Chapter Text
Everything has gone so horribly wrong. Everything.
Katara staring at the dank cell wall in front of her is profound testament to the fact. She tips her head back, closing her eyes, willing herself to not think of how everything had turned on its head.
The worst part, she realizes, is not knowing where everyone else is. Sokka, her father, Toph, Suki, so many others...Aang. She rubs the heels of her hands into her eyes, desperately wishing the tears would stop their merciless trek down her cheeks. This isn't the time to cry. She has to figure out how she is going to escape, and where her friends are.
"You're Katara…" she says between sniffs, "of the Southern Water Tribe. You will...you will get out." She takes in a few deep breaths, and tells herself to hold her head up high, even when the enemy can't see you.
The sound of muffled voices perks her ears, and Katara rises to her feet, deciding that it is best to face whatever threat standing upright.
Two Fire Nation guards materialize before her, and she can see the scorn on their faces plain as day.
"Look, Jin. She's trying to be brave," the woman sneers, unfolding her arms to grab at the ring of keys hanging around her waist. "I swear, these backwater bumpkins thinking they have the upperhand..." she mutters, flicking nonchalantly through the keys on the ring.
"Mm," Jin replies. "Hurry up, Taya. I was supposed to be on my lunch break a half hour ago!" He snaps.
Katara is shocked by the complete banality of topics they discuss while taking their sweet time looking for the key to her cell...don't they have a master key? Katara thinks belatedly, and then realizes it doesn't even matter. Because if they're personally coming to get her, then it can't be good, right?
Fear tightens like a fist around her heart, and her pulse quickens. She knows she's cornered, the rat in a cage, but damn if she doesn't feel the urge to fight. Furthermore, she knows she is completely helpless. The dank smell the Fire Nation guards always seem to complain about is music to Katara's ears. It means water lingers in the walls, the floors.
And a waterbender is in their midst, as weakened as she is.
As soon as the Fire Nation guard, Taya, unlocks the cell door, Katara is on the offensive. She draws from the moisture soaking in the walls, the ground, the air, and with startling precision, has them fly in a coordinated attack, turning them to ice as they sail toward their target.
Taya yelps, feeling her flesh get nicked in dozens of spots at once, some of the ice pinging loudly off her helmet. Jin is no better for it and has the reaction time of Appa after eating a particularly large helping of his favorite fruits.
Katara, as lightheaded as she feels, wastes no time in skidding out of the cell and running in the direction the guards came from. She knows she is navigating blindly, but an opportunity presented itself, and Katara isn't about to pass it up if she doesn't have to. Plans, it turns out, don't always go accordingly, even if you think you've accounted for every possible outcome ten times over.
"SOMEONE STOP HER!" Taya howls, cursing angrily as she wipes blood off her face and arms. "That little waterbending bitch!"
The words barely register and Katara is halfway up the steps when firelight dances on the wall, steps echoing ahead of her, suggesting capture is coming sooner than she can blink.
No, no, no, no, not again…
But Katara is weak, she knows this. The invasion attempt had left her drained and bruised, and in the aftermath of an explosion, she had lost her last vestiges of consciousness.
And the water in the underground cells, while there, is harder and harder to drag out, even at the peak of her abilities.
Part of being a good tactician, Katara's father had once said, much to Sokka's chagrin, is knowing when you have hit the wall.
And well, Katara is finding that she is hitting the wall, both metaphorically and literally.
Taya and Jin have seemingly recovered and are bounding up the hall, while voices grow louder as they descend the stairs. Katara is most assuredly stuck in the middle.
Sooner than she can scream 'air bison!' she is caught. Several arms reach for her in what Katara feels is a bit of an exaggeration, because as good as a waterbender she is, it's really just her. And she's weak, tired, and all out of options.
Her hands are deftly grabbed and tied, so that if the desire to waterbend gets a hold of her, she will be sorely disappointed.
As the guards shove and roughly move her along, Katara picks out distinct bits of conversation that sends her heart pounding so loudly, it's as if the sound of great waves are overcoming her, sending her further and further away from shore and into murky depths. She hears murmurs of what 'happened to the last prisoners' and 'the last invasion attempt was over a century ago' and 'who would be so stupid?' but none ring louder than the guard's voice who states what she least wants to hear.
"The Fire Lord wishes to have a personal audience with this one."