Katara awakens to the sound of people shouting, wood splintering, and glass breaking. She's up and lurching to her feet before the events of the previous night come back to her.
She staggers, stumbles, and falls to the ground. A second later Sokka lands beside her with a heavy thud of his own.
"Wheeeeeeere's Aaaaaang?" he slurs, then blinks. "Whaaa-?"
Katara's too busy trying to figure out how to get up off the ground to answer him.
A second later the door flies open, and about five Fire Nation soldiers come storming in. The one in front points, and the rest cross the room to drag Katara and her brother upright.
"Hey!" Katara protests, but her voice doesn't sound right. Not only that, nothing feels right. She tries to climb to her feet but her body remains sluggish and overall unresponsive.
Sokka frowns. "Think we've beeeeen drugged," he slurs. "Hey!" He turns to the soldiers currently tying his arms behind his back, but is ignored.
"What about the kid?" One of the soldiers ask, pointing toward Zuko, who is somehow still asleep.
"Bring him," the leader of the group says. "Agni only knows what they'll do to him if we leave him here."
"I'm not interested in babysitting a little kid."
"Eh, he's big enough we can find something for him to do," the leader says, and at this point Katara's starting to feel woozy again.
The room starts spinning, and then goes dark.
She wakes up tied to tree, hands firmly tied behind her back, feet bound together just as tightly. Ropes tightly tied around the rest of her, from her shoulders to her ankles. She can't move, and more importantly, she can't waterbend.
To her right, Aang is bound pretty much the same way, only they've gagged and blindfolded him as well. Between the two of them-sort of-Toph is held captive in a wooden cage, hands and feet also bound. The cage itself is suspended in midair from a rope dangling from a large tree branch.
On her left, Sokka is tied up every bit as well as Katara herself.
"We were drugged," he says as they make eye contact. "Also, they said if we cause any trouble they'll hurt Sokka Junior."
She's about to ask who Sokka Junior is when he nods toward a small bundle of blue curled up on the ground.
Zuko.
"Sokka Junior?" she asks, unimpressed in spite of their current situation.
"I panicked."
"Is he hurt?" Katara asks, noticing a rope leading from the bundle to a wooden peg that's been driven into the ground not too far away.
"Still asleep," Sokka says. "I think that lady put something in the soup."
"But why?" Katara wants to know. "I thought she was afraid of the Fire Nation?"
"Probably because she was afraid of the Fire Nation," Toph says. "Is everyone here? I can't see a thing."
"We're all here," Sokka says, sounding tired.
An hour later Katara is no closer to getting loose. Neither is anyone else. They are all well and truly trapped.
The flap of a nearby tent opens, and she stops wiggling. A moment later the leader of the group from that morning (last night?) steps outside and heads their way. He steps over a still sleeping Zuko and comes to a stop in front of Aang.
"Here's how this is going to work, Avatar. We're almost ready to move out, and when we are, you and your friends are going to come peacefully. No fighting, no struggling. Just nice and easy-like."
Aang lets out a muffled grunt.
"What makes you think we're going to do any such thing?" Katara translates. The man looks at her briefly, then laughs.
Taking a step back, he kneels down beside Zuko's still unconscious form, placing one hand ever-so-gently on the bundled-up figure. "Because if I so much as suspect that you might be thinking uncooperative thoughts, you won't be the one suffering the consequences. Do I need to clarify that?"
His hand moves to hover a few inches away from the boy, summoning just enough fire to singe the edge of Sokka's hood. Zuko remains quiet, most likely still asleep and blissfully unaware of the danger they're all in.
"Now, I'm going to drug you all again before we start moving, just to be on the safe side, and you're all going to take your medicine like good little girls and boys, or else."
He approaches Aang first, and because he does Katara has a clear view of Zuko as the kid sits up, pushes his hood back, and looks around.
He sniffs the air, makes a face, and goes to stand up, only to realize there's a rope tied around his ankle.
Sitting back down, he looks over at the Fire Nation soldier reaching for the gag still silencing Aang, takes in a deep breath, and starts wailing.
The soldier startles, turns around, and stomps over to the kid. "Shut up!" he shouts, bending over and smacking Zuko hard enough to knock the kid over.
Katara gasps. "He's just a kid!" she shouts at him, as Zuko starts crying even harder. "You said if we cooperated, you wouldn't hurt him!"
It's not exactly what he said, but it's enough to keep him from hitting the kid a second time.
"He's probably scared," Sokka offers. "He just woke up in the middle of nowhere, we're all tied up, no wonder he's crying!"
Zuko sniffs. "I'm not crying," he insists, in spite of the fact that he's doing exactly that. "I'm not a baby." He glares up at the soldier.
"Well, he has nothing to be scared of, as long as you all behave." The soldier says, and Zuko's glare increases.
"I'm not scared," he says. "I'm thirsty. My throat hurts." He coughs as if to prove his point, and while it still sounds painful, Katara's relieved to note it sounds much better than it did the night before. Zuko stares up at the soldier with wide eyes. "Can I have some water? Please? I promise I'll be good."
The soldier stifles a growl and disappears briefly back into the tent, only to return with a bucket and a ladle.
Zuko makes a face.
"It's all we have," the soldier barely resists rolling his eyes at the boy. "There's a well nearby, or we wouldn't have this. We still had to hike about two miles there and back for it this morning."
"Why so far away?" Katara asks. She's only a little curious. Mostly she's just stalling and hoping Zuko won't raise a fuss about drinking from a bucket and get smacked again.
"We're supposed to stay out of sight," the soldier says absently, reaching for the ladle at the same time Zuko does. "So the Avatar won't know we're here. And it worked, didn't it? Here he is."
"I can do it," Zuko knocks the soldier's hand away. "I'm not a baby."
The soldier steps back, allowing Zuko some space. Zuko, for his part, grips the ladle carefully, bringing it up to his lips only to sneeze fire directly into the water, causing it to steam.
The reaction startles him into knocking over the bucket. By the time the soldier can react the kid's scrambling backwards, stammering an apology and holding his hands up like he expects to be hit again.
"He's been sick," Sokka says hurriedly. Katara thinks he might be worried about the same thing.
The wailing starts back up a second later.
The soldier picks up the bucket, and the ladle, and shoots a worried look at Aang, who is starting to struggle, then back to Zuko, red faced and making an ungodly amount of noise, before letting out a long sigh.
"It's okay-I'll get some more." The soldier assures them all, and Katara wonders if it's worth the risk, trying to get Zuko to help them get free. "It'll just-wait here."
And then he's gone, bucket and all, presumably headed for the well.
The second he's out of sight Zuko stops making noise. He shifts, looks at the rope around his ankle, then at the peg anchoring him to the ground.
Frowning slightly, he climbs to his feet, shifts into position, and takes a deep breath.
A second later he throws a punch, straight down, sending a small blast of fire toward the rope and the bare skin it's fastened around.
He falls over with a yelp as it hits, the rope still attached. With a grimace he jerks his foot backward, causing the damaged rope to snap. In less than a second he's on his feet, limping towards Aang.
"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow," he mutters, reaching up to fight with the gag only to abandon the attempt almost immediately and dart behind Aang's tree.
Katara's not sure what the kid can do, but before she can say anything he's taking another breath, and there's definitely fire flickering in the corner of her eye. She just can't see whether or not it's actually doing anything or not.
For several tense minutes, all they can do is wait. Then the ropes go limp, and Aang staggers forward, nearly falling. He scrabbles first at the blindfold, then at the gag, turning as he gets his mouth free to ask if Zuko's okay.
"Get-" Zuko pauses to take in a breath of air. "Get Toph."
She hears Zuko moving behind her, his uneven footsteps accentuated with "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow" as he moves. She watches Aang leap up to Toph's cage, making short work of the wooden bars and draping her still bound wrists over his head so he can get them both back on the ground.
Katara's own ropes go slack as he lands, and she too nearly falls before regaining her balance. Zuko's moved on to Sokka by the time she's regained her footing, and Aang is working to get Toph's hands and feet free.
Katara stumbles after Zuko to see if she can help. She stops in her tracks as the kid braces himself, takes a deep breath, and throws both hands out, shooting flame from each open palm.
It takes longer this time, and he's starting to look more than a little pale before the ropes snap, releasing Sokka. Zuko lets out a relieved huff of air-one with no fire, turns and offers Katara a weary half-grin, and then immediately collapses.
Katara scoops him up without thinking about it and joins the others.
"I think he overdid it," Katara suggests. Toph scoffs.
"You think?"
"Worry about that later," Sokka says. "Right now we need to get out of here."
They make it back, first to Appa, then to the air temple, without incident. Sokka helps Katara with the awkward task of getting the unconscious firebender on and off the flying bison.
"Set him down by the fire," Aang says, shooting flame at their usual firepit without so much as taking a breath first. "He probably used up too much of his energy."
"Glad he did," Sokka says, as Toph reappears from the room they all sleep in with an armload of blankets only to unceremoniously dump them on Zuko. "We'd still be trapped if he hadn't. He'll be all right, won't he?"
"I think so," Aang doesn't sound entirely certain. "He just needs rest."
They all hover nervously for a while, until Toph stirs and drags Aang off to practice earthbending. It is as necessary a distraction for her, Katara thinks, as it is for the Avatar. Sokka sticks around for a bit longer before muttering something under his breath and following them.
Katara remains where she is, watching.
Zuko stirs, eventually, eyes not entirely focused as they open. He blinks, turning his head just enough for him to see her.
"Katara?" He sounds like he's barely awake. His voice is soft, and low, and more than a little unsteady.
"I'm here," she says.
"Everybody make it?"
"Because of you, yes."
"Good." He yawns and closes his eyes. "Tired," he murmurs.
"You should let me look at your ankle before you go back to sleep," she says.
"Okay." He kicks futilely at the blanket, but ultimately cannot seem to get his foot free. Katara risks invading his personal space and leans forward, pulling the blanket back.
"It's not bad," she says, after a moment's inspection. "I can heal it fairly quickly."
"Okay," he says again. Katara reaches for her water skin, and it's only a moment's work to heal the burned skin on his foot and ankle. When she's done, he lets out a sigh of relief. "Thanks. Can you-will you-" he hesitates.
"What?" Katara asks. "You pretty much saved us back there. If there's anything I can do..."
"Can you do my hands?" asks, wiggling until his arms are free.
"Ouch," Katara says as she gets a glimpse of his outstretched hands. "I didn't realize you could burn yourself on your own fire?"
"Not usually," Zuko admits, wincing as she starts on one hand. "Cold," he says sheepishly, before continuing. "But I, uh, might have overdone it. The sustained flame, hot enough to burn rope-I didn't really have the power-or the control-to do that until after I was-until after I started searching for the Avatar."
"How old were you when you started looking?" she asks, starting on his other hand and ignoring the way he tenses.
"Thirteen," he says. "I spent three years looking for him. My grandfather spent an entire lifetime, when he wasn't, you know, busy with the war."
"All done," Katara says, making a mental note that Zuko seems to be far more open when he's barely awake. "How's your face? He hit you pretty hard."
"Could have been worse," Zuko says, but lets her look anyway.
"It's already starting to bruise," she says. He'll have a black eye in a few hours if she doesn't do anything. "Mind if I-?" she asks first, because their Zuko has always been uncomfortable with things near his face, especially if he doesn't already know they're coming. He nods, but winces anyway as water makes contact with skin.
The bruising takes less time than the burns, but by the time she's done he's already drifting. Rather than disturb him, she simply makes sure he's properly bundled up before turning her attention toward figuring out what to make for dinner.
Disclaimer: Avatar: The Last Airbender does not belong to me.