Tsukiyo - ZUTARA

Chapter One

This was the end. Katara knew it when Zuko took her with him, and at first, she trusted him, she thought he might join her and Aang, and the rest. But then she saw a Fire Nation ship waiting for them, and when she turned to run away, Zuko tugged her flush close to his body, looking down at her, "You're coming with me."

She was thrown in a cell. The last that she saw of Zuko then was when the soldiers dragged her down the metal corridor, while she screamed, looking back at him, trying to find some remorse in his brown eyes. "Please, please, don't do this!" but he turned away from her, ignoring her screams.

He hadn't changed, she realized then. He was all the same. And now she was going to die for believing him or remain imprisoned forever.

She didn't know how long she spent in that ship. There was water all around her, but she couldn't bend it. She didn't count days then, but it must've been over a week. Zuko didn't come to her in that time. No one came. She was fed, which helped to track the time, but nothing else.

She felt the ship stop as the coiling sensation in her belly ceased. She was hopeful to leave, hopeful to get the chance to escape, hopeful to talk to someone or at least hear somebody else talk. But the soldiers dragged her out with a bag over her face so she couldn't see where they were taking her.

And threw her in another cell. This one had a bed, a chamber pot. It was a bit more spacious. But it was all metal and no water in sight. She was only given solid and hard food, so hard it could've shattered her teeth. And instead of water, she was given flat round medallions that melted in her mouth for hydration. That's what the guard told her. she was so grateful to hear a real voice – she must've spent a year there, probably just over a month, but it felt like a year – that she took those medallions and ate the food and stopped starving herself once she realized it was of no use. But that guard didn't speak with her again.

She started working out to make sweat and tried to cut through the metal door, but they were solid, and neither her sweat nor her saliva or tears were enough to get through it. And even if she managed to slash through them, there were guards outside the cell, she heard their footsteps going back and forth each day.

She cried a lot. She got water from that. So when the door opened fully for the first time, she was ready.

Zuko came to see her. He wore elegant clothing, traditional to the fire nation, and his hair had grown enough that he could put them up.

He watched her up and down, his face impassive. "How do you like your living quarters?" he asked, mocking.

Katara felt anger rise inside her. "Surprising that you came to check on me only now!" with that, she gathered the tears from her cheeks that hadn't dried yet, and slashed Zuko's face, the good side.

He growled and took a few steps back. When he stood up straight and was ready to fight her back, all her water supplies were gone. He roared, breathing fire from his mouth. Katara moved to the back of her cell and covered herself with her hands to not get burned.

"I was going to give you a chance to get out of here and have an actual room," Zuko breathed out furiously. His cheek was bleeding from where she hit him. "But I suppose you still haven't learned your manners."

He left. The time and the emptiness of it stretched out like a snake. They gave her less of those hydrating medallions so she couldn't make water with her body.

Katara felt herself get weaker with every day that passed. She started keeping track of them, but lost count on day one hundred sixty-six. She prayed that Aang, Sokka and Toph were alright. She wouldn't survive if they got captured too. She wanted to somehow let them know she was alive and okay, but there was no way. She needed to warn them not to seek her out, not to try to get her free, because she had a feeling this was exactly why Zuko kept her imprisoned. Alas, she was all alone.

Zuko didn't come again. Maybe he had forgotten her here. But there were guards by her door all the time, even at night. She tried to talk to them, despite how much she despised people from the Fire Nation, she just needed to say words or hear others say them. But nobody paid her mind. She forgot how words sounded. She started thinking in images.

When the door of her cell opened, she didn't fight. She didn't have it in her. the only thing that the door opening meant for her right now was that she'll hear someone speak.

Zuko did. She couldn't make out his features, but she saw his figure had filled out. He was no longer a teenager, he seemed like a man, his voice was deeper too, or maybe Katara just didn't remember what voices sounded like before.

"I come here with e preposition, assuming you've learned your lesson," he said, low, and deep, and menacing. Katara didn't answer. She caught every word, every sound, every syllable that came out of his mouth as if it were air and she was drowning. But kept her face expressionless, she couldn't let him know how much she needed this simple contact. He probably knew this was torture. But she would never let him celebrate this victory.

"It doesn't have to like this, Katara. You don't have to stay here," he continued. When she still didn't answer, he explained further, "My preposition is this: be a good girl and I will take you with me to the palace where you can live relatively free."

Katara heard the words but didn't understand their meaning at first. Once she did, she spat, "I'd rather rot in here than feed on food from your palm."

Zuko watched her. she couldn't see his face, the orange light of the corridor illuminated his body from the back, so the front was darkened, but she could feel his fiery anger.

"As you wish," he said, barely containing his frustration. He closed the door shut with a bang.

Katara sighed shakily. She was going to die here. Zuko wouldn't have mercy on her.

She counted the days starting from one again. Azula visited when she had counted to forty-four.

She leaned to the side of the doorway, twisting the keys to her cell between her long-nailed manicured fingers. Katara turned away in her bed to face the wall, but she could still hear the jiggle of keys.

"You know, I had no idea you could look even more pathetic than you already are. I heard Zuko's offered you a bedroom next to his, and you dared to refuse him. You know, he has a thing for you. Now that he's got father's respect and admiration back, he's a real prince. Other girls could only dream of something like that. Yet you're still here – for what? No one will give you an award for being a pathetic loser."

Katara tried not to listen, but it was easier said than done.

"Get out! Leave me alone!" she shouted, which only made Azula giggle devilishly.

"Oh, I will leave you alone... You'll be so alone that you might even do what that earthbender girl from your gang did to herself..."

That caught Katara's attention – she jumped to a sitting position, exclaiming, "Toph? Where is she?!"

Azula cocked her perfectly trimmed eyebrow. "Oh, you didn't here? We caught her. put her in a cell, just like, but I guess she's nothing like you. She didn't even last a month – ended her own life. Tragic. We had no idea she could bend metal. Well, now we know it's possible."

Blood rang in Katara's ears. Whatever Azula said next, she didn't hear.

Toph was dead. She killed herself. Because she'd rather be dead than a prisoner of the Fire Nation.

Seeing Katara's horrified expression only made Azula snicker louder. "Don't worry, you won't get away that easily – Zuko would never let you die like that. I told you, he has a thing for you. If you were smart, you'd use it to your advantage."

Azula left, but Katara wouldn't be able to tell then. She was shocked. She didn't eat when the guard brought her food. Suicide didn't seem like an option before, but now it did, perhaps it was her only option. She couldn't bend metal, she didn't have water, but she could starve herself. She knew humans could survive without food for two months – that's how long she needed. This will all be over soon.