We Walk in Shadows

by siambre

Summary:

Zuko absolutely despises parties. He hates them with a passion. That all changes when a beautiful woman in blue catches his attention at one such function, but the woman has her own agenda for him, and she will alter the trajectory of his life forever.

Notes:

I was searching for an assassin/spy/undercover agent!katara fic to read the other day and couldn't find any, so I went full Thanos and wrote one myself. It's set in-universe, but the Gaang is aged up (they're all in their 20s) and their stories will differ from the show.

Another thing, I borrowed some of the lines in the first chapter from badlucksav's fic evermore. That particular chapter was inspired by the premises in this fic, and it's incredible! Go check it out!

I do not own ATLA.

Chapter 1

Zuko sighed into his firewhiskey before he dumped a big gulp down his throat. He hated parties, if only for having to endure hours of meaningless conversations with obnoxious nobles and the loud music that thrummed in his bones. But as the Crown Prince, it was obligatory for him to be in attendance.

All of the money spent on these lavish balls should’ve gone to the war effort instead, and yet here they were, playing dress-up to stroke his father’s ego. Zuko was just grateful he could use it as an excuse to get drunk.

“You know, brother, you shouldn’t sulk so much,” Azula drawled as she came to stand beside him. “All that frowning causes wrinkles and, well, you have enough skin problems as it is.”

He scowled at her from the corner of his eye—his good eye, as his left was mangled by the scar his sister had so kindly pointed out. Scarred by his father for his disrespect. 

“It’s unbecoming of a prince to brood in the corner at these sorts of events,” she went on, examining her perfectly manicured nails. “You should be out there, dancing with the daughters of noblemen and military leaders, currying favor.”

“That sounds shallow and like a waste of time,” Zuko grumbled back. 

“It’s called networking, darling,” Azula replied as she patted his unscarred cheek. “If you intend to rule the Fire Nation one day, you ought to start doing that now.”

Zuko resisted the urge to roll his eyes. The last thing he wanted to do was put hours of chivalry lessons into use. The daughters of said noblemen and military leaders didn’t care about him. They only cared for his status, coveting the desirable role of the future Fire Lady.

He blankly looked out over the bustling crowd. “I’d much rather drink my weight in firewhiskey.”

Azula huffed out an exasperated breath. “You’re so boring. No wonder Mai left you.” Zuko gave his sister a death stare, but she simply turned and began walking away with her drink in hand, waving the other one dismissively above her shoulder. “Just don’t come crying to me when the time comes and you have no allies.”

Zuko shook his head, mumbling a curse under his breath, as he brought his drink to his lips for another sip, but he stopped, his goblet hovering just below his mouth, when a peck of blue caught his eye along the far fringe of the hall, standing out among the sea of scarlet and gold like the North Star. His gaze focused on the beautiful woman with dusky skin facing in his direction, dressed in an elegant ocean blue robe trimmed in silver, her dark, wavy hair cascading freely over her shoulders.

She wasn’t one of Fire Nation nobility, but by Agni, she was gorgeous.

Zuko’s feet began moving on their own accord, and they didn’t stop until he’d reached the mysterious woman. She was surrounded by a group of young Fire Nation noblemen, all of whom trying to initiate a conversation with her, clearly captivated by her charm as their prince was.

Zuko’s heart skipped a beat when he saw those brilliant blue eyes looking back at him. Water Tribe traits, he noted.

“Excuse me, my lady,” he said, cutting through the circle of noblemen who were now bowing to him from the waist. He didn’t spare them a glance as he offered the woman his hand. “Would you honor me with a dance?”

She broke into a bright smile and curtsied to him. “It would be my pleasure, Your Highness.”

Then she took his hand—a small, chilly one enveloped in his warmth—and Zuko led her out onto the dance floor, much to the dismay of the noblemen they left behind, especially as he handed his goblet to one of them on the way.

“So, which of the Water Tribes does your beauty hail from, my lady?” Zuko asked while they placed their hands on each other’s shoulder and waist, and began a slow dance to the tempo of the current song. He could feel the stares of everyone in the ballroom on them—watching them, scrutinizing every minuscule detail.

The woman smiled shyly. “My great-grandparents moved to Hing Wa Island from the North before the war started, Your Highness. I’ve always wanted to go back for a visit someday, but,” she huffed a quiet chuckle, “I have a feeling they wouldn’t really appreciate a Fire Nation citizen visiting them.”

Zuko cut her a teasing smirk. “Then I will be sure to tell my father that we must prioritize conquering the Northern Tribe. We cannot have a lovely lady like yourself missing out on the journey of her life.”

She averted her eyes, her smile widening. “That is very kind of you, Your Highness.”

“Please, call me Zuko.”

The woman met his gaze again, a bit more sure of herself this time. Zuko didn’t know where he’d gotten the ability to speak like that. He’d never been a smooth-talker. It seemed that the chivalry lessons he'd hated so passionately in the past were starting to pay off.

“And what should I call you, my lady?”

She paused for a beat.

“Kya. My name is Kya.”

“Beautiful name for a beautiful woman.”

Something dark passed over her face. Her smile faltered at the edges, jaw clenching, and it made Zuko wonder if he’d said the wrong thing. He'd never been good at giving compliments.

But then she was smiling again before he could register what it'd all meant.

“Thank you, Your… Zuko.”

They kept on dancing and talking as the songs passed by in a flurry. It was unheard of for a royal to be dancing with only one person through the night, and said person bearing the enemy’s features only added fuel to the gossip machine and the whispers.

But Zuko paid them no heed, lost in the vast oceans that were the eyes of the woman he held in his arms. His head spun more than a little, courtesy of the firewhiskey he’d been consuming all night—though he’d be lying if he said the effect Kya had on him didn’t contribute to it, making the blood in his head rush south as time went on and their stance grew more intimate.

By the end of the night, they were practically hugging each other, arms fully wrapped around one another in a cocoon of embrace. Zuko had long closed his eyes, breathing in her rainy scent with his chin resting atop her head—hers was pressed into the chest armor of his regalia. She was a bit tense in his arms, like she was ready to bolt at any second, but so were most people around him—what with him being a the Crown Prince and all—and she made no moves to pull away, so he left it at that.

He cracked his eyes open to look out from the floor-to-ceiling windows covering an entire wall. The moon had peaked in the night sky and was on its way back down. Servants were buzzing around the ballroom to serve the sparse groups of remaining guests.

“Looks like the party’s coming to a close,” he whispered into her hair.

“That was some night,” she said, stepping to one side and then the other in their lazy dance. “Your father sure knows how to throw a party.”

Zuko wasn’t sure if it was the alcohol in his bloodstream that gave him the courage, but he dared slide one of his hands down her back to cup the spot where her hips met her bottom and brought his lips to her ear.

“It doesn’t have to be over for us, you know.”

Kya went rigid in his arms, stepping back a pace to stare at him. Zuko immediately let go of her. She glanced away, contemplating her options.

Then she looked at him again.

And she smirked.

They burst into his chambers in a liplock, stumbling everywhere they went in their hurry to get in each other’s pants. Zuko slammed the door shut behind them with his foot, moving his hands up and down her body while his tongue clashed with hers. He pushed her backward and slammed her against the door, pressing his hips to hers in a desperate attempt at friction.

She groaned into his mouth when her back hit the surface, continuing to run her fingers through his top-knot. The sound was like a drug—dangerous and addicting.

Zuko was going to combust if he didn’t have her on his bed within the next minute, naked.

He bent his knees, grabbed onto the backs of her thighs over her robe, and hauled her off the ground without breaking their kiss. Then he blindly walked them to his bed, nearly tripping over the small set of stairs that led up to it, before lowering her onto the soft mattress.

Kya’s hands ventured down from his hair to his chest and she pushed him away.

“Where's your whiskey?” she asked, out of breath and her lips bruised. Her hair was sprawled around her head in a halo.

Zuko panted heavily, eyes half-shut, unable to think about anything but the thing of wonder that laid beneath him. And what he’d be doing to her soon. “Huh?”

“Your whiskey. I… can’t be with someone unless I’ve had something to drink first.” 

Zuko tried to make sense of her words in his dazed state, really hear what she was saying instead of imagining that mouth wrapped around him or screaming his name.

He blinked rapidly to clear his head. “Yeah, uh…" He lifted himself off of her and twisted toward the room. "It's on the desk. The goblets are in the second drawer.”

Kya scooted off the bed from the opening he'd left for her and headed to the desk at the corner of the room. Zuko propped himself onto his elbows to watch her grab a bottle of his finest firewhiskey. He couldn’t complain, though—it gave him a pretty good view of her ass. 

It was a real struggle not to bend her over the table and fuck her senseless.

“Take off your armor,” she told him while pouring a goblet for both of them with her back turned.

A naughty grin plastered to his face, Zuko did as she said, tossing the heavy ornament somewhere on the wide bed. Kya returned a few moments later, carrying their whiskey with a smile. Her robe bunched around her knees as she settled on his lap, right above his crotch, and gave Zuko his goblet. If she hadn’t felt his almost achingly hard erection before, she certainly would now. 

“To the Fire Nation,” Kya muttered, raising her drink in a toast.

Zuko clinked his goblet to hers. “To the Fire Nation.”

He tipped his drink back, polishing it off in one go, all the while maintaining eye contact with Kya over the rim of his goblet. She only took a sip from hers, watching him intently, as if making sure he finished his drink.

Zuko flung his empty goblet aside when he was done. Then he grabbed hers and threw it on the ground as well, never minding the liquid inside that sloshed all over the floor.

“Now,” he rasped into her mouth, leaning his forehead against hers and squeezing her ass. “Where were we?”

Kya pushed him on the bed onto his back and crashed her lips to his. Zuko darted his tongue through her parted lips, his hands creeping up to her ribcage and then to cup her breasts. Almost immediately, her slender fingers wrapped around his wrists and pinned them above his head.

So that was how she wanted to play it. 

Zuko’s cock twitched in anticipation.

Kya rolled her hips into his once, and he nearly came right then and there, the sensation like a lightning shooting up his spine. She broke their kiss and inclined her head.

“Do you want to come, my prince?” she purred in his ear.

“Yes,” Zuko breathed, his hands clenching into fists on the mattress. Ash pooled in his mouth and throat, though he didn’t feel any smoke coming from his lungs.

Kya began riding him over their clothes. “Do you want me to fuck you?”

The fuzzy warmth in his stomach spun Zuko’s head. “Fuck. Yes. I want you to fuck me.”

The weight of his own limbs was becoming too heavy to carry with the bliss of his situation, his eyelids getting heavier, too. Zuko blinked a few times to shake off the sleep. He refused to fall asleep with a dazzling woman in his bed, no matter how much alcohol he’d consumed—but the feeling persisted.

“Tell me, Prince Zuko,” Kya let go of one of his wrists to wrap a petite hand around his neck, “do you also get off to murdering innocent people?”

Zuko froze, yanked out of the moment so fast it nearly gave him whiplash.

“What?”

Kya’s grip on his throat tightened. She stopped the roll of her hips. “Do you get off to orphaning little children?”

Zuko peeled his eyes open against the force pulling it closed, furrowing his sole brow. “The fuck?”

“Do you get off to watching your soldiers rape helpless women? Huh?” Kya seethed, pulling back and squeezing his throat to the point she began cutting off his air supply. Her face was contorted in disgust, and hatred seeped from her eyes, flaring with the same glint he’d glimpsed in the ballroom.

Zuko tried to rip her hand away from his neck, but he found himself unable to lift his arms more than a few inches or keep his eyes open.

“Who’re you?” he managed to choke out from under her crushing grip on his throat, slurring through his words. “What’d you do t’me?”

“My name is Katara of the Southern Water Tribe,” she hissed, her lip curled back in a snarl. She put her entire weight on his throat with both hands. “I’m the last waterbender of my people. You killed my mother.”

Zuko gasped for air as his consciousness began to fade in and out, his eyes rolling to the back of his head. He trashed left and right on the bed, doing all he could to get her off of him. 

He opened his mouth to shout for the guards, but the only noise that came out of him was a guttural growl.

“Don’t bother,” Kya—Katara—spat. “Your guards are dead. No one can hear you. No one is coming to rescue you.”

Zuko used whatever was left of his strength to drag his hands to where the nearest patch of her skin was and let his inner fire surge forth. A guttural scream ripped out of Katara's as he set fire to her shins, but she didn’t loosen her grip one bit. The stench of burned skin filled his senses.

A moment later, he heard the door of his chamber creak open and three sets of footsteps enter, followed by the unmistakable sound of multiple bodies being dragged into the room and the lock of the door clicking in place.

"Katara, hurry up!" a man Zuko had never heard before shouted. 

"Toph! He’s burning me!" Her voice was full of tears and agony.

What sounded like the frames of the windows being torn off from the wall grated on his ears. Then bands of metal, slick and cool, latched around his arms, ripped them away from Katara’s legs, and pinned them firmly at his sides on the bed. Katara immediately rolled off of his lap, mewling and hissing in pain.

Despite being able to breathe freely again, Zuko’s consciousness kept slipping from his grasp like sand. The last thing he heard before the darkness swallowed him was Katara talking to him, spitting his title like venom through her tears. 

“Sleep well, Fire Prince.”

Chapter 2

Two Weeks Earlier

“No.”

“Yes.”

“We can send someone else!”

“Get out of my way, Sokka.”

“You don’t even know if they’ll let you into the ball!”

“I don’t care.”

Sokka sighed, wiping his face with a hand. “Katara, you’re not thinking rationally. How are you planning to sneak out of a palace while carrying a grown man on your back?”

“I’ll figure something out on the way,” she spat and shouldered past him, storming across the barracks to the tent she shared with her closest friends, snow crunching beneath her boots. 

Sokka ran after her. Accompanying his hurried footsteps were those that belonged to their friends.

“I know how important this is to you, Katara, but I’m gonna have to side with Sokka on this one,” Suki said. “You heard Pakku. This is extremely dangerous. I mean—we’re talking about kidnapping a crown prince from his palace, here. ”

“Thank you!” Sokka exclaimed. “Finally, someone that sees reason!”

Katara stopped dead right outside the tent and whipped around, fuming. “And, what? What’d you want me to do? Let Dad and his men die?!”

Suki’s shoulders slumped. She exhaled a laden breath, the air before her mouth clouding in the cold. “Kat…”

Huffing, Katara whirled back around and flung the flap of the tent open. Sokka, Suki, and two other sets of footsteps filed in after her and stood cramped between the bunk beds on each side with chests at the feet of the beds.

Katara marched across the short walkway between the worn-down beds, yanked open the lid of her own chest, and began rifling through the belongings she’d neatly stored away inside. Grabbing her travel bag from the bottom of the chest, she shoved shirts and pants and her forearm and shin braces into the bag. 

“Katara,” a tentative voice piped up from behind her. “Are you sure this is the best idea? There has to be a safer option.”

With her back turned to everyone, Katara pulled two waterskins over her parka, crossing the straps over her torso. “This isn’t airbending, Aang. There are no safer options or alternatives. I have to do this.”

She was tightening the band around her rolled-up sleeping bag when another, more confident voice halted her mid-motion.

“I think you should do it.”

Katara turned around and rose to her feet, one brow quirked, and Sokka snapped his head to the fifth person in the tent.

“Are you encouraging my sister to go on a suicide mission?!”

Toph turned her head in Sokka’s direction, her unseeing eyes fixed ahead while everyone glanced at each other. 

“Think about it, Snoozles. If anyone can snatch that ashmaker from right under everyone’s noses, it’s her. A regular person can’t get to him with the army of guards he has around at all times. He needs to be isolated for this to work—and if Sweetness here can get his attention at the ball, she can get him alone in his chambers.”

Sokka looked ready to combust. “Now you’re saying she should sleep with him?!”

“She doesn’t have to go all the way—she just needs him to take her to his room and find a way to immobilize him. I reckon a sedative would do the trick.”

Aang shifted uneasily on his feet. “I’m not sure about this, Toph. There are too many risks.”

“Do you think Pakku would’ve invited us to a meeting with the Grandmasters if he didn’t have this in mind? He wanted Sugar Queen to know of the ball without outright telling her to kidnap the Prince—so, should she refuse, she won’t technically be disobeying his orders.” She waved a hand in Katara’s direction. “She’s one of the only people that’re actually powerful enough to fight her way through the palace if things go south, and Pakku knows she won’t chicken out at the last second since her dad’s life depends on it. She needs to be the one to do this.”

Toph took a step toward Katara and turned around to face the rest of the group. “Besides, there’s no reason to worry. She won’t be alone. I’m going with her.”

Katara felt her heart drop, the uncontrollable drive to drag the Fire Prince out from whatever hell he was in vanishing with it.

“Toph, I… I can’t ask you to do this. It’s too dangerous.”

Toph turned her head to speak to Katara over her shoulder. “You’re not asking me to do anything, Sweetness—I’m going of my own free will. And since when has danger ever stopped me?” She turned back around to address the others before Katara could respond. “The only question now is: are you coming?”

Aang and Sokka looked at each other, concerned and uncertain.

Suki stepped up, chin raised high. “I am.”

Sokka’s head whipped to her. “Suki!” 

She stared back at him with a straight face. “I won’t sit back and relax while they go on our most important mission yet, Sokka. I’m going with them. Don’t try to stop me.”

It was obvious he didn’t like this one bit, but he pressed his lips into a thin line and nodded tightly, anyway.

“You’ll need Appa to get there in time for the ball,” Aang said, tightening his grip on his glider. He gave Katara a sad-tinted smile. “We’ll do whatever we can to help you.”

Katara inclined her head in gratitude. 

Her eyes slid to the last person in the tent. “Sokka?”

He was quiet for a moment, eyes glued to the ground. 

Then he tipped his head back with a groan and closed his eyes. “It was bad enough when you didn’t have to seduce the fucker.” He lowered his head, stared at her, and sighed in defeat. “Of course I’m coming. I promised Dad I’d protect you. And I can’t have you four have all the fun, can I?”

A small smile tugged at her lips, warmth spreading in her chest.

“It’s settled, then,” she said with finality. She looked over at each of her friends. Her family. “We’re going to the Fire Nation.”

-o-

Present Day

Katara clutched her burned shins to her chest and bit her lip to stifle her cries, her eyes wet with tears. It felt like her nerves were fried, like her skin and muscles were all but melting away from her bones. Her shins, her chest, her arms and legs—everything was on fire. Even the air she inhaled in ragged pants was blazing through her lungs.

She couldn’t breathe.

She couldn’t breathe.

She couldn’t breathe.

Her vision was blurred through the lens of her tears, and her teeth ached from clenching her jaw. Never in her life had she known such excruciating pain.

Sokka and Suki dropped the guards they were dragging in and rushed to where she writhed in agony on the bed. 

“Katara!” Sokka hollered as he darted across the room.

She twisted to press her face into the mattress and channeled out the pain with an anguished groan. Her hands were trembling uncontrollably, and she could feel the hand-shaped burns beneath her palms, the tissue scorching and raw under her touch.

Suki reached Katara first. She jumped onto the bed to kneel beside her and slipped the waterskins slung over her armor off over her head. 

“Here, this’ll help.” She was clearly trying to keep her composure, but her voice wavered nonetheless as she uncorked the waterskins. She tried and failed to unclasp Katara’s hands from her shins, then looked to Sokka for assistance. “Keep her hands away.”

Sokka rounded the bed and did as told, kneeling on Katara’s other side and pinning her arms down to the mattress by the wrists. Her muscles spasmed in protest and she cried out, clawing at the sheets beneath her palms. Sokka held her down as she thrashed beneath his iron grip, his worried eyes glued on her burns. 

Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Suki tip the waterskins forward above her burns. Katara inhaled sharply through her teeth when the chilly water splashed over her shins. The sharp contrast of temperatures made the burnt tissue sizzle. Then her sensitized eyes were suddenly blasted by a bright blue light originating from her legs, and an ethereal, dreamy sound reached her ears.

And then there was… relief. A sense of utter, almost overwhelming relief that washed over her consciousness—soothing, like the tender caress of the spirits. Its spectral fingers wrapped around her wrist and pulled her out of the depths of torment, and suddenly she could breathe again.

Slowly, Katara felt her melted skin and muscles knit themselves back together. Felt the inferno in her veins dissipate little by little.

“Are you feeling better?” Suki’s concerned voice was smothered by the blood rushing in her ears.

Heart pounding in her chest, Katara closed her eyes, took deep breaths, and tried to string her jumbled thoughts together. Both the blue glow and the sound faded away as the last patch of her flesh healed itself.

She swallowed hard and gave a faint nod with all the strength she could muster. Sokka sat her up and enveloped her in a bone-crushing hug. Then he pulled away and took her face in his hands, tilting it from side to side to check for injuries.

“Did he hurt you? Other than your legs, I mean.” His thumbs wiped away the trails of tears on her cheeks.

Katara opened her mouth to reply, but no sound came out of it, her throat sore and mouth dry from screaming. She tried again, and all she could manage was a hoarse, “I’m fine.”

Sokka pulled her into another tight hug and apologized into her hair over and over for letting her get hurt. Katara lifted a heavy hand and patted him once on the back to express he had nothing to be sorry for, before letting it fall to her side.

With the unbearable pain in her legs gone, her surroundings gradually came into focus. Suki had moved off of the bed to open one of the barred windows on the wall and blow on Appa’s whistle, which Aang had lent her for the mission. Toph was crouching by the doors, one palm on the marble floor, listening to the vibrations beneath her fingertips. Behind her, on either side of the doors, two guards were lying unmoving on the ground.

And next to Katara lay the Fire Prince—unconscious, and chained to the mattress with the torn window frames climbing up his arms in a spiral like vines, his discarded chest armor standing at the foot of the bed.

“Damn bastard,” she hissed through her teeth, her throat still sore.

Sokka drew back from her embrace, followed her gaze, and mumbled a curt, “You can say that again.”

The low, drumming rumble of earthbending snapped their attention to Toph.

“We need to go,” she said, standing before a wall of earth she’d just raised from the ground in front of the doors, blocking the entrance. “There are people coming. A lot of them.” She turned to Suki. “Can you see Twinkletoes yet?”

Suki gazed out at the sky and shook her head. “No, he’s not—”

A loud, bestial roar promptly cut her off, then Appa’s fluffy shape with Aang seated atop his head filled the view of the window, reins in hand and Momo perched on his shoulder.

“Do you have him?” Aang yelled over the rushing wind.

“Yeah, we got him!” Suki shouted back as she took a few steps back into the room, looked at the blind earthbender, and pointed at Zuko. “Toph, bind his legs, and break down this wall.”

Toph stepped into a bending stance, and with a few flicks of her hands, the chest armor at the foot of the bed began levitating up Zuko’s legs and then wrapped itself around his ankles and knees, effectively eliminating any chance of mobility in his lower body. Then she crossed the room to where Appa floated on the other side of the wall and called to Aang.

“Watch out!”

Aang tugged on the reins to steer Appa away, and Toph stomped one foot on the ground and sliced through the air with a sharp punch.

The wall in front of her exploded. 

The ground shook with the force of the explosion, and cool air gushed into the room through the gigantic hole in the wall, debris blasting out where Appa had just been flying. Distant shouting of guards immediately ensued, and it only took them a couple seconds to raise the alarms.

Bells somewhere in the palace chimed endlessly as Aang appeared outside the hole and maneuvered Appa to the very edge of the building. “Come on! We don’t have much time!”

Without wasting a second, he held a hand out to help pull Suki onto the saddle on Appa’s back. 

Sokka looped his arms beneath Katara’s shoulders and knees. “I got you,” he said, lifting her from the bed and carrying her across the room with hurried steps.

The doors Toph had barricaded began rattling as guards on the other side started banging on them, their shouts muffled by the earth wall. Sokka loaded Katara onto Appa’s saddle before stepping on himself, while Toph turned around to bend the metal she’d engulfed Zuko in and levitated him onto the saddle. Aang yanked on the reins the moment she’d hopped on as well, and Appa began flying away from the building.

Over the wind whooshing in her ears, Katara heard a woman yelling from behind the earth wall Toph had erected, berating the guards for their incompetence. An unsettling feeling settled in her guts as she felt the hair at the back of her neck stand.

And right as she was scooting to the back of the saddle to get a better look at the room, a crack of thunder thrummed deep in her bones, then another explosion rocked the palace. 

The earth wall shattered to pieces before her eyes. Flashes of blinding light streaking through the rubble that launched deep into the room caught Katara’s eye, before dust and smoke shrouded the room in a cloud of soot, obscuring her view. 

“What the hell was that?!” Toph shouted behind her.

Katara glanced over her shoulder to find everyone except for Toph watching the scene unfold along with her.

“I don’t know, but I’d rather not stay around and find out,” Aang said firmly, twisting back around to face ahead and flicking reins to spur Appa forward.

When Katara turned her attention back to the room, she saw a woman emerging from the smoke. Despite the rapidly-growing distance between them, it was impossible to miss the fiery ire emanating from the woman’s eyes and the armor she wore—identical to Zuko’s.

Princess Azula, Katara recalled from her pre-mission debriefs with the Grandmasters of the White Lotus. She also recalled being warned that it was her they should be worried about more than anything else.

Gaze fixed on Appa, Azula planted both feet on the ground and began drawing large circles in the air, hands curled into fists with two fingers pointed. The hair all over Katara’s body stood again as sparks of the light she’d glimpsed before appeared at the tip of Azula’s fingers, and trailed after the circles in jagged currents of energy. And with each circle, the distinct crackling of lightning charging up grew louder and clearer.

Katara’s blood froze in her veins.

Lightning. 

She tried to shout for everyone to look out, but her jaw was clamped shut. She could only sit there, chilled to the core, and watch as Azula completed the circles and linked the charged energy at the tips of her fingers in front of her. Then she pointed a hand out toward Appa and flung her other arm behind her.

Katara didn’t get to witness the lightning heading directly at her when Appa roared and dipped down to a dive. The lightning zapped only a few feet above her head, thundering loud enough to momentarily deafen her.

She squeezed her eyes shut against the ruthless, piercing wind blowing in her face, and felt, more than heard, herself and everyone else scream as Appa dived at a break-neck pace and all of them started floating up from the saddle. She threw her arms up, scrambling to hold on to something, anything, before her hand caught at a handle on the saddle and she grabbed it for dear life, her feet still dangling in the air above her.

Then Appa abruptly recovered from his dive with another roar, and she plunged face down onto the saddle. She grunted as her body rammed right into the wooden surface. Gulping, she rolled over onto her back and stared up at the night sky, catching her breath.

Around her, everyone was panting or groaning in pain. Katara rose to her elbows to see all of their faces blanched and hair absolutely disheveled. She doubted she looked any different.

At some point, Sokka and Suki had apparently latched onto Zuko to keep him from flying off, as they were now pushing themselves up beside him. Aang was petting Appa’s head and muttering praises for getting them out of danger once again, Momo hanging tight onto his shirt. And Toph was gripping the handle next to her with both hands, one arm draped over the side of the saddle, knees pulled to her chest, eyes wide, knuckles white. Going through all that without the ability to see or sense a single thing had understandably hit her hardest.

No one uttered a word as they soared high above the Fire Nation’s capital—not until they’d cleared the mouth of the caldera the city was built into, and the island itself had become no more than a speck in the distance. Katara only let herself relax and sit up against the saddle once there was nothing around them but the ocean below, the moon above, and the chilly wind whistling in their ears.

“Well,” Sokka was the one to break the tense silence, leaning against the side of the saddle next to Suki. His gaze was locked ahead, eyes blank. “That happened.”

Toph gave a nauseated grunt. She was green in the face, hands still locked firmly around the saddle’s handle. “I hate flying.”

Katara didn’t know whether it was seeing Toph in such an un-Toph-like state, or the fact that they’d all made it out of the heart of the enemy with their prisoner that got to her, but she started cackling under her breath. Sokka and Suki turned and looked at her like she was insane, and it only made her cackle harder.

She made eye contact with Suki—and when her lips also began to curl into a grin, Katara burst out laughing, followed closely by her friend. She laughed harder than she had in years, doubling over as her stomach began aching from the effort. She truly didn’t care that it may have made her look mad—it felt good to just let go for once, to forget her worries and be happy for no reason at all. 

Aang twisted from the waist to stare at Sokka, raising a brow. They glanced between the two women—but it didn’t take long for their contagious laughter to spread, and they soon joined in on their senseless giggling. Even Toph seemed less miserable than before, a small, feeble smile bringing color back to her ashen features. 

Beaming with a bright grin plastered to her face, Katara watched the people she cared about the most continue to laugh hysterically—to the point they needed to take breaks to breathe. It reminded her of the simpler times when the weight of the world hadn’t been thrust upon their shoulders yet. When she could see the beauty in life and live for the sake of it, not exist solely to follow orders.

Now that they’d taken the Fire Prince as a hostage, though, maybe the scales of the war would tip in their favor. Maybe, just maybe, they could finally put an end to the Fire Nation’s tyranny, and she could go back home to her grandmother with her father and brother by her side—spend the rest of her life in a modest hut without the threat of war looming over her, surrounded by nothing but peace, ice, and snow.

 

 

 

Notes:

Oh yeah, I'm still alive! Sorry it took me like 4 months to update, but better late than never, amirite?

Ooh ooh and before I go, I want to give a shout-out to the incredible badlucksav for betaing this fic!