Chapter Text
The Year 91 AG
The sun shone high in the sky, making it just warm enough for the children to play outside. Now that Katara was 6, she was finally old enough to participate in the snowball fights. She was the last to be picked on a team, because once they decreed no bending allowed, the other kids thought she was the weakest. That was fine with Katara. Let them underestimate her.
Katara’s snowballs were the best. She wasn’t consciously bending, but it was her element, and it was more receptive to her. And years of being picked on by Sokka had made Katara fast.
He was being a typical boy, taking all the time in the world to wind up. Katara took advantage, and put as much power as possible into her throw. Her snowball hit its mark, slamming directly into Sokka’s face. Katara couldn’t help but giggle. That’s what he got for wanting to be on different teams!
Sokka clambered over his team’s fort, lugging a snowball bigger than a baby otter penguin. There was no way he’d be able to throw it, Katara thought gleefully. Sokka dropped the snowball with a thud, silencing her laughter. He was staring into the sky. Ash-colored flakes came drifting down onto them, only a few at first. In moments, the flakes grew heavier, and there was no mistaking them.
Katara had never lived through a Fire Nation raid. But her limited experience was supplemented by stories. Like her Gran-Gran’s story of how her friend Hama was captured. Hama had been the last water bender in the Southern Water Tribe. Just as Katara was now. All at once, ice-cold terror shot through her spine.
“I’m going to find Mom,” she told her brother, and bolted off. Her mother was clever and brave. She would know what to do. She would make sure Katara was safe.
Katara ran home as fast as she could. The tribe was in an uproar, with warriors racing to to defend the walls and everyone else searching for their loved ones and heading towards their homes. Katara’s family lived in an igloo close to the center of their town, no less humble than the others, despite the chief who lived inside it.
She pushed through the blanket hanging over the doorway, yelled, “Mom!” and drew up short. Her mother was on her knees before a Fire Nation soldier in full armor. She looked so much smaller than the man, but Kya was unafraid.
“Just let her go, and I’ll give you the information you want,” the woman said firmly. In truth, it was her daughter’s presence that gave her courage. Kya already knew how this day would end. But if she had to ruin her life to save Katara’s, so be it. It would be worth it. She only wished she could say her goodbyes to her husband and son as well.
“You heard your mother,” the soldier said in a gravelly voice. He was Gran-Gran’s age, with wrinkles visible underneath his strange helmet.
“Mom,” Katara said, clutching her hands together. She knew what would happen if she accidentally bended water just then. “I’m scared.”
“Go find your dad, sweetie,” Kya insisted. “I’ll handle this.” Strands of hair had fallen out of her usually perfect arrangement. Even when Katara and Sokka were acting up and their mother had to chase them around camp, her hair was always in place.
Katara glanced from her mother to the soldier, and gasped when his sharp brown eyes narrowed at her. Eyes filling with tears, she turned to run out of the igloo.
She made it about twenty yards before she crashed into a body. This one, also clad in red and black.
“What do we have here?” he asked, grabbing her arm. This soldier was younger than the man in her igloo, and his voice was softer, but not any less frightening.
“Let me go,” Katara cried, writhing and yanking her arm as hard as she could. She had to get to her dad, had to bring him back to save her mom.
“Just one moment,” he said, and began dragging her back the way she had come.
“No!” Katara screamed. All the soldiers were defending the town. The elders and children were hiding, as protocol dictated. Not a single water tribesman in sight. There was no one to save her.
The man pushed aside the blanket to her igloo but did not step inside. A sharp, tangy smell assaulted Katara’s nostrils. It reminded her of when the hunters would return home. She knew that coppery smell. All the fight left her body, and she sagged against the soldier holding her. Snot mixed with the tears streaming down her face, and Katara squeezed her eyes shut. She didn’t want to see whatever was waiting inside what once had been her home. She didn’t know for certain what it was, but she feared the worst.
“Commander. The crew is getting antsy. They wanted to know what was taking you so long.”
The scary older man shoved the soldier holding Katara, and her eyes opened as she was yanked back outside. She knew the sun was shining on her face, but she could not feel its warmth. She was beginning to be unable to feel anything at all.
“It is done. The last water bender has been taken care of. Wha- Soldier! What on earth are you doing with that child?”
“She crashed into me. You said this was to be a covert operation. The rest of these people are in their little huts, so why is this child still running about?”
Katara heard a loud sigh. “You imbecile. I wanted her out and about while I was killing her mother.”
Katara doubled over and vomited in the snow. The man holding her made no noise, only shifting to stand behind her as she lost her lunch. There was a low pain in her arm, which the soldier was still holding. Fresh tears streamed down her face, and her throat burned all the way down to her stomach. She wanted her mother to hold her hair and rub her back and tell her it would be okay. But her mother would never do that again. She would never do anything again.
“Now what…?” the younger soldier asked, sounding almost nervous.
“She’s seen our faces,” the Commander sighed again. “I don’t know about you, but I don’t want this one nursing a grudge as she grows older and seeking retribution.”
“You can’t possibly want to kill her too! She’s just a child!”
“Please, soldier, tell me how to do my job.”
There was a silence. Katara was almost sick again. She couldn’t die, she was too young. She’d never learned all the bending forms. She’d never fallen in love. She’d never proven her worth to her stupid brother.
The young soldier finally spoke, his voice soft. “Madame Lihua is always looking for exotic girls…”
The Commander snorted. “It seems you are capable of thinking after all. Very well. We’ll take the child prisoner.”
Before Katara could so much as yell, the soldier tore a sash from his uniform and gagged her. He hefted her up on his shoulder and sprinted for his ship. The Commander led them, blasting fire in such a wide swath, it forced all the water tribe soldiers to turn away to protect themselves. None of them saw the men’s cargo.
Except one. A little boy, perched alone on a snowdrift, boomerang in hand. He yelled his sister’s name until his voice was hoarse, but there was nothing he could do. She was gone.