AN: thANK YOU SO MUCH! You folks are so incredibly supportive and wonderful! Even when I know there are some killer flaws in these chapters, you all find the most reassuring, interesting things to say about them. Thank you for taking the time - it always makes my day!
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Pain woke him, lancing through the bones of his chest and reverberating like hammerfalls in his skull. Zuko opened his bleary eyes and thought at first the ceiling was on fire, until he recognized the familiar gilded moldings of his bedroom.
There was a soft feminine gasp nearby, but when Zuko turned his head to look at the healer - who stood frozen in place, her frightened blue eyes locked on him - black spots rose up like a sea to swallow him.
The next time he woke, Azula stood over him, a faint, unimpressed frown coloring her cool features. "The healer suggested that your brain might have been damaged by repeated blows. I doubt we will be able to notice the difference, as I can't imagine you behaving any more stupidly than you have up to this point."
Zuko shut his eyes. His aches were fewer and not so all-consuming, and the pain seemed to fade even more next to the memory of what had happened. "I did everything I could to stop her."
For a second, Azula was silent. Her reassuring tone smashed the quiet like a fistful of blasting jelly. "And you succeeded."
He snapped his head around to look at her, ignoring his body's wave of resistance to the sudden movement.
Azula smiled and flicked his blankets higher in a weak mimicry of care. "In my letter to Father, I emphasized the boldness of your strategy and your confidence in its success. I told him how you faced down the renegade prisoner and forced her to yield. And, when she still evinced signs of willfulness, how you extracted a vow of servitude from her."
"But I-!" Zuko tried to sit up and found that he could not. His muscles were bruised and battered, and the bones beneath creaked together. He fell back with a yelp but stared up at Azula still. "I didn't do any of that! Why would you- Why would you lie?"
Her smile faded and she folded her arms coolly over her chest. "I did it for you, Dum-dum. So that when you arrive in the Fire Nation, you can at least appear to Father and the court as a half-respectable prince instead of a pathetic, sentimental fool."
"That was never going to happen! I was-" Zuko stopped himself, wincing at the pain of breathing as well as his closeness to admitting to what he had tried to do.
Azula let him stew for a long moment, then sighed loftily. "I suppose you could write your own letter to Father explaining the truth, if it's that important to you. I don't really see the point, though. I've gone to a lot of trouble to construct this fantasy for you. The waterbender is yours, by her own oath."
Zuko flinched, turned his eyes back up to the ceiling. The gold glimmered in the candlelight, curls and flame designs so sharp they would probably shred the skin if touched.
"Honestly," Azula said, tapping one finger on her sleeve, "your lack of gratitude is beginning to hurt my feelings, Zuko."
He looked up at her through narrowed eyes, trying to cypher out what all of this really meant. There had to be some hidden agenda. Maybe she just wanted him in her debt so that she could control him later on. Maybe all of these secrets were weapons she meant to use against him. The one thing he was certain it could not be was sisterly support.
Azula sighed and turned for the door, not bothering to look back as she spoke. "She's in the brig. Try to delay your visit until you're at least able to walk."
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Katara sat on her old pallet, clad in new chains, and focused on the fading power of the moon. Sunrise would not come for another hour or so, but she did not move from her spot. The empty steel room around her was as blank and bleak as the rest of the voyage, as the rest of the life stretching out before her.
Sworn to Zuko's service. Her stomach twisted, too empty to do anything but wring like a rag, and still her head wouldn't clear. She kept circling back to those horrible words. Sworn to Zuko's service. In whatever way he sees fit.
At first, she had stomped around the cell, slamming her chains into the walls and kicking her bedding across the room. She had shouted a lot of rude things. She had cried a little - in fierce, furious spurts followed by more shouting.
Now, she thumped her head back against the wall behind her, then did it again. The night was all but gone. The brig was quiet beyond her door.
And then the wall tore open beside her and Toph came clambering in.
Katara startled to her feet in a jangle of chains before recognizing her friend. When she did, though, her lip curled and she opened her mouth to let out some especially scathing words. "You-"
Toph flung up a hand uncomfortably close to Katara's face. "Before you get going again, I just want to say that none of this was my fault."
"None of…" Katara sputtered. Her fingers constricted into claws at her sides. "Not your fault?"
"No," piped a voice from the next room. "It was mine."
Aang darted through the hole in the wall and gave her a nervous smile.
"Sorry, Katara. I… kind of knocked Toph out before she could tell me about the plan." He dropped the smile and peered at her worriedly. "Sokka told us about what happened. Are you okay?"
Katara stared at her young friend, not sure how to answer.
"Of course she's not okay!" Sokka grumped as he squeezed through the hole, holding one arm tight to his injured side. "We just got done beating the sealfeathers out of what amounts to a small army only to have our one shot at escape blown by a couple of no-shows!"
Katara stepped in to help steady him as he straightened and their eyes locked. Despite all his bluster, he looked away first - at her hand on his arm, and then the floor.
"Look," Toph snapped, bracing her hands on her hips and glowering at the far wall, "I don't know how else to say 'not my fault,' so I'm not even gonna bother. What I will say is it was a stupid girly move to go making promises under duress, Splatto!"
Katara rounded on her, ignoring Sokka's hand on her shoulder. "What do you know, you little jerk! It's not like you were there!"
"Guys!" Aang stepped between them, smiling and patting the air. "Let's not forget that, bad as this is, we're in it together. It really wasn't Toph's fault that we didn't get out when we were supposed to, and it's thanks to her metalbending that we can get out now! Through forgiveness and teamwork, we can make our next escape attempt a soaring success!"
He trailed one finger into the air as if tracing the path of a flying bison. Sokka frowned at him disbelievingly and Toph made a rude noise. Katara did her best to smile.
"That's great, Aang… but it's not that simple anymore."
"Why not?" Sokka asked. He was frowning, tight-lipped, at the floor. "Toph's right - you made that promise under duress. That can't really count."
"Yeah!" Aang said, nodding. "A vow doesn't carry the same weight if it's not made freely. And besides, who's to say that the best way to serve Zuko isn't to give him some alone time to work out his anger problems?"
For a fluttering instant, the future opened up before Katara. They would escape, all together, right now. They would disable the ship, take Appa, and make for land. They would soar away into the soft light of morning.
"I can't."
The others started to argue, but Katara pressed on. "You're right that it shouldn't count. Azula used a dirty trick to put me in this position, and that alone would justify me breaking my word. But it's not just about my word, or me." Her shoulders slumped and she looked away from her friends. She had been thinking about this all night and, much as she wanted to, there were realities she could not deny.
"It's about the Water Tribe. Not… our pride or our honor - but the people who are already enslaved. If… the Southern Princess breaks an oath to the Fire Princess, how is that going to effect things for our people? What if all of those enslaved waterbenders get punished for what I do?"
For a moment, everyone was silent. Katara watched fear and sorrow battle on Aang's face. Toph's stubborn expression melted into one of sagging comprehension.
"The Fire Prince," Sokka corrected sharply. "You promised to serve Zuko, not Azula."
Katara's stomach writhed. "It's the same thing."
"No, it's not, because how do you think all those Northerners are going to react to the last Water Tribe princess serving the Fire Lord's son?"
"I don't know, Sokka," Katara snapped. "Maybe they'll get me a sympathetic card."
"I'm just saying that if you're acting as a figurehead," Sokka said, gesturing with his free hand, "maybe escaping and continuing to fight for the rebellion and help the Avatar sets a better example than letting Azula trick you into feeling a sense of obligation for people who have nothing to do with you. Who want nothing to do with you! Do you really want to go through with this for a bunch of people like Loska and Hahn?"
Katara stared at him, her face growing hot as her scowl built. "I don't have to like all the Northerners to want to help them, Sokka. They're still Water Tribe, and I won't turn my back on them just because it's going to be unpleasant."
"Unpleasant? Katara…" Sokka gave her a beseeching look, then glanced down and off to one side.
At Aang, who was watching them. Katara met his worried stare and smiled, but looked away quickly. "Maybe… it would be better if the three of you leave without me."
"No!" Aang and Sokka said at the same time.
"It's the perfect time," Katara pressed. "After the way things resolved, they'll never expect a second break tonight."
Sokka was still shaking his head. "No way. I am not leaving you alone here."
"Yeah," Toph snorted, folding her arms tight to her chest. "Wouldn't want Azula to run out of leverage, would we?"
"Why you little-!"
"Hey!" Aang stepped in, holding up both hands. "Now, I don't know how you usually do things in this group, but I do know that you came a long way to find me. I'm not about to leave any of you behind." The steely look drained away from his face as he glanced over his shoulder through the hole in the wall. "At the same time, I think I speak for everyone when I say I really don't want to go to the Fire Nation. So let's just… go get Appa and leave!"
"Sounds good to me," Sokka said, fixing his stare on Katara. Aang followed suit, peering up at her with huge, luminous eyes.
"Come on, Katara. Think of how much fun we'll have! No more chains or cells or guards… It'll be like after Kyoshi Island - remember? Remember the mushroom man? And the mountain goat-dillos?"
Katara smiled despite herself, but then her smile faded. "Aang, that was so much fun. But things aren't as simple as they seemed then. I found out later that those mushrooms were being used to drug rebel soldiers so the Fire Nation could capture them easily. And besides… I swore an oath on my family and my tribe." Her eyes fixed on Sokka. She had to swallow hard to clear her throat. "That was so stupid. I could've sworn on honor or the moon for all Azula cared but, in that moment, all I could think about were the things that mattered most."
"Katara," Sokka protested quietly.
"They're just words," Aang said in a rush. "I mean - that sounds bad, but what I mean is that anybody who knows you will understand you still love your family even if you don't keep your word this one time."
Katara drew breath to disagree, but he pushed on quickly.
"Please, Katara! We have to get off this ship!"
For a second, everyone stared at him, except for Toph, who shifted her bare feet on the floor.
"Woah there, Twinkle Toes. You're acting awfully twitchy… Is there something you'd like to share with the group?"
Aang glanced between their faces, smiling hugely. "Nope! No, nothing to share here! How about you, Sokka, do you have anything to share?"
"Now that you ask, I have started to feel like my voice isn't quite being heard any-"
Toph spoke over him, unwavering. "Does this have something to do with that weird trance you were in when I came to bust you out?"
"Trance? Ha ha! Good one, Toph! I wasn't in a trance!"
"Yes you were, and it was when you woke up all scared that you blasted me into the wall. Which, thanks for that, by the way." She rubbed tenderly at the back of her head.
Katara stepped closer to Aang, bending slightly to catch his eye. "Aang, we're your friends. Like you said, we came a long way to find you - because we believe in you. I believe in you. Whatever is bothering you, you can tell us."
His large eyes flitted over the room as if seeking some escape, but then fixed on Katara. Aang let out a heavy sigh. "I was contacted by one of my past lives. The Avatar who came before me, Roku…"
As Aang described his vision and the fiery destruction he had witnessed, Katara felt her mouth go dry. "One day. Ozai could wipe out the resistance in one day."
"He could take out Ba Sing Se, too, if he arranged his forces for it." Sokka rubbed his chin, then squinted at Aang. "How sure are you that this wasn't just some wacky Avatar fever dream?"
"Pretty sure, Sokka." Aang rubbed his fingertips together absently.
"Aang," Katara said, settling one hand on his slim shoulder. "If Avatar Roku told you you have to stop the Fire Lord before the end of summer, maybe the Fire Nation isn't the worst place for you to be."
"Are you kidding?" Sokka threw up his hands and then winced. "He can't just hide out in the Fire Nation when the entire Fire Nation is going to be looking for him, Katara!"
"He can if he's already been captured," Toph said with a shrug. She cracked her knuckles, smirking. "As long as they keep us in metal cells, we can leave any time we want."
"You'll think that," Sokka scoffed, "until they drop you in a wooden one."
"Oh please, Sokka." Katara shook her head. "As if the Fire Nation makes anything out of wood."
"I can't go to the Fire Nation," Aang blurted out. "I can't fight the Fire Lord! Azula almost killed me and she's just a teenager! I'm not even halfway to being a fully-fledged Avatar since I haven't mastered waterbending yet and I don't know anything at all about earth or fire!" He threw his hands up in the air like he was drowning. "I can't even enter the Avatar State right now because of my messed up chakra!"
Sokka leaned toward Katara and spoke out of the corner of his mouth. "What's the Avatar State?"
Katara could only shrug, as bewildered as everyone else. Aang slumped like a sail after the wind cuts out.
"How can Avatar Roku expect me to save the world when I couldn't even save my friends from getting captured? It's my fault Toph didn't make it into the fight tonight, and it's my fault Katara had to make that stupid oath. At this rate, my best bet for stopping the Fire Lord is to just let him keep me prisoner and hope my bad luck rubs off on him, too."
Katara hesitated, then put her arm around his thin back. "I know things seem bad right now. But we're in this together, just like you said. I might be trapped here, but that doesn't mean I can't help you learn waterbending for as long as you decide to stay on this ship. And Toph-" She drew a deep breath and looked at her surly friend. "Toph isn't just an amazing earthbender, she's also the first ever metalbender. She could teach you so much."
Toph, whose stiff shoulders softened under the praise, smiled faintly. "Just putting this out there but, if you want this educational cruise to last a whole long longer, there are all kinds of things I could do to the engine to make that happen."
"And what about me?" Sokka demanded. "I'm a highly-trained warrior, too, you know!"
"And there's Sokka, too." Katara smiled sweetly. "He's pretty good at stones."
"And swords! And boomerangs!"
"Well, the monks didn't really believe in solving problems with violence," Aang said, grinning, "but swords and boomerangs are pretty cool."
"Aw," Sokka said, his smile suddenly falling. "Boomerang! If there was a time to come back, it was about four hours ago…"
Katara patted his shoulder. "There, there. I'll bet Dad picked it up off the beach and he's bringing it to you right now."
He shot her a hopeful look. "You really think so?"
"Sure, Sokka," she smirked faintly. "We all know how much your stuff means to you."
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Zuko woke to a hazy figure leaning over him and cool pressure on his chest. In a snap, he caught one of his assailant's wrists. She squeaked and water spilled on his skin, but it was only when his vision cleared completely that he recognized the healer. Her wide blue eyes did not stray from his hand where he held her until, stomach lurching unpleasantly, Zuko let her go. She sat back, unmoving, and seemed not to breathe.
"What are you doing?" Zuko's voice was rougher than he had expected, and when he coughed, his chest throbbed.
She spoke so softly that he hardly heard her. "Checking the knit, Your Highness. There are still many small fractures to mend."
"My soldiers?"
"I was only instructed to help a few with serious internal damage. The rest have been cared for in the infirmary by the medics and Surgeon Yao, and I was - given the honor of tending your wounds, Your Highness."
Zuko rubbed his unscarred temple, then his face. "How long have I been asleep?"
"Two days and a night, Your Highness."
He tried to sit up and only managed to rise onto his elbows on the second attempt. Even with that little progress, the room swam around him and the healer stammered at his side.
"Your Highness, please, your injuries are still at risk. If you will allow me to finish-"
"Where are my clothes?" It was supposed to come out in the same low voice as his other questions, but it didn't. Zuko fell back as he pulled the sheet up to his armpits, the pain in his chest all but forgotten.
The healer's face reddened all the way to her hairline but she stared fixedly at the floor with the same calm expression. "Your Highness's valet took them. I could run and find him, if that is what you wish." Her lips pursed as if to keep in her next words, but they escaped anyway. "But… no healer could in good conscience advise you that you are in a fit state to rise and dress."
Zuko frowned at her but made no move to sit up again. "How much longer will the healing take?"
"Sessions each day for the coming week would see the bones fully regenerated. Or-" She blinked, not quite daring to glance up at him. "If Your Highness prefers, I can finish the basic knit in a long session today and, after a full night's sleep, you should be healed enough for gentle exercise tomorrow. Walking only would be best. Running or heavy breathing could- could cause more damage."
Zuko let out a slow breath and glared at the ceiling. He rolled the sheet back to his waist and dropped his hands to his sides. "Get it over with."
The healer approached at once, yet her hands trembled as she raised water and applied it to his skin. Zuko tried not to notice, and he tried not to pay attention to the creases that formed around her eyes as she worked to hold her placid expression, but it was impossible. He could not seem to stop noticing all of it, down to every hitch in her breathing. It had been easy to brush off this woman's fear when he did not need something from her. Now, when he had to hold still and face the enduring reality of it, her anxiety ate at him like acid.
For a long while, the room was silent except for the sounds of healing water, but Zuko finally let out a breath and spoke. "Your name is Loska, right?"
Her water trembled but her expression did not change. "Yes, Your Highness."
"Did you… Did you treat Princess Katara before she was taken to the brig?"
"No, Your Highness," Loska said, but a furrow formed between her brows. "I was instructed to check her brother's injury, but it was healed already. Or-" She made a faint disparaging sound and did not go on.
"Or what?"
"It is nothing, Your Highness."
Zuko looked at her and waited. Though she would not meet his eye, Loska finally yielded under his stare.
"Just- A trained healer would not have left such a nasty scar. Those born to the gift are often insensitive to its art. But then, she must have been very afraid. The spear went right through him. It- it was a miracle his lung was undamaged."
"Sokka," Zuko uttered, then cleared his throat at once. His hands had curled into fists at his sides. "My guards were under strict orders to avoid killing blows. When I figure out which of them did it, he'll have me to answer to."
The healer was silent, going carefully about her task. Her hands still shivered occasionally, and the creases remained around her eyes.
"Do you know which of them it was?"
"I am sorry, Your Highness, but I was not there to see the fight."
Zuko was not sure he believed she was as ignorant as she claimed, but his eyes fell to the slim steel collar around her neck. Perhaps it wasn't safe for a slave to incriminate guards. Better to ask the officers in any case.
Zuko turned his stare back to the ceiling and tried to ignore the familiar chill and tingle of healing. The gilded flames overhead caught a hint of pale daylight around the shut curtains of his windows. They looked almost like dozens of tiny crescent moons - or perhaps tiny silver collars.
"How long have you been a slave, Loska?"
Her hands did not even pause in their graceful motions. "I surrendered at the fall of the North, Your Highness, but it was some months later before I was selected to serve the royal family."
Zuko's eyebrow tipped back. "You serve in the palace?"
"I am Princess Azula's slave. I go wherever she chooses to take me."
Her soft voice was a snaking current, pulling his thoughts to crushing depths.
"We're done, now. You may go."
Loska stepped back at once, putting away her water and bowing her head.
"Find Yotsu and send him to me."
She stiffened, but did not refuse. "As Your Highness wishes."
.
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Katara settled into a surprisingly contented rhythm. In the day, she slept and ate her meals. She wore her chains and drank water from the cup on a staff. She also endured a very embarrassing visit from Loska, who barely spoke to her - perhaps as a courtesy due to the personal nature of their interaction.
And in the nights, she waited until the guards had settled into the station at the end of the hall, and then Toph opened holes in the walls and knocked off everyone's chains. Katara and Aang practiced waterbending with the others' leftover drinking water. Sokka and Toph went over plans for sabotaging the engines or played stones with a set made from bits of the ship. Before dawn, everything went back to where it had been, Toph smoothed out the dents in the walls, and everybody got a good day's rest.
Things were going so pleasantly that Katara almost forgot why they were all still there. It came as a shock to her one day when she woke to the sound of her cell door opening and sat up to find Zuko stepping into the room.
Despite his fine silk clothing and the rigid way he always carried himself, his face was pale and there were strained lines around his eyes and mouth. Katara didn't really pay attention to any of this, though. She spotted him, remembered her oath, and calmly assumed a formal sitting position on her pallet, facing the wall opposite her.
Zuko eyed her for a moment, then gestured to the guard lingering behind him in the corridor. The steel door swung shut and locked with a rattle. Slowly, he crossed the room to stand in her line of sight.
"Why," he ground out, "are you still here?"
Katara flicked a curious glance up at him. He glared down at her, hands fisted at his sides and his jaw clenching as he waited, briefly, for an answer. Abruptly, he bared his teeth.
"You were supposed to escape," he snapped. "You were there, on the deck, the entire ocean at your command! You could have sunk the ship! You could ha-" He stiffened and lowered his arm from the sharp gesture he had been making. When he went on, there was a hollow quality to his voice. "You could have left - why didn't you just leave when you had the chance?"
Katara stared at him, not sure what to think. She had expected grim satisfaction, gloating perhaps. Instead, Zuko watched her with his one eyebrow tilted back, and on the unscarred side of his face she could see the dark circle beneath his eye. He was acting almost as if he had wanted her to escape, and she had failed on purpose.
But that was ridiculous.
"I couldn't leave my friends." She fixed her stare on the far wall. "And once you distracted me enough for Azula to get her hands on Sokka, leaving wasn't really an option anymore."
Zuko took a step away and dug his fingers into his hair. Katara watched with a cool frown until he straightened and scowled at her again. "That wasn't how it was supposed to happen."
Katara could only stare at him for a beat, incredulous. "This is exactly what you have wanted all along. I gave up my freedom, and now I'm your slave."
"You are not a slave! I never wanted-" Zuko grimaced and lowered his voice. He clutched one arm tighter to his side so subtly Katara almost didn't notice. "I release you," he said, his voice shaking. "I release you from your oath of service."
"Where are the witnesses?"
"I- what?"
Katara narrowed her eyes. "Did you expect me to fall to my knees in gratitude and just forget? Without witnesses, there's no proof that you released me. If I escape now, it would just look like I broke my oath, and my people would suffer for it."
Zuko stared at her for a beat, then shut his eyes tightly, turning away. Katara could not have known how he was cursing Azula, cursing himself for always being too slow to keep up. To Katara, he only looked like a thwarted villain.
"So yes, I am your slave. Until you release me publicly, I live to serve you," she said, curling her lip. "Your Highness."
Zuko cast her a wild-eyed stare that quickly darkened. "Don't call me that!"
"Oh, I'm sorry. Do you prefer 'Master'?"
His fists quivered at his sides. His teeth glinted in the red light. "Stop it, Katara."
"So you prefer a silent slave?" she sneered. "I'll just-"
"Is this why you stayed? To torture me?" His eyes bulged and he leaned toward her, his hands spread wide before him. "It wasn't enough to make me believe you loved me and then just give up when things got hard! You couldn't just kill me or leave me in peace! No, you had to stay here so you could keep punishing me for loving you back!"
Silence welled up like blood from a wound. Finally, Katara broke it, her voice swelling from a brutal quiet. "Do you even hear how crazy that sounds? I didn't choose to stay. And I'm so sorry my imprisonment is so hard for you. If you really didn't want me here, you should've helped me instead of fighting me harder than anyone else on this ship!"
"I knew you would beat me! You beat everything I set up against you! You would've beaten Azula, too, if you hadn't let her get to Sokka!"
It cut her, because the same thing had occurred to her, too. Katara flinched and looked away, and only then realized she'd been gripping her chains so hard her hands hurt. She let go, flexing her fingers and releasing them in her lap.
"I didn't…" Zuko shifted from foot to foot and let out a sigh through his teeth. "I didn't mean that. It was my fault, not yours. Azula never fights fair. I should have seen it coming. I did exactly what she wanted me to do when I distracted you."
Katara said nothing, but she looked back at him, taking in his scowl, his arm still tucked snug to his side. With his other hand, he fumbled a small object out from between the folds of his sash.
"Here," he said, moving to close the distance between them.
Katara leaned back minutely, but he stopped at arm's reach, offering her the object - a brass key. She stared at it as if it was bait in a trap.
"Take it. There's really no point in the chains anymore."
"Since my oath is just as good?"
"Since you can get out of them pretty much any time you feel like it." Zuko stayed where he stood, unbending. "I ordered your chains struck yesterday, but none of the guards wanted to risk being the one to do it. After what you did to the men stationed in my sitting room, I can't really blame them."
Katara snatched the key from his hand, then frowned at Zuko. "Oh boo hoo. Poor little firebenders. I guess thirteen to two wasn't fair odds, huh?"
"Look, I'm not saying you were wrong," Zuko said as he took a step back, "but Private Shin won't walk for at least a month and only that because we had Loska aboard. The infirmary is full of soldiers who are excited to tell all their friends about the crazy waterbender who almost killed them. When Lieutenant Roshu heard that I meant to unchain you, he filed a formal complaint with his unit captain."
"Well that makes sense," Katara sniffed. "I can't imagine what a brute like him does when he isn't bullying someone else."
"He's a safety officer, Katara. It's his job to avert disaster."
"He dragged me around by a leash like an animal! And you defended him!"
"He isn't a bender! The way you were cutting down the other soldiers, it looked like you might kill him!"
Katara stared at him for a tense moment, the key digging into her palm. "I didn't realize he wasn't a bender, but I wouldn't have killed him. He's been cruel and I just wanted to give him a good scare before I left."
Zuko nodded and looked away. "Well, that much went according to plan." His eyes cut back to her and he spoke more quietly. "How has he been cruel?"
"You mean aside from the whole 'chaining me like an animal' thing?"
Zuko flinched but didn't rise to the taunt. He only waited. Katara let out a breath and began searching her cuff for the keyhole.
"He made me feel… less than human. The chains and the suspicion, like I might lunge and bite somebody at any second. But the worst was when he told me you were beating Sokka. He did it to scare me and remind me how helpless we were."
Zuko was quiet for a moment. The little brass key fit with a satisfying click into her cuff, and then the weight fell away. Her wrist appeared, reddened from long wear and scabbed where the steel had banged her skin after she had been returned to her cell.
"Did he ever hurt you?"
Katara flexed her free hand and rolled her eyes up to him. "No more than he was supposed to."
"He wasn't supposed to hurt you at all. I kept him as your transfer officer because there are no marks in his record for misconduct or injuring a captive and his interview gave me the impression that he was an honorable soldier. If that's not the case, tell me and I'll remove him."
From his tone, Katara suspected he meant this in more than a professional sense. She looked back to her other manacle. "Do what you want. You will anyway."
Hurriedly, she unlocked the other restraints, too, until only the collar remained. She struggled to find the keyhole behind her neck.
"I could…" Zuko hesitated when she shot him a fierce look. "…help?"
Katara curled her lip at him. "I'm good, thanks."
Zuko frowned, but stood back with his arms folded over his chest. His eyes, Katara noticed, tracked her wrists as she worked.
Finally, she tossed the chains aside and settled comfortably back into her formal position. She had not felt so light since the night of the full moon and drew a deep breath, rolling her head and her shoulders to ease the old strain in her neck and back.
When she opened her eyes, Zuko was still watching her. It put a hot ember in her belly and a lot of angry words in her throat, but Katara just firmed her mouth into a tight line. "Is there something else you want, Your Highness?"
"Don't." The word came out choked and strange, but Zuko's voice leveled out as he went on. "I meant it when I released you. I may not be able to make it public for a while…" His eyebrow tipped back and his eyes fell off to one side. "…more than a while. But I will do it. You have my word."
"When? How long?"
"I- I'm not sure. Long enough for me to establish my standing back home, and for you to prove you've abided by the terms of your oath. A month after we arrive, maybe longer."
Katara curled her lip. "So what you're really saying is that I have to play along and act like a nice, domesticated waterbender if I want to keep that month from stretching out into a year."
"Do you have a better idea," Zuko snarled, "because I don't, Katara. Believe me, nothing would be a greater relief to me than getting you and your stupid brother off this ship today, but we both know you're too stubborn to leave without the Avatar."
"And when you release me," she said, slow and sharp, "you think I won't take him with me, then?"
He met her stare flatly, not quite scowling. "Once the Avatar reaches the royal palace, he's my father's problem. Take him for all I care. Fuel the resistance, drag out the war." His mouth hardened into a line and he turned his eyes from her. "Raise my son to hate me, just don't force me to watch."
Katara eyed the hunch in his shoulders and finally let out a sigh. "My… I'm not pregnant."
She didn't expect the bitterness that twisted his face, but it passed quickly, replaced by the glare he fixed on her. "I guess that must make you happy. Now you can really pretend you never had that lapse in judgement."
It stung her more than it should have. She clenched her hands together in her lap to keep from crossing her arms over her chest. "It's a relief."
Zuko flinched as if her voice was an icy wind, then strode for the door. He rapped once, and when it opened, he commanded the soldier on the other side to gather up the discarded chains. Then, without a backward glance, he left.
He did not stay to watch Katara take in the private's edgy way of moving, nor did he pause to reassure the guards who had gathered in the corridor, anxiously handling their weapons and waiting for something to go wrong. Zuko strode straight out of the brig and into the stairwell, pausing only on a landing between floors where he would not be seen.
There, he clutched at his aching chest and breathed slow and deep until the urge to shout and punch a wall faded away. Lashing out would only hurt him. Whatever he did, he only ended up hurting himself.
"Prince Zuko?"
He opened his eyes to find Yotsu standing a few steps above, staring impassively at the floor. Zuko straightened at once. "What is it?"
"Your Highness, the healer has arrived in your chambers again. I of course followed your orders yesterday but it seems Princess Azula has given instructions of her own."
Zuko steeled himself and began climbing the stairs. "I'm going to the control tower to check our progress. Come alert me when she's gone."
Yotsu followed two steps behind him. "Your Highness, it is possible she will wait for some time, today. Princess Azula allotted her three hours for your healing."
"Then take her a pot of tea."
There was a beat of silence and Zuko turned a frown on his valet. There was no sign of confusion or uncertainty on the man's face, but he now stood three steps behind. "As you command, Prince Zuko," he said, ducking his head in a firm bow.
Zuko turned back to climb the stairs and did not see the way Yotsu's eyes raised up to him, watching his shoulders hold stiff with each determined step.
.
AN: Okay, so... opinions on the portrayal of Zuko in the last chapter or three? I got nailed by a critic on another story for telling rather than showing too much and decided to work on conveying his change of heart in a subtler way. Now I suspect I overdid it (underdid it?) and the revelations in this chapter may come as too much of a shock. What do you smart people think?
