A Different Destiny

Chapter 32

Sorry it's been so long everyone- ik i don't put out chapters the quickest to begin with but this year has been particularly tough. 2 family members passed away with in several months of each other so it's been slow going with the writing. i appreciate everyone who's stuck it out with me <3 

Gua was still there when Katara opened her eyes. For a moment she had been panic stricken and had to repress the physical urge to lash out, similarly to what she had done to Zuko in the catacombs. Using every ounce of willpower in her body she forced herself to not make a single move.

Katara must have been out for a long time. Although she had been very out of it before, she was sure the sun had been out, thinking of the dim ways of the sunlight that had made their way from the upper deck to where they were sitting.

She also felt a sharp pang in her stomach- had Katara not been in her current situation, she would've been inconsolably embarrassed about the sounds her stomach was making. Her mind flickered to her brother teasing her for such things growing up and the phrase "a badergermole in death throes came to mind."

Without meaning to she inhaled sharply as the memory threatened to make her giggle as she had when her brother had first said it. While it sometimes annoyed her that she had ended up the butt of many of Sokka's jokes, she secretly didn't mind. She knew he never had bad intentions. Though knowing this hadn't stopped her from toppling in the roof of the occasional igloo in revenge.

Her brother- Sokka and Toph, Aang...and Zuko, what was happening to them? She felt another pang in her body, but this time it was in her chest as anxiety washed over her. Her mind flashed back to the last time she had seen Zuko, to that night on the floor of the hut, hearts racing, bodies pressed against one another. She wondered if he would think she abandoned him.

The pain in her chest began to twist as she realized in terror that he could be in danger too. Clearly Gua wasn't someone who could be trusted, and she had told him so much. She talked to him about traveling the world, knowing the Avatar, and about her traveling companion who had waited back in the hut.

Gua blinked slowly, evidently a light sleeper. He looked around for a moment taking everything in, when his eyes met Katara's she saw that same sadness that she had on the deck of the ship, right before he-

Forgetting her plan to keep her cool, she lunged upwards at him. "Bastard!" Katara hissed.She doubted there was any easily accessible water, but that didn't matter to her. She had to get out of here and back to Zuko.

Before her hand or nails could make contact, Gua had grabbed her wrist mid-air. "Easy there. Can we talk?"

Katara responded with an angry roar and tried swinging with her other arm, when the same blinding pain from earlier was back. She hadn't realized quite how badly she had been hurt. She glanced down at her arm through tearfilled eyes. It was still bent at the wrong angles and was a dark purple at the actual injury site.

Gua's gaze followed hers, and he turned his head away quickly. Almost as though he couldn't stand the sight of her broken arm.

How ironic? Katara thought, seeing that it wouldn't look like this if it hadn't been for him.

"Doesn't look like I have much of a choice." she spat.

Gua didn't respond to this but started talking. "This is bigger than you Katara. I didn't do this to hurt you, my decision was made long before we met." he paused as though he were waiting for a reaction, but she was determined not to give him one. When it was obvious she wasn't going to say anything else he continued.

"Any happiness that my life could've had sank to the bottom of the ocean with my sister the day she died."

For a brief moment she almost felt bad for him, but then she shifted slightly and a bolt of pain shot through her arm and she gasped in pain. Gua quickly reached for a small brown flask sitting next to them, he popped the lid off with one hand and gently lifted it to Katara's lips.

Through the blinding pain in her arm she shook her head, trying to move her mouth away. There was no way in hell she was trusting anything Gua gave her ever again. She didn't care if she was lost again in the vast sandy expanse of the Si Wong desert.

"It's just some herbs, it'll help with the pain." he said, still holding it up for her. She continued to say nothing, not wanting to give him the chance to pour it down her throat if she were to reply.

He sighed but as if understanding her hesitation brought the flask to his mouth and poured some of the liquid into his own mouth, making sure to exaggerate his movements as if to prove it was safe. Katara wasn't about to give in that easily though and continued to glare at him.

"After my sister died my family fell apart. Growing up my sister was a constant thought in my mind, especially since I helped my parents take care of her so often. When she was gone it was like none of us knew how to exist in this world anymore. I know it must sound like a hyperbole, but my mother must have wept without stopping for months. My father stopped speaking. It was like not only my sister was taken from me that day but my whole family."

Despite herself, Katara felt sad for Gua and his family. How horrible that must've been. The Fire Nation had killed her mother when she was so young so she understood what loss was like. But she didn't know what she would've done growing up if at some point Sokka had been taken from her too. The mere thought of it was almost more than she could handle.

"At first my reaction to everything was to shut down and wither away like my parents, but at some point I didn't want to do that anymore. If I did then my entire family would truly be a victim of that day."

Gua was no longer focused on Katara, but staring straight forward lost in his own reverie. "I knew then there was no happiness left in the world to be had, at least not for me. So I built my life on one thing, revenge. Revenge on those who took my sister from me and ruined my family."

Katara didn't know what to say, she couldn't disagree that what happened to Gua was nothing other than tragic, but she still didn't see how something that happened to him years ago had anything to do with her.

"Revenge, a word that can be as plainly simple as 7 letters that make it up or carry the weight and context that no one outside of your position will truly understand.

I became obsessed with it, I would find those who were responsible and I would bring them my justice."

"I don't understand why you're telling me all of this..." Katara said quietly, almost scared to interrupt what he was saying.

He turned his head to look at her and smiled sadly. "I left out a detail about that day... the ship that had sent projectiles to break the ice beneath my feet had a large flag raised on its mast, colored in dark blue with outlines of the moon and ocean spirits.