Chapter Text
Katara remembers the first time she met Zuko. When he got to her home, with fire and smoke, it's a memory that's both unpleasant and somehow also warm.
It taught her the fear that she had almost forgotten. It taught her what she needed to be who she is.
—
Dad had left.
The warriors had left.
There were only children and elderly in the tribe; children that needed care, and elderly that couldn't keep up with all the responsibilities of both being the caregivers of such kids and also handle the burdens of their joints aching with the movement in the cold.
And there was Katara. Barely a child, and yet already the chief of her tribe. Gran Gran and Dad said they couldn't risk it, having the chief being also the only warrior in their tribe, if Dad left it would be up to Katara and Sokka to split those responsibilities and make sure the tribe would never be left unattended.
Sometimes she wonders if maybe it would have been different, if Sokka and her hadn't been pushed into roles too big for them. To fill shoes too big for small kids.
Sokka surely wouldn't have turned out the way he did.
She wouldn't have turned out the way she did.
The time they spent learning about the tribe, reading old dusty scrolls about anything they might need to know to keep everyone alright, training day and night to become the chief and the warrior, respectively, that their tribe needed felt like an eternity, months of doing nothing but practice waterbending without a teacher, just old semi burned scrolls being her only company for hours until she felt like collapsing, months of healing Sokka's small hands getting callouses from picking up weapons no small child should ever touch; and still, now that she looks back, it's almost as if all that time had happened in the blink of an eye.
One moment they were siblings fighting over a toy, and the next she was the chief that had to keep their tribe standing, and Sokka was the warrior that trained both elders and children to their best capabilities just in case. They were chief and warrior, no more children playing in the snow together.
Memories of being a small girl playing around with his big brother were turned to ashes by the fire nation.
—
That day was cold. The Avatar —Aang, had woken up when she was practicing her bending away from the open sea, away from any fire nation navy that could have been floating around.
The flare went off when Aang and she went to explore that old ship that had terrorized her and her tribe for years, and she knew what was coming.
The memory feels blurry, yet so vivid, as if it were happening right in that moment at lightning speed.
Zuko was there, standing all self-righteous with a navy of the fire nation standing in a place where he had no right to be. Everything felt so real with soldiers now standing in front of her and ready to strike, in front of her people and her home; like a threat that was always present but that she had forgotten about and had thought, foolishly, that would never come back to take what was hers again.
She said something, she knows she did, she is the chief for the Spirits sake! But… but she doesn't know exactly what she said.
She sent Sokka to attack, to protect their home, just like their father did.
It all happened so fast…
Katara shakes her head, focusing on the water running through the fountain in the temple, keeping her breathing still.
She doesn't need to remember what happened when she saw those horrible red flags with a flame emblem again, she only needs to remember what they made her feel like.
Like a useless child looking for her father.
Like a prey.
She splashes a little bit more water to her face and takes a deep breath, now is not the time to think about that, not when she has the chance of a lifetime just a few steps away.
Not when she has the prince of the same nation that took everything from her right in front of her.
Zuko is struggling against the rocks that keep his hands together behind his back, just as expected. It doesn't matter how much Zuko says he has come to help, he can change his mind fast, and that's really dangerous. Just like he did in the crystal catacombs in Ba Sing Se.
“Haru, his chest.”
The earthbender doesn't need further instructions to send earth and rocks flying to their now prisoner's chest, holding him like a fish out of water and slamming him against the ground face-first so he can't hurt anyone. There's a speck of blood coming out of his forehead.
Haru takes a step closer to Zuko's body, eyeing him warily, probably also taking in the sight of the blood.
“I did my best, but that might have given him a concussion or something.”
Haru explains, reaching behind his ears sheepishly; Toph said he needed to practice more when he earthbends on living beings, practice the strength he uses and be careful with it less he will crush someone.
They don't need to be careful now though.
“That's okay, don't worry.” Katara reassures him, taking a few steps to be right in front of the fire nation prince.
Zuko probably was already concussed from before, offering himself prisoner and all.
Katara can't tell if that was stupid or pathetic on his end. It was probably both.
“That wasn't- wasn’t necessary.” Zuko coughs, still trying to escape it seems, his body squirms under the rocks and his eyes are wild and darting around, looking for an exit. It doesn't matter, Katara trusts Haru’s bending, and she trusts Toph to step in if it's too much for him.
Everyone is standing around him, and Katara can see worry in Aang’s eyes as he stares at Zuko’s bleeding forehead.
He's just pretending to be hurt. He just wants us to let our guards down, why don't you see it?
“Better safe than sorry.” The voice of her brother brings her back when she realizes he's moved to her side.
Sokka’s sword balances dangerously close to Zuko's neck and Katara knows that if he makes one wrong move they won't have to worry about his so-called newfound destiny to help the Avatar anymore.
“A prisoner doesn't get to say what's enough or not.” The fire nation should know that more than anyone after what they did to Haru’s village and his father.
Memories of a happy house being turned into a cemetery by a fire nation soldier, a mother gone, a new responsibility-
“But Katara, we can't actually keep him prisoner.” Sokka chimes in, once again keeping her grounded at what's happening right now, his eyes are still fixed on the threat in front of them and his voice is steady. “Aang needs a firebending teacher, it's true and you know it, we can't have that teacher being a prisoner.”
And the fire nation can't go around killing innocents and claiming as theirs the whole world, yet they have done so for a hundred years, and they will keep doing it if no one stops them.
“Yes, we can. I'm not letting him anywhere near Aang if he is not in chains.” Katara knows Toph can make a pair of cuffs for him. They can have him chained and harmless while he teaches Aang. She can have everything under control so no one gets hurt for trusting someone from the fire nation.
But he's a fire bender. He is Zuko. He managed to make her let her guard down in Ba Sing Se with a sad story and convincing words that made her feel sorry for him.
He can't be trusted.
And Katara knows what Sokka is saying is true —Zuko could teach Aang wrong out of spite, he could take revenge for taking him prisoner, or even refuse to teach him at all—, but that's easy to handle.
She was weak in Ba Sing Se where everything seemed lost just because she trusted the fire nation. She will always regret what she almost did, if Azula had arrived a little bit later, she would have wasted the Spirit’s water on Zuko. She would have let Aang die on her.
She spent night after night right next to Aang's bed on that awful fire nation battleship, healing him and praying for Tui and La to bring him back, to not let her be the murderer of Aang —of a child. A child that shouldn't be in a war, but that is their only hope, a child that is so much like Sokka and her that it pained her just to see his cold, unconscious body. It would be another death that was her fault. It would be another life that she and the fire nation took and-
Shaking her head, Katara feels like everything's gone back to its place. She knows what she has to do now with the prince on his knees in front of her, and she won't fall for Zuko's tricks again, and won't let anyone else fall for them, not now, nor ever.