"WELL, AREN'T YOU a big girl now?"

Katara turned slowly in dawning horror. "No!"

"Yes."

The Fire Prince made his way down the steps. His hair was pulled back in an unkempt ponytail; rebel strands broke free in wisps about his face. There were deep black circles beneath his eyes; the right one was bruised. He already looked beaten and exhausted, but those eyes of his were just as bright and golden as she remembered them—and they were now fixed on a meditating Aang.

"Now hand him over and I won't have to hurt you."

Katara swallowed back the sick, frozen feeling swimming in her gut and deliberately shifted into a defensive stance. Zuko was the first to move, leaping down the stairs as he kicked up his leg, sending a wide arc of fire her way. Next, he struck with his fists, jabbing like a boxer with rapid, successive movements.

Katara turned back and forth, narrowly dodging the deadly flames. She drew from the spring and met Zuko's volleys of flame with a wall of water. Then she gathered her chi into a tight cord and pulled water from the pool again, shooting the powerful stream in his face. The force from the blast sent him flying backwards. He twisted in the air before falling to the ground with a listless thud.

"I see you've learned a new trick." He lifted himself back up to his feet and spat the water out of his mouth with a grimace. "But I didn't come this far to lose to you."

Whirling around, Zuko fired another blast. Katara blocked it easily, summoning yet another shield of water. The liquid hissed at the contact, but she pressed on, trying to drive him back.

She wasn't exactly scared in this moment. She felt the same as if she got caught at the top of a very high tree and there was nothing to do but just climb back down the best way should could. It was a dead calm feeling. And though she had no idea where Zuko's next attack would come from, she knew that she could deflect it. In fact, she met and matched his every thrust, even surpassing him.

Now she was pivoting, using the momentum of the water to encircle and ensnare the Fire Prince. The avalanche of water blinded him, reeling him back towards the icy walls. Each jet collided into him, never missing. Even as he attempted to steady himself from another impact, small juts of ice formed around his feet.

Katara's arms were moving fluidly through the air, gathering speed until they were whirling, forming the water into a giant ball with Zuko trapped inside it. There was a loud snap followed by a series of pops and crackles as the water quickly froze over, encasing the prince in the ice. Large silver drops of water scattered all around her, hovering in the air, as she smirked triumphantly.

"You little peasant!" Zuko spat from inside his icy prison. "You've found a master, haven't you?"

The globule of ice began to glow a bright orange with heat and the ground rumbled. Katara ducked as the ice trapping Zuko exploded into a thousand shards.

Broken free, the prince was already on his feet. His nostrils flared and his mouth worked into a thin scowling line, the muscles pinching painfully at the red scar that stretched all the way to his left ear. Though tired and out of breath, he somehow looked strong, fanning the fire hot and bright as he resumed his attack. This time there was an unmasked fury to his assault, rage pounding in his fists and his feet as he volleyed the fire.

Wave after wave, Katara countered his attacks. She could feel the pressure drum in her ears and she became relentless too, building momentum as she went. Now they were directly in front of each other, so close that she could feel him trembling with white-hot rage. Her fists tightened painfully enough to crack, and suddenly they were launching themselves at each other in this now familiar battle for control in the midst of the chaos they had created. Fire licked, water roared and steam rose from the ground, from their clothes and from their skin.

Drawing a thick jet of water from the pool, Katara continued to deflect Zuko's attacks. She was preparing to strike when he managed to slip past, skin grazing against skin. She turned in horror to see Zuko's fingers grasp at Aang's collar.

Now there was a fire burning in her own chest and she roared out, striking Zuko with a mean blast of water that sent him tottering. With a deliberate flick and rounded arc of her wrists, she summoned forth a monstrous wave from the spring and threw it at the Fire Prince with all she had, knocking him upside the icy walls of the cliff. Her fingers curled and the water froze, pinning him against the wall and encasing him in ice.

She backed up towards Aang, her arms still raised in case Zuko should attack. However, the prince's head was hanging limply to the side, his chin resting on the ice. She let out a shaky breath of relief and lowered her guard. She turned to look at Aang, thankful that he was all right.

Light spilled across the ground and she glanced up. Dawn was fast-approaching. The early morning sky was a deep, silky blue and the moon had turned from silver to white. All was still. The only sound was her breathing and the gentle ripples of the waters as the fish swam in circles in the pond.

Then she saw it—the flash of the sun peeking over the horizon—and suddenly she felt fear. A scream of fury erupted from behind her and she whirled around in shock. Instinct took over and she tried to deflect the inevitable fire blast with a water shield, but it was too late. The force from Zuko's fire sent her flying backwards and she slammed into a tree.

Katara tried to blink away the fuzzy pinpricks of stars that clouded her field of vision. She woozily shook her head and glanced up. The sun was burning brightly behind the silhouette of the Fire Prince who was now looming over her. He was holding up Aang by his collar.

"You rise with moon," he said. "I rise with the sun."

She tried to cry out, but there were no words. She couldn't speak, couldn't move. It was no use. It was like yelling at a dam that was breaking; she couldn't prevent the inevitable flood. And with Zuko's words still ringing in her ears, Katara slowly drifted into darkness.

ஐ

"I CAN'T BELIEVE I lost him."

It was all she could think of the moment she woke up. She had lost Aang, and now their enemy had him. The Avatar was vulnerable and it was all her fault.

"You did everything you could," Sokka assured her. "And now we need to do everything we can to get him back. Besides, Zuko can't have got far. We'll find him. Aang's gonna be fine."

Katara glanced up at her brother and smiled weakly. Sokka was right. Though she'd never admit it aloud, he almost always was. This was no time for her to be wallowing in self-pity. They had to find Aang.

"Okay."

Jumping aboard Appa, the teenagers took flight in search of Aang and the Fire Prince. However, as they climbed high above the protective walls of the oasis, they quickly realised that the frozen tundra unveiled before them was a vast and unforgiving terrain. A blizzard raged, obscuring both land and sky; however, Appa continued onwards. If the sky bison wouldn't be discouraged, neither would they.

"Don't worry." Princess Yue placed a hand on top of Katara's. "Prince Zuko can't be getting too far in this weather."

"I'm not worried they'll get away in the blizzard." Katara glanced down at a large crack of ice on the tundra below and frowned. "I'm worried that they won't."

"They're not going to die in this blizzard," Sokka shouted over the howling wind. "If we know anything, it's that Zuko never gives up. They'll survive and we'll find them."

Katara slowly nodded in agreement. Again, Sokka was right. Zuko never gave up. As long as he was alive, so was Aang. She just had to be as patient and determined as her enemies. For it was patience and discipline she lacked; all her life, she had known this strongly. She was a passionate person; her beliefs were why she fought. In her heart she knew her cause was the noble one. Even through all the toil and heartache she had endured, she knew it would all be worth it. At the end of the day she was happy in the knowledge that her life had purpose. They would find Aang alive. She just had to be patient and dedicated, like Zuko.

Suddenly, through the thick grey-white blizzard she saw it: a wide arc of bright-blinding energy cutting upwards through the air.

"Look!" She followed the light with her finger. "That's gotta be Aang! Yip-yip!"

Sokka immediately pulled on Appa's reins and the sky bison banked a hard left, following the light as it sped across the sky and landed on the ground below. Soon the light was lost and so were they as they searched for any sign of Aang. Shortly thereafter, the monk himself came barrelling out of what looked to be a cave buried in snow. His entire body was bound in rope, and Zuko was already on top of him, pulling him up by the collar.

"Appa!" Aang cried happily at the sight of his animal guide and his friends.

Appa landed and Katara slid off, ready to face Zuko again. During these past few months of travelling with the Avatar and constantly fleeing from the Fire Prince and the Fire Nation, there had arisen within the waterbender this black, terrible feeling. It wrestled with her very spirit. There was hatred for the teenager standing in front of her. How could this prince be so cavalier in his destruction? How could he not see the evil in what he was doing?

"Here for a rematch?" Zuko let go of Aang and raised his hands. He already looked tired and beaten, more so than before.

"Trust me, Zuko." She effortlessly blocked his fire attack before gathering an avalanche of snow and ice. "It's not going to be much of a match."

The plan was to launch him up into the air with snow and ice, before allowing him to plummet to the ground. But with just the slightest miscalculation and haphazard slip of her wrist, the ice she had meant to encase him in shattered, breaking off into a dozen deadly shards that fanned out. A blade of ice the length of her finger spun in, slicing across Zuko's throat like a warm knife carving through butter.

Katara screamed silently, stretching out her hand as though she could catch him. However, she was unable to do anything but watch the entire scene unfold in front of her as if it was happening in slow motion. She watched as Zuko's face contorted in shock and then crumpled; watched as blood spurted from his neck and landed like crimson tears beneath his fading eyes; watched as his body fell with a thud onto the snow beneath his feet; watched as he disappeared beneath that snow without protest, his body twitching while he died.

When she finally realised what had happened, when she finally gathered air into her lungs to breathe again, she glanced up to see Aang staring at her with clouded, mystical eyes. He wasn't looking at Zuko. He was looking at her, as if to ask her what she had done.

What had she done?

Sokka was already running towards Aang, untying his knots while the young airbender numbly stared ahead at the lifeless body half-buried in the snow. Katara hadn't even noticed that her legs were already moving, stumbling across the tundra, before she was kneeling in front of the fallen prince.

She turned him over and checked for a pulse, but his face was already that deathly pale colour, whiter than the snow. The only colour was the red scar on his face and the blood-stained snow beneath him. However, this didn't mean he was dead, she reasoned. Maybe she had only knocked him out. Maybe . . .

Summoning a thin stream of water, Katara placed the cold liquid over Zuko's torn neck and watched the liquid glow a pale blue. She closed her eyes and breathed in and out, slowly, methodically. She concentrated hard but felt nothing. The chi in his body was gone. There was nothing left.

"Katara . . ." A distant voice called out to her, "Katara!"

A strong hand clamped down on her shoulder and squeezed gently. She opened her eyes and glanced up. Her brother was looking down at her with such sad eyes. How long had she been kneeling in the snow with her eyes closed?

"It's too late, Katara. I'm sorry."

She looked back down at Zuko. His lifeless golden eyes were staring up at her. She let go of the water, watching it wash away the blood on his neck, and took in a shuddering breath.

No, she hadn't just knocked him out. The body lying in front of her was dead. Dark-haired Zuko, who looked as though at any moment he would wake up and choke out the frozen water in his lungs, coughing and spluttering indignantly. But he didn't; he wouldn't. He never would again.

No, no, no, no! Her mind was screaming, yelling no over and over again. It was like her head had broken off from her body and been thrown away. She couldn't stop screaming.

This wasn't how it was supposed to be, right? No, it couldn't be.

"Aang—"

She turned to see the young monk crying silently beside her. It was almost unnoticeable. He stood very still and the tears rolled down his pale cheeks without protest. She felt a vice in her heart tighten and she looked away. She could not dwell on why he was crying or it would make her cry too, and she wasn't sure if she'd be able to stop once she started.

"K-Katara, we have to go." It was Aang speaking now. His voice was soft and tremulous. She knew he didn't want to leave Zuko there, but he was the Avatar and he had his duty. "We have to go back to the Spirit Oasis."

"Go," she said quietly. Her eyes were still fixed on the snow-white prince covered in blood. "I'll stay here."

"Katara." Sokka stepped closer. "We can come back for the bo—"

"I said I'm staying!" She didn't bother to turn around, didn't bother to look her brother in the eye.

Aang and Sokka stood silently together. They knew her words were final, her tone brooking no argument. After a moment, they eventually turned away and left her with Zuko without protest. They took off into the air with Yue, and Katara was left alone.

She glanced down at the body and her hands began to tremble. Her bowels seemed weighted with lead. She hesitantly reached out with her fingers to gently shut the eyes of the sleeping prince. Or at least that was what he looked to be doing: sleeping. But this prince would never wake from his slumber.

The storm raged and roared around her and she huddled around Zuko's body for warmth. She waited for the black terror to come, as though waiting for some beast out of the night to attack her, but it didn't come. Instead, there was a sort of descent, as though she was falling into the black depths of nothingness, until she finally touched the solid bottom of despair and had nowhere else to go.

ஐ

BY NOW THE clouds outside had turned an angry shade of red. There was the smell of a storm in the air, much larger and more dangerous than the one currently brewing outside.

Katara involuntarily shuddered, pulling her coat about her as she shuffled towards the fire. She was all alone now, despite the audience of Zuko's corpse, which she had dug out of the snow and dragged into the cave with her. She didn't have to stay behind with his body. She could have waited in the cave alone, but she was desperate for company of any kind—desperate to face what she had done.

But where were the others? Were they still fighting? Did they care that she hadn't joined them? Did they think she was dead, too? Maybe she was. Maybe that was her body lying on the snow, no longer breathing.

The thought turned her stomach and she retched until there was nothing left. It felt as though she was purging her soul. There was an emptiness inside her that could not be filled. It hurt. She could neither look ahead nor look behind, because all she could see was the present. All she could see was the dead boy lying next to her, the dead boy she had killed. There was no way to come back from this, no way to easily absolve her guilt—a guilt that threatened to consume her whole.

She rubbed the back of her hand across her mouth, wiping away the spittle and bile, and choked back a pitiful sob. This was the way things were, she told herself, and she couldn't change them. She couldn't bring Zuko back from the dead. She couldn't change his fate no more than she could change her own.

Turning back towards the fire, Katara watched the flames dance. It was hypnotising. She yawned, trying to shake off the tiredness in her bones, but it was no use. Sleep beckoned her. She stretched out across the snow-packed ground, shifting until her head was at Zuko's feet. She buried her chin inside her coat for warmth and closed her eyes, waiting for the numb blackness of unconsciousness to take her into its arms.

She could already feel the sodden heaviness filtering into her muscles, weighing her down until she could no longer move. And it was on the cusp of slumber when unrepentant thoughts assailed Katara all at once, seeming to petition answers from the gods themselves.

How could she carry on from here? How could she act as though nothing had happened? Why did she not just rest here upon the bottom of her utmost despair?

Katara didn't know it yet, but in the great scheme of things, none of these questions really mattered. What was meaningful was the guilt that resided deep in her heart. It spoke to her of a task that she must undertake.

Even now, all was not lost, her heart told her; and, without question, she believed that voice. She would willingly obey and follow it into the unknown. For maybe it was a fool's hope she possessed, but she had already taken the plunge.

ஐ