Chapter 2 - Zuko the Diplomat
Katara watched the metal smoking ships head toward their defenceless village at a determined pace, and she tried to hide her shaking by clasping her gloved hands together.
She had seen this scene before, when she was very young. It resulted in the violent death of her beloved mother, the mass murder of her people, and the devastation of her home. Why was the fire nation returning? What could they possibly hope to gain from their backward little village?
Katara could see the fear on everyone's faces, as all the young children tried to crowd around her for reassurance. Gran-gran had a grim expression on her face as she stood a bit before Katara and the other children, her hand visibly tightening around her bone-white walking staff.
Soka, Katara's older brother, stood in a protective stance right behind a snow wall he had spent several days erecting for defensive purposes. As the ships made contact with the snowy shore, their momentum carried them partly onto the shore — taking out the tall wall that Soka had worked so painstakingly on this past week. Chunks of the snowy barrier went flying in all directions as the front of a metallic monster burst through and came to a sudden stop in front of the petrified villagers of the Southern Water Tribe.
Hearing Soka's shriek of dismay resulted in some of the children crying out as well. Enormous, metallic monsters rose over them, casting large shadows on the village before them. Katara was sure that it was just her imagination, but suddenly it felt as if the temperature had dropped by a further ten degrees. She shivered.
A metal ramp dropped from the side of the ship, and an imposing looking individual in fire nation armour stalked out until he stood before them. Katara gasped at the sight of his heavily scarred face, and the sharp glare that suddenly pinned her where she stood.
The imposing figure stopped before them and spoke.
"People of this village, I demand that you immediately surrender the avatar to me. If you cooperate this instant then I promise that no harm will come to you," came the voice of someone much younger than Katara had expected.
An older gentleman disembarked from the ship as well, slowly looking over the group of villagers huddled before them: Katara surrounded by several young children, Gran-gran standing solemnly near Katara's side, and lastly to Soka who stood before them all in his best attempt at a threatening stance.
The older gentleman approached the scarred youth and placed a hand on his shoulder saying, "These are children Zuko. They are not hiding the Avatar. Look at them, they're terrified."
Katara didn't think it was possible for her to get any more scared than she already was, but upon hearing the name of the crown prince of the fire nation — one who was well known for his violence and unpredictability — Katara felt her heart clench in terror. What if he got angry and killed them all?
Prince Zuko shrugged off the hand of his companion, focusing all of his attention on Soka, and pointed off to the east of their village where Katara and Soka had returned from a while ago with Ang.
"Several hours ago an intense beam of light shot into the sky not far from your village. This light was identical to that of the light that is know to emit from the Avatar." Prince Zuko proclaimed and looked at them all expectantly, receiving only blank stares in return... that is until he noticed the shocked look quickly exchanged between Katara and Soka.
'Oh my God, what have we done?' Katara thought in a panic. There had indeed been a bright beam of light that had shot up when Katara had tried to break open the glacial ice block with Soka's club. She remembered the urgency she felt to release the person that she had seen trapped within, and the flare of strength that her adrenaline had provided her in that moment — which resulted in the ice cracking open, clean down the middle, and the beam of light being released into the sky. It had been a truly unnerving experience. Now hearing that Ang was the Avatar — on top of him already being the last air bender — was another great shock. Never would she have guessed that today's shocks would keep on multiplying, such as the sudden visit of a prince from the same enemy nation that had nearly decimated their tribe a decade before...
Katara was torn between wishing that when Ang went off to do some penguin sledding he had ended up far enough away to avoid capture, while simultaneously wishing that he would suddenly appear before them and save them all with his amazing air bending abilities...
Then again, what could an eight-year-old air bender do against a nearly fully grown fire bending prince?
The next few words sent a chill down her spine.
"Tell me what you know, people of the Southern Water Tribe, otherwise you will face punishment for withholding information from the Fire Nation." The scarred prince gave the ultimatum in a flat tone as his gaze scanned over all the children that were huddling together in fear, moved on to Gran-gran, and finally came to rest on Katara.
Even if she had wanted to say something at this point, with his glare pinning her in place Katara felt her throat lock up in fear.
It was because of this that she did not even notice her brother's rapid dash towards the fire prince until he let out his battle cry at the last moment. Prince Zuko was already in motion however, as he spun around and whipped out his leg into Soka's side, sending the younger teen straight into a part of the ice wall that had somehow managed to survive the impact of the fire nation iron vessels. Upon impact snow was jarred from the top and partially buried Soka where he lay.
"Soka!" Without giving it any thought Katara was already running straight for her brother, ready to start digging him out. What she had not counted on were the ridiculous reflexes of the crown prince as he whipped out his arm and grabbed her wrist as she attempted to pass him.
"Not so fast. What do you know about the Avatar? Tell me, and then I'll let you go." The prince's voice demanded as he jerked her back towards him. Stumbling as she was slightly off balance, Katara grabbed onto his other arm to steady herself. Tilting her head back she looked up at his face with impossibly wide eyes, which then shifted to the right of his face, focusing on his scar. He heard her breath catch, and his eyes narrowed in response.
Raising the arm that she was gripping in order to steady herself, Zuko lifted it up until it was at Katara's eye level. Then in the palm of his hand he slowly called up a flame that gradually filled his entire palm. Katara stared into the flame in mesmerized horror as memories of screams from the past slowly eclipsed whatever threats her captor was spewing.
Seeing the girl get a glazed look over her face as she stared with enormous blue eyes into the flames, Zuko suddenly fell silent. She was no longer responding to anything he said.
Sokka, getting out from under the piles of snow looked up in time to see the fire nation prince holding his sister in place while holding fire up to her face. Rage and fear took hold as Sokka's worst nightmare appeared to be coming true right before his eyes. Without any thought besides a panicked need to save his sister Sokka raced toward the two and leaped at Prince Zuko without any concern for his own safety.
Zuko saw movement out of the corner of his eye and had just enough time to shove the water tribe girl away from him, in order to duck the water tribe boy's flying tackle. It was surprising that despite the boy's lack of skill his movements were still pretty quick. Since Zuko was actually trying not to permanently damage the kid, it was proving quite difficult to end the fight quickly. Hearing the water tribe children cheering support for their comrade, Zuko felt something unpleasant at the back of his throat. He'd had enough of this.
The next attack that came at him was that of an arm holding an odd looking boomerang. Zuko let it sail toward his head, and then shifted out of the way at the last second while grabbing hold of the incoming arm. Then he helped the arm along by flipping the water tribe boy over his head. As the boy flew, Zuko let go of his arm and let the boy's own momentum carry him several meters away into another snow bank.
A split second later something freezing slammed into the back of his head. Zuko whipped around only to get a second snowball straight in the face. The sound of young children laughing over by the huts filled the air, while Zuko could clearly see the water tribe girl bending down once again to hastily make another grab for more snow. No longer thinking clearly Zuko stalked toward her with a single purpose, ducking any additional snowballs without even processing their approach.
When Katara's snowball first made contact with the back of the prince's head she didn't have time to think about the consequence. She only cared about getting him away from Sokka.
When Katara saw the fire nation prince throw her brother into the ground Katara's rage washed over her and without thinking she swooped down for some snow and lobbed a snowball at the back of the prince's head with all her might. The impact jerked him foreword. He whipped around to face her, just to have another snowball slam squarely into his face with a resounding thump. Katara's elation at having scored accurately and managing to distract the fire nation prince, proved to be short lived. The snow suddenly melted off of an enraged face, and then even the moisture steamed off him in just the span of a couple seconds.
When he began stalking toward her, Katara's frantic throws became even less precise. Finally realizing that there was nothing left to do but run, Katara turned around and tried to make a break for it. However, before she had even taken more than three steps her attempt to flee was met with a sudden force jerking her back. Prince Zuko had grabbed ahold of the back of Katara's parka, and without saying anything to her he proceeded to drag her away from her people and toward his ship. Katara struggled to get her parka loosened in order to scramble out of it. Unfortunately her gloved hands made that impossible, and once she yanked them off, the cold wind made it very difficult for her clumsy fingers to maneuver the various loops over the plethora of buttons that now seemed to make up the entire front.
"I beg you, please return my grandchild. We don't know anything, I swear!", came a pleading voice from the direction of the other children and her Gran-gran.
Katara's eyes jerked up to meet those of her Gran-gran's desperate gaze, as she continued to be dragged backwards through the snow, still fumbling on the second button on her coat from the top. Katara saw the wide eyes of the young children whom she had often taken care of while awaiting her father's safe return.
The older man who had come with the fire nation prince looked back at her Gran-gran with what looked like worry on his face and said, "Zuko…"
"I know what I'm doing uncle." Came the Prince's clipped voice. Then in a louder tone he called out, "Tell the avatar to come see me, if you ever want to see her again".
Katara felt tears fill her eyes and slide down her face, leaving streaks that had already started freezing in the cold wind. She had managed to undo the third button on the front of her coat, but she could feel the hard metal ramp beneath her legs, as she continued to be dragged along by her hood. The last thing she saw before the ramp slid closed, was the shocked and heartbroken expression on her Gran-gran's face.
