin of her inner arm turned an angry pink when touched lightly with the rods, and a deeper reddish brown when pushed in hard enough for blood to break through. They laughed as her body shook uncontrollably when the sensitive surface of her neck was singed. Their eyes widened with cruel mirth when the shorter man knelt down to press his rod against her inner thigh, causing her screams to turn to gurgling moans.
For what seemed like hours later, Zogen lifted his hand to halt the guards. He turned to open the door to leave, expecting his men to follow. Before he stepped out, Katara was certain she saw him smile at her.
.
Screams sounded throughout the halls, and few people looked up to even acknowledge them. Noises of this nature were becoming more common as the Fire Lord grew more desperate for information on his enemies. These who had been in the prison for awhile knew that pain usually only came to those who would not yield to Zogen and the other guards. Some of them even shook their heads, thinking it stupid that someone would even try to resist them. If whoever the screams belonged to would just stop fighting and tell them what they know, they would be able to join the rest of them in a near painless, somber existence. They even had a limited amount of freedom to roam around the prison during the day hours (not that it was any lighter in the dark halls at this time), provided that they finished their work by the time supper was served. When the first set of screams faded away, everyone continued their cleaning, cooking, sewing, and whatever other job they had been tasked with doing for the day. No one even thought about it when more screams came a few minutes later.
No one except for Zuko.
He was sweeping one of the many large rooms that the guards stayed in when he heard the sounds. He couldn't help but feel a twang of unease at the thought that the screams could belong to the girl he had met the night before. He quickly pushed the thought away when he remembered how strong she'd seemed then. She was able to hold her own, surely. The fierce determination he had seen when she pinned him to the wall would prevent her from giving the guards the screams that they seemed to thrived on. No, it must be someone else, he thought. Besides, she was just a girl, only a little younger than himself. What information could Zogen possibly hope to gain from her?
Zuko was pulled from his thoughts when a large guard with ginger hair (who he had taken to calling "Red") poked his head into the room to inform him that he was to sweep the remaining guard suites before bringing supper to the waterbending girl. Zuko respectfully bowed as the man left. He then reached down to dispose of the pile of dust that that accumulated with a flick of his index finger. The dust burned in an instant, leaving nothing but a small black stain of ash on the ground. Grinding it into the ground with his shoe, Zuko picked up his broom and headed to the next room, hoping to finish quickly so he could go and the girl who had been pestering his thoughts all day.
Not long after, Zuko completed his work and headed to the eating room to retrieve his meal. After quickly devouring his tray of rice, meat, and boiled cabbage, he fetched the meal set aside for the waterbender. at the request of Zogen. As he tucked the bundle into his pocket, he couldn't help but frown at the limited weight of it, but supposed the girl would appreciate it nonetheless. If his assumptions were correct, she wouldn't have gotten anything to eat since she got here the previous night, and must be famished. After retrieving the metal bucket, Zuko filled it with water and made his way to her cell, anxious to see how she fared during her first day in hell.