Thank you for reading my story so far, I hope you enjoy it as miuch as I enjoy writing it!

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Zuko wakes up feeling groggy and confused, everything hurts. His head is throbbing, and his body feels like it was run over by a horde of ostrich-horses. He can feel a bruise starting form on his cheek and he can taste the blood from a split lip. He tries to move his hands and realises they're tied behind his back.

"Fuck!" He curses angrily, trying to piece together the events that led him to being in this situation. Then he remembers, he was heading back to the cave with Katara, she thought she heard someone, then he remembers losing consciousness. His heart starts beating faster, and he frantically looks around. Zuko recognises the ship hull and the metal work. Yep, definitely a Fire Nation ship's cell he realises and sighs. Then he sees Katara, tied up in a corner of the cell and facing him. "No!" He sighs, he should have been more aware of his surroundings, now both of them were in this mess. He sees that she still hasn't woken up, she's slumped over, but at least she doesn't seem to be hurt or have any bruises from what he can see.

So many thoughts are flooding Zuko's brain. How they got here is beyond him, he was very careful when they went to the village, then again, whoever captured them used some sort of darts…it couldn't have been random. Zuko then remembers the stories he heard from his old crew, and how they said that the raiders used lizard-vipers' poison to sedate benders and capture them without having to fight… That's it, he realises, it was the Southern Raiders. But how did they find them? They had been so careful!

He hears Katara stir in her corner, finally waking up, and it gets him out of his thoughts.

"Ugh…my head" she sighs, then starts frantically looking around and yanking at her restrains before she sees him. "Zuko? Where are we? What happened?" She asks, her eyes wide with fear.

"Shhh, let's whisper so we can talk before someone gets here." He shushes her. "I have an idea where we are…I think we were captured by the Southern Raiders."

"The Southern Raiders? How?" She replies in a lower voice, and Zuko shakes his head, signalling that he doesn't know how they had found. Katara seems to notice the bruises on his face as she asks "Are you OK? What did they do to you?"

"I'm OK…I don't know, I just woke up too. I think they sedated us. Probably beat me up a little. Are you OK? They didn't hurt you, did they?" He asks, voice full of concern.

"I think I'm fine." She looks down, and Zuko can see the guilt written on her feature. "This is my fault, I shouldn't have made us come here, I should have listened to Aang and Sokka."

"No, I wanted to come as well, if anything we're both at fault here, so please don't feel guilty." Zuko tries to muster a smile to reassure her, but his split lip stings.

"Anyway, we need to come up with a plan…Katara, the Southern Raiders probably know who we are by now, they definitely know who I am, and they saw you waterbending. They're going to want to know where the Avatar is…by any means...We need to find a way to escape as soon as possible." He continues.

Zuko doesn't even want to think about what they will be subjected to if they don't escape. He knows Katara won't tell them anything about her friends, she won't jeopardize the world's last hope of peace, and he won't either. But he's heard too many horrible stories about what happens to war prisoners and even to civilian women… He knows the torture they are subjected to to extract information from them, and they have very valuable information. "We need to get out of here." He repeats in a determined voice.

Katara feels terrified, this is not a situation they need right now, they need to get back to their group. She should have trusted her instincts, she is sure it was the two men she saw in the village. Oh, her brother is going to be so worried, and Aang…And Appa! She hopes he will go back to Aang and at the same time doesn't want her friends to try to rescue them…but she puts on a brave face. "Don't worry Zuko, I am not stupid." She replies sounding defiant and a bit hurt. "I know what they're capable of, first hand. And I will never give up Aang's location, no matter what, they can torture me all they want."

"I won't let them hurt you." He replies, his expression solemn and his eyes piercing through her.

Katara feels her heart start beating faster. She believes him, she knows he will do everything to protect her, and she still doesn't understand why since she hated him only a day or two ago. It reassures her and scares her at the same time. She shakes the thoughts away, there are more important things to focus on. "At least they didn't get Appa, I hope he will go back to Aang if he sees that we're not back to get him…do you know how long we were out for?" She asks, a million more questions are flooding her mind, but she tries to calm down.

"A few hours, I can't feel the sun anymore so it's definitely night-time." Zuko replies.

"OK, so Appa probably…" She is interrupted by the sound of a door creaking open. She quickly looks at Zuko who nods at her as if to reassure her.

A man slows walks and stands behind the bars in front of them, Katara's heart skips a beat, it's the captain, the man she had bloodbent in anger, when he wasn't her mother's killer. The man who begged her to stop while he was on his knees. He was definitely going to get his revenge now.

The captain looks at them and smirks. "Well look who's awake!" He quips then focuses on Zuko. "Prince Zuko, I'm so glad to have you on my ship, I am sure your father will be happy to see you captured before you shame him anymore, you filthy traitor." He is obviously relishing in the power he has over the prince who is now his prisoner. "Everyone knows of your exploits by now, helping the Avatar, associating with water tribe savages, how much lower can you sink?" He finishes, laughing.

Katara looks between the captain and Zuko who stares him down, snarling and defiant. She prays to La that he doesn't antagonise him and give him a reason to retaliate. But then the man turns to her.

"And you, the Avatar's teacher, nothing but a bitch. I don't know what you did to me, you witch, but you will regret it." He says, and Katara's heart beats even faster if that is possible.

The captain opens the door to their cell and gets closer to her, he grabs her by the collar and brings her up, as if to inspect her. She can see Zuko from the corner of her eyes, he is seething, struggling against his chains but the man just ignores him.

"What did you do to me?" The captain shouts in her face, his spit splashing her. She doesn't reply, even if she wanted to, her voice doesn't seem to work anymore. She just looks at him with the most defiant look she can muster, and she sees him smirk before he suddenly slaps her.

"Get the fuck away from her!" She hears Zuko scream as he tries to get up, the slap is so hard that she feels a dizzy from it and stumbles back, her vision blurring. She still doesn't say a word.

The captain ignores Zuko's shouting and grabs Katara back. "I said, what did you do to me?" He screams in her face again. As scared as she is, Katara does not want to let him win, she will not say a word, won't comply just because he slapped her.

He realises that she won't reply to him, his eyes go up and down her body, and she is disgusted by his gaze. He looks at her like she's a piece of meat. "Sooner or later, I'll get you to talk. But even if you don't" he says then gets closer to her and whispers in her ear "I'm sure I'll get to have plenty of fun with you." He finishes and turns back to leave, barely looking at them. "I'll be back soon."

Katara is left stunned, unable to move, she can still feel his humid breath on her skin and her cheek still burns from the slaps. She feels her whole body shiver with disgust and barely registers that Zuko is talking to her.

"Are you OK? What did he say? Katara! What did he say to you?" Zuko asks, concern etched over his features. "I'm so sorry." He adds looking at her red cheek. "I will fucking kill him!"

She turns to look at him and does her best not show any fear and not to cry. "He…he just threatened me. We need to find a way out of here." She says, not wanting to get into the details, she knows perfectly well what the captain meant, but she can't bring herself to tell Zuko.

"Katara, please? What did he say exactly?" He insists, but Katara just shakes her head and looks away from him.

Zuko is seething, he feels so angry and helpless. He is not stupid; he could see the lust in the captain's eyes when he looked at Katara. He is disgusted by the man; how dare he even touch her, he was going to make him pay. He looks at Katara, she's sat down and shivering in the corner, trying her best not to show any fear but obviously shaken up by whatever that pig whispered to her. I will kill him, Zuko thinks as he feels his rage rising again. But they need to find a way to get out first.

Firebending is useless with his hands tied back and in this cage, he knows that but maybe Katara can use whatever she did to that man when they first found the Southern Raiders. Even if she can't, he decides, it will at least distract her to talk about something else. So he asks.

"Katara, what did you actually do to him before?"

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