"Sometimes I don't even think she cares…" I frowned at Zuko, who was still staring at the water. He had a far away look in his eyes, and he clearly wasn't listening to me.

Raising an eyebrow at him, I continued, "So to solve our problems, Toph and I took off our clothes and bathed together, naked under the moon."

No reaction from Zuko, not even a twitch. Even Sokka had the presence of mind to pretend he was listening when he was ignoring me.

"Zuko," I giggled, nudging him with my foot. Zuko flinched and blinked at me, as if he had forgotten I was there. "Where'd you go?"

Something dark passed over his face, and my smile flattered. "Katara," Zuko said. "Whatever our roles are in the invasion, promise me one thing."

I frowned but nodded. Zuko looked almost… scared.

I gasped when Zuko suddenly turned and grabbed my shoulders. "Zuko! What's gotten-"

"Promise me you won't let yourself get captured," he interrupted. His eyes searched my face for something. "Whatever happens, whoever we fight - don't get captured."

I reached up to hold Zuko's arms, and his grip on my shoulders tightened a bit. "That's the goal, Zuko," I said carefully.

"I'm serious!" His voice pitched higher, and he had to close his eyes and take a breath to calm himself. When he opened his eyes, I was shocked to see him holding back tears. "There are worse things than death, and they happen in Fire Nation prisons."

The implication of his words hit me like a tidal wave. My mind reeled with all the horrible things that could be done to a person in prison, especially a woman. I don't know what brought on this line of thought for Zuko, but I nodded and whispered, "I promise, Zuko."

Zuko nodded once before he let me go. He hugged his knees to his chest and returned his gaze to the ocean, lost in his thoughts once again. My heart was pounding in my chest, and I grabbed a fistful of sand in each hand just to have something to hold. I turned my gaze to the ocean as well, the sound of waves crashing on the beach doing nothing to ease my mind.

"You're sure he's here?" I asked for maybe the hundredth time.

The torch Sokka was holding illuminated Toph's face as she looked over her shoulder to frown at me. I whispered a 'sorry' and pursed my lips as we followed her down another set of stairs.

"How deep are we?" Sokka asked. "I'm surprised we haven't come across any lava."

I had also been wondering that. It was exceedingly warm down here - honestly, though, not as hot as I thought it'd be for a dungeon dug into an active volcano.

"We're circling a huge pit of lava," Toph explained. "The rock is absorbing a lot of the heat."

I winced as we passed another cell, the quietly hissing metal bars serving as their own warning.

Suddenly, Toph stopped, causing Sokka to almost run into her. "Hey!" he hissed. "A little warning-"

"I feel someone," Toph cut him off. She pointed ahead into the darkness. "There's another cell, thirty paces ahead and on the left."

Sokka and I started to move forward, but Toph grabbed our arms, stopping us. "He's…" Toph's face screwed up in a mix of a frown and a grimace. "Whoever it is, he's alive, but… barely."

I swallowed the lump in my throat and looked up at Sokka. He nodded once, and then we all moved forward together. We reached the cell after what felt like an eternity, and when Sokka held the torch up to the bars, I gasped.

If it weren't for the scar, I wouldn't have recognized him. He was lying unconscious in the middle of the cell, naked except for his loincloth. A multitude of cuts, burns, and bruises of varying ages covered his emaciated body.

"Oh spirits," I whispered as Sokka mumbled out a curse. I went to reach for the bars, forgetting for a moment that they would burn me, but Sokka grabbed my arm and yanked me back. I turned into his arms, and he hugged me tightly as I choked back tears.

"It's been five days since the comet!" I cried. I lifted my head, "Oh La, Iroh said the guards abandoned this place when Ozai fell. Five days... alone!"

Toph had already lowered herself into a bending stance. Concentrating hard, she made a motion with her hands as if she were pulling apart the metal bars. After a moment of nothing, the bars started to groan. Slowly, with more pulling motions, Toph was able to bend the metal bars enough so a person could fit through them, if only just.

"I'll get him," Sokka said, peeling me off of him. He handed me the torch, and then he carefully went through the bars. I watched as he gingerly slid his hands under Zuko's shoulders and knees and picked him up with way too much ease. "Tui and La, he's light," Sokka sighed.

It was a bit trickier for Sokka to get back through the bars, having to maneuver Zuko in his arms as well as his own body between the sizzling metal. Sokka hissed when he his shoulder touched the burning metal, and when he flinched, I gasped when Zuko's leg touched the opposite bar. Cursing, Sokka quickly took the last step through the bars.

"Let's go," Sokka said grimly.