Katara felt like one of the earthbenders who had built the great walls of Omashu. They had sailed through the night, at the Boss's urging, afterall, "time is money" and as he pointed out, he was steering a cargo ship not a sightseeing ferry. Gua had protested at this decision, saying that they all needed at least an hour or so of rest. He pointed out that Katara and the rest of the men looked as though they were nearing the end of their limits.
An hour of rest sounded wonderful to Katara but the Boss had grumpily shut Gua down. "Remember whose in charge boy." he growled, throwing Gua a dirty look. Gua bowed his head in response. The Boss grunted in approval at not being challenged further.
The first rays of sunlight were starting to peak over the horizon, they reflected off the morning waters giving the whole scene a glowing and ethereal appearance. Katara paused for a moment, mesmerized by the serenity of it all. For so long she hadn't seen or known anything other than the monotonous ice caps of the South Pole.
Now just a few months later she had been to the other side of the world. She had been to the great spirit Oasis of the North Pole and even stood on the great outer walls of Ba Sing Se itself. The little girl who used to spend days chasing Sokka and otter penguin pups around would be in utter shock and disbelief of the person now standing in front of them. Younger Katara wouldn't of thought twice about a scene like this, the beauty of the light reflecting on the waters would've been lost to her in the quiet of it all.
Back then she had yearned for action and excitement. She wanted to dance at the posh and exclusive gatherings of Ba Sing Se's elite and learn from the great masters of the Northern Tribe. Now that she had experienced all of these things and much more, she found herself wanting nothing more than for a simpler time. As much as she hated to say it, a time even before Aang. Though Aang brought hope to her and the rest of the world, she wished that life wasn't always such a fight.
She wanted to just live.
Katara closed her eyes and found herself transported to another time. A time when Kya, her mother was still alive to sing her asleep and chase away all the bad dreams. Though he would never admit it because of his manly pride or whatever it is boys got held up on, she knew that Sokka missed that too. There had been times over the years, since their mother had died, that Katara had caught him silently humming one of the songs she used to sing to himself. She actually doubted he remembered what it was from, likely it was just the sound that made him feel a little comfort and a little less lonely in the world.
But she knew that sound reminded her of warm fire in the hearth and familiar smells. Her dad in the kitchen cleaning up what was left of dinner. Sokka fighting with her over who would get to pick the story that night.
Yeah, she wished she could go back and live in a time like that.
She opened her eyes, the scene before her had remained mostly unchanged. Except now on the edge of the horizon she could just make out the masts of another ship. There was a sudden pressure in her chest, at this distance she couldn't make out the nation it belonged too. Although they had had a long journey from the northern corner of the Earth Kingdom, they hadn't seen any other ships on the water.
She had expected that, guessing that most ships were tied up near Ba Sing Se.
"Everything okay?" she felt a hand on her shoulder and without meaning too she jumped backwards a little. It was Gua.
"Sorry about that, I wasn't paying attention for a second."
He gave her a tired smile. "Don't worry about it, we're all nearing the point of exhaustion. The old man will do anything to make sure he turns an extra few bucks."
She just nodded in agreement,not wanting to say anything bad about the Boss. Katara had been disappointed that they hadn't stopped to take any breaks but she'd been through worse. And despite Gua's annoyed tone, she knew this crew was more like a family than anything else.
Gua followed her gaze, his eyes squinting a bit as he looked out over the water. "Hmm, another ship?" Although his tone seemed casual, Katara sensed a tension underlying his words. Perhaps they had been attacked before, it wouldn't surprise her especially after hearing what happened to Gua and his sister. For a moment she felt a pain in her chest, at the thought of Gua becoming overwhelmed with anxiety at the sight of an unknown ship.
She turned a little to look at him, and took his hand in hers. This time it was Gua's turn to jump in surprise. "It's going to be okay, I'll check it out real quick." He opened his mouth, probably to ask what she meant by "check it out" but before he could say anything Katara had taken a few steps backward and then in one fluid motion launched herself from the deck of the ship into the water.
Every sense in Katara's body seemed to come alive as she broke the surface of the water and slipped beneath the water. She supposed that she could've given Gua a heads up about her plan, but she liked the idea of being able to keep him on his toes. With his carefree attitude it seemed like not much bothered him.
In a series of twisting motions she created an air bubble around herself. She used one arm to maintain the shape of the bubble and the other to propel her forward.
Katara was able to move much more quickly than when she had used this trick with Zuko. Anytime she did this with someone who wasn't a waterbender themselves she had to put more effort into keeping the air bubble around them, staying aware of every moment they both made to avoid accidentally puncturing the edges and drowning them. Alone, she sped through the water like fish covering the distance between herself and the unknown ship quickly.
As she neared the underside of the ship she could see that it was made of several long sheets of metal that had been welded together at the seams to keep the water out. That was all the confirmation she needed, this was a fire navy ship. The fleets of the Water Tribes and Earth Kingdom were notable for their wooden structures, no other nation used these metal and steam powered monsters.
Without another thought she accelerated towards the ship. She exploded upwards just next to the ship, sending it flying upwards as a massive wave threw it and its crew back and forth, threatening to tip over. She made a spinning motion with her arms, moving the ship in quick circular motions. She knew it was unpleasant and there were likely many men on board sick to their stomachs, but she also knew that disoriented enemies were less likely to shoot fireballs her way.
She let the ship's momentum take hold to continue spinning it in circles, and drew her arm back. As she brought it down in a slashing motion, the sound of her name echoing across the water made her jerk her head in the direction of the noise and made her usually precise strike hit with less force. She had meant to slash the ship in half, not wanting the ship to be able to attack or follow them. But ended up cutting a deep slash in the side of the haul.
She watched the ship start to slow in its spinning and men began yelling and running about the deck. She heard her name again, and saw it was Gua standing on top of the crow's nest desperately waving his arms at her to get her attention.
Katara couldn't fathom what he wanted at a time like this, they needed to deal with the immediate threat. She took another look at the struggling crew and although she hadn't slashed the ship in half she figured with the damage she did they would be unable to follow. She could always come back after seeing what Gua wanted and finish the job. With that she slipped back into the water and headed back toward the ship. Normally she would slide across the surface of the water using self-made ice slides as she went but she didn't want to give the Fire Nation an easy target.
When she was close enough to the ship she used a stream of water to bend herself onto the deck. When she had first leapt into the ship had been quiet as the crew tried to sneak in a few minutes of sleep while the Boss wasn't looking. But now things had broken out into complete chaos. Men were running every which way screaming and yelling, trying to figure out what was happening. Many of them likely thinking it was they were under attack.
She looked around the chaos for Gua but didn't see him at first. She looked upwards at the crows nest but it was now empty. "Katara!" she turned to see Gua sprinting towards her. He had an arm outstretched towards her, his hand protected with an earthy glove like the one he had shown her before. But most notable there was a look of panic scrawled onto his face.
Katara began walking towards him, she had to talk to him and figure out what they were going to do now.
Gua closed the last few feet between them and reached out to put his hand on her arm, she thought maybe to steady himself. He was breathing heavily and looking frantically at the Fire Nation ship. Maybe he had been hurt. She gave him a quick look over but didn't see any signs of injury.
"Gua! It's the Fire Nation!" she said, using her other arm to point at the struggling ship. It seemed that they had somehow managed to stifle the flow of water into the haul. So while they likely weren't in battletime condition, they were no longer on their way to the bottom of the sea floor.
Despite the urgency in her voice, Gua didn't react to what she said. Just stared at her a bit blankly, hand still on her arm. In another circumstance this may have made her blush. Despite what happened with Zuko in the hut, she hadn't touched that many boys in her life. She wasn't used to casual and familiar touches between boys she wasn't related to.
But they had bigger things to worry about. "Gua! Where's the Boss? We have to figure out what to do next!" She started to move away from him when she felt the muscles in hand tighten locking her into place.
"Katara." he said softly.
"What's going on? We don't have time for this!" She tried to move again but Gua had her in an iron grip.
"I'm so sorry, it wasn't supposed to happen like this." Before she could make sense of his words, a sickening crack rang out through the air, canceling out all the other chaos going on around her. Then there was the pain. In that moment everything else in the world, every thought in her mind disappeared and was replaced with a blinding and white hot pain.
She looked down and saw that Gua was no longer holding onto her, but her left arm was twisted and bent at all the wrong places and in all the wrong ways.
Katara shrieked in pain and dropped to her knees, unable to make any sense of what had happened or her thoughts. How had this happened? She thought the Fire Navy ship was too far away to get her. She was lost to her own screams of agony before she could figure out the answer.