change of fate

Newness

The soldier doesnt pass Katara off as soon as they board. Instead continues to carry her tiny body through the hull. He shouts indiscernible orders to Fire Nation troops as they pass. Katara kicks and slams her fists against his armored back, howling in rage

When the soldier does put her down its inside a cramped metal room. Only enough space for a bed, a desk and a table that only comes up to his knees. He places her on the cot. Katara glares at his back and crouches at the furthest corner of the cot, baring her teeth.

He paces, back and forth across the length of the metal room once, twice three times. Then he stops long enough to rip off his helmet and toss it at the desk. Then he continues to pace, every so often glancing at Katara with a hurried panicked edge in his eye.

He's pale, almost like snow, in that exotic way that the Earth Kingdom tradesmen who frequents her village is. His hair is black and shiny, so long that it is pulled back into a knot. The way some Warriors wear theirs, but without the shaven bottom half. Sideburns stretch down from his hair line and onto his wide face. When he looks at Katara again she sees his eyes are yellow like the tops of fire.

Finally he stops. And he meets her eyes.

"I am sorry. Truly sorry." He says, that in- control way he had spoken to the other soldiers gone. He sounded genuine and sad.

The sadness in his voice light a spark in her belly. This man had to reason to be sad. He didn't deserve sadness or grief or regret, she deserved those things! Not this Fire Nation monster! She bellowed again with all the fury in her little lungs and lunged at him.

Aiming to claw out his yellow demon eyes!

He must have seen the anger boiling in her because he ducked back right as she leapt. Effortlessly catching her wrists and then just as easily tossing her to floor with a great metallic thud.
All of the air left Katara in a heavy grunt and she struggled to do much more than breathe for a moment. Much less focus on the man's face.

"I don't want you dead child," he starts again. "I don't have the stomach or the passion for this, I don't kill babies-"

"I am not a baby!" Katara shouts and it sound shrill and babyish to even her ears.

The man's eyes narrow as he examines her, still kneeling on the ground.

Lu Ten is looking at a child, maybe Azula's age. A child that had just watched her mother brutalized and possibly murdered in front of her, not fourty five minutes ago. A child that he personally has kidnapped with absolutely no plan. A child that he is trying to save from the future monsterous things that could still happen to her. And the first words she speaks to him are to assert that she is, in fact, not a baby. It's near comical. And it's terribly telling of her strength.

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The man tells her he will do everything in his power to keep her alive. Alive. Not safe, the distinction sticks. She can't understand it.
She had fought and cursed at the man until he had finally left her with his promise. And with the soiltude of her cell the emtions finally sweapt over her. She cried so hard she fought for breath with evey wracking sob. Unable to move beyond the spot the man and slammed her down. Her spine ached and her hands and feet grew cold and numb with disuse. Katara did not know of Fire Nation "kindness" and did not believe his "promise".

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When Katara wakes up it's on top of tear stains pillows. Her emergence from sleep is abrupt and filled with fear. She can't remember what she had dreamt to force her awake, neither did she remember climbing her still aching body into the cot. Tears blur her vision when what happens comes back to her.