The Betrayer

[Katara]

Katara had recently pointed out to Aang, that no matter how desperate he was to make it to the Eastern Air Temple, Appa could not make that lengthy journey directly after battle and insist on stopping for the night. The camp was a long walk from the river in which Katara stood. She had made the point that she was the one most suited for ushering suitable drinking water to their resting place. As she starred disgusted at the filthy liquid below her, Katara pushed one of her looped bangs from her face and grimaced at what a horrible failure the day had held for the Rebellion. With a gesture toward the water, Katara twisted her arms in a counterclockwise pattern. What emerged from the mud was a pure liquid which the girl ushered into a basin of ice that was created by her. But before she could turn to see who was walking behind her, she automatically guessed it's being Aang. "Aang, I've said it a million times in the last couple of hours, we have to rest, Appa needs energy."

[Zuko]

The engine of the flying machine gave a sputtering cough and Zuko looked up in alarm as his vehicle dropped several feet in altitude. The air balloon steadied itself, but Zuko knew he was almost out of fuel. Frowning in frustration, the exiled prince stared out at the sunset and was able to make out the distant white dot that was the flying bison.
"It seems the Avatar escapes me again." His voice held no bitterness this time though. He gave a small smirk of dark humor at the predicament, but other than that he merely felt patience. The world was almost right and Zuko almost felt at balance with it. If it took another week to catch up to the Avatar, so be it. He would not be stopped, not when his destiny was so close.

Zuko was about to resign himself to a night of camping as he slowly guided his vehicle ground-ward when he noticed that the white dot was also descending. It seemed even the great bison had limits to his stamina. It appeared to be only a few miles in the distance, maybe...

Zuko wiped sweat from his brow as he hiked toward the point where he hoped the Avatar had landed. The path was not steep, but the earth was rocky and his sandals slipped occasionally on the pebbles. He estimated that he had traveled three miles and his tongue grew drier as his robe collected more and more dust. Finally in the distance he could hear the sound of running water and the ground started to slope into a gully. Carefully, making his way down the embankment, Zuko found a river flowing with debris and decay. The stench of ash was repulsive and he could only suspect that this was run off from a factory at the river's source.

Ignoring his thirst, he scanned the river edge for any signs of travelers and a chance shift in the moonlight caught the hairpins of young woman by the waterside. With a simple gesture she sculpted water in thin air and Zuko knew in that instant who she was. Katara, citizen of the Water Tribe of the Sole Pole and master waterbender.

Moving cautiously, Zuko approached the girl from behind lest she flee at the sight of him. However, misfortune sent gravel sliding from his footsteps and the sound of stone on stone was quite clear in the still air of the night. Zuko paused as the waterbender called out, she was expecting the Avatar. Instead, Zuko stepped forward into the moonlight in his crimson robe. Gently, he pulled back his hood to reveal his scarred face. "Not exactly who you were expecting, I would guess."

(Tag Katara)

[Katara]

As the last bit of water was placed in the last basen, Katara had just summoned another globule of pure liquid from the river. At the reply and the voice that creeped through her ears, the girl halted and the water she was instructing shivered then collapsed into the river in which it came. "Zuko," she spat out with a venom in her words through teeth clenched in pure rage. The four basens of ice filled to the brim with pure water seemed to impload when this word was spoken by their master. With a flourish of her fingers a round of icicles whizzed through the air, aimed directly at the Prince's heart. Now the girl commited an areal, landing on the river as if it were ground. With a circular motion of her arms three trees on each side of the river were sucked dry of their water, reduced to a shrivled mess. These six great amounts of water accumulated in a revolving column of liquid. This entire time, Katara's blue eyes had never left the pupils of her enemy. With a slamming motion downward made from both of Katara's arms, the opposing side of the polutted river was covered in ice. It was as if a great amount of water had exploded there and immediately froze at the height of it's journey outward. Not underestimating the power of Zuko like she had done before, with a sweeping motion from the ground and then up, hundreds of gallons of water trickled into a great sphere of water above Katara.

[Zuko]

The prince's good eye widened in surprise as the waterbender projected razor sharp shards of ice at his chest. Reflexively, Zuko drew his twin swords and deflected the icicles. The steel blades turned the shards into bits of hail that clung to his hair and eyelashes.

Matching his enemy's glare with one of his own, Zuko watched as Katara pulled water from the very trees to use as her weapon. He realized that his initial instincts were correct, she was trying to kill him. Furthermore, it seemed she had become even more powerful than before.

As the water coalesced into a column, Zuko recognized the waterbender's attempt to overwhelm him and leaped skyward as the water came crashing down. At the pinnacle of the jump, he executed a spinning kick and roaring flames raced from his foot. The fire encircled the prince and shielded him from grasp of the ice. Emerging from a cloud of steam generated by his defense, Zuko landed and slid to a stop next to the field of frozen water. Water evaporated off of his body like fog as his temperature rose and he bared his swords in a battle stance. Across the distance that separated the two opponents, Zuko could see that Katara was already preparing another assault. He scowled in response and held his ground.

"This is not what I wanted. This is not how I planned it would go."

(Tag Katara)

[Katara]

"Yeah, if you would have had it the way you planned, I would be dead by now!!!" Katara smiled up at the moon and replied bluntly, "Challenging a waterbender at night?" The sphere of water above her bubbled and contorted as the girl completed a round of fast moves within the act of two seconds. Liquid turned to hailstones large enough to kill someone, sending them to rain upon her enemy, Katara ran along the river's edge, erecting a series of powerful waves. Halting, the girl sent up a smoke screen to spread along the scene and shield her, Katara wondered what Zuko was doing here. Azula Mai and Ty Lee were no where in sight and he looked exhausted. Staring up, the girl noticed a full moon and stood on the edge of two paths, negotiating whether the situation was dire enough to retreat to bloodbending. But shaking this off, Katara smiled and sucked two more trees dry, using their water to create a series of tentacles that continually wriggled and squirmed, as if fueled by the rage of their master.

[Zuko]

(Note: The event of a solar eclipse occurs only when the moon blocks the view of the Sun from the Earth. This happens solely during the New Moon. Since the solar eclipse happened earlier today in the game, bloodbending would not be an option. Not that you really need it anyway. Also, since there is no moonlight to see by, it's probably best to assume the stars are exceptionally bright tonight. Makes me wish I'd read up on solar eclipses before writing my posts.)

As the large chunks of ice came raining down, Zuko switched his swords to one hand and struck upward with his fist. A gout of flame vaporized the hail above the prince's head while around him the sand became pocked by the falling ice.

With his eyes tracking Katara's movement along the river, Zuko slid his foot along the ground in a short kick. A wedge of fire struck the base of the oncoming wave in front of him, causing the water to break and split apart.

Now soaking wet, but unharmed, the prince felt his temper growing as he was forced to endure these assaults, but he fought to control it and remained strictly on the defensive. He watched as the waterbender drew more moisture from the trees to form whip-like tendrils.The unorthodox technique gave Zuko an idea. Dropping his blades, he outstretched two fingers on each of his hands. With remarkable speed he shot bolts of flame toward each of the desiccated trees. The bone-dry wood easily caught fire and erupted into an inferno.

With the shadows dancing across the battlefield, Zuko clenched his fists at his sides and breathed heavily. He called out over the river to Katara. "I did not challenge you! You're forcing me to do this!"

(Tag Katara)

[Katara]

Katara was readying herself to send the tendrils forward like razor whips. But before the thought could even fully materialize in her mind the two bolts of flame ignited the trees behind her. With a swirling movement, one tentacle doused one tree and Katara ended in the same stance but without the luxoury of her liquid tendrils.

Glarring this comment made from the prince, Katara said "If memory serves, you've never "challenged" me to a battle before today, it simply happens we see each other. And you aren't really a trusting figure in my eyes." Katara used both hands to force two orbs of water to change. One sliced a chunk of her hari at the bottom of her back and the other froze the strands of hair onto itself, forming an icicle. With a jabbing of her fingers, the ice shard sliced and whizzed through the air, heading straight toward camp.

But right before the girl was going to retreat into a different bending stance, she did look at the facts. Her eyes locked on Zuko's, the two opposites standing at each side of a murky river. "If you don't want to harm me, don't fight back," with a final pushing motion of both palms, Katara let loose a foggy breath that froze in a foot thick line that creeped up to Zuko. If the Prince of the Fire Nation would forfeit, he would be frozen to the nearest tree by a layer of ice three feet thick.

[Zuko]

Zuko watched as the icy fog flowed from Katara, his mind and memories at war within him.

You're the Fire Lord's son. Spreading war and violence and hatred is in your blood.

I've always had to struggle and fight and that's made me strong.

The weeds and grass by the river edge glistened with frost as the breath of cold shot toward the prince. The dew upon the plants shined like diamonds, changing the mundane to the beautiful.

...whenever I would imagine the face of the enemy, it was your face.

You've always thrown everything you could at me! Well, I can take it, and now I can give it back! Come on! STRIKE ME! You've never held back before!

A sheet of ice raced across the river like an arrow as the waterbender's attack approached. The transformed water was as pale as glass, its mirrored surface reflected the world in flawed shades of gray.

This is water from the Spirit Oasis at the North Pole. It has special properties, so I've been saving it for something important. I don't know if it would work but...

Once I deliver the Avatar to my father he will welcome me home with honor and restore my rightful place on the throne.

Zuko could feel the chill of his impending defeat rushing toward him, he only possessed a split second to save himself. The very air seemed to crackle with frozen tension.

I thought you had changed!

We've created an era of fear in the world, and if we don't want the world to destroy itself, we need to replace it with an era of peace and kindness.

"I have changed." The soft whisper barely escaped the prince's lips before he was embraced in an icy prison. Held fast to a tree trunk, Zuko could barely draw breath and he grimaced at the sting of cold upon his exposed skin. Given enough time he might have been able to escape using basic firebreathing, but by that point he would be frostbitten and exhausted. It was plain to both warriors that he was defenseless. Zuko stared pensively at Katara as he suppressed a shiver. "I don't want to harm you."

[Katara]

Katara stood, awestruck at the Prince's forfeit. Taken aback, the girl stood, one hand keeping firm control over the ice. With a deep breath, Katara's mind raced, as if the very foundation of her hatred for the Fire Nation had just been oblitorated.

It could still be a trap, he could have planned this the entire time, you could be playing right into his hands.

These thoughts and many like them seemed to echo in her head, pulling her decision of what to do next. Eyebrows knit in a smoot frown, Katara's next thought escaped her lips, just loud enough for the Prince to hear. "Everyone deserves a second chance. I suppose you're no different......."

You already gave him a second chance in Ba Sing Se.

Banishing second thoughts, Katara looked up and added hatefully "But if anything happens, you'll be down before you could even draw breath." So raising her eyebrows and consuming control over the ice before her, it was transfigured into liquid as the brown brows of Katara lowered. But before the water could even begin to trickle down to the polluted stream, the master waterbender had drawn a razor sharp strand from it that as continually bending through the air around her suppossed enemy. After another two seconds, Katara had slid over the river and was standing in front of Zuko, looking at him with a mix of wonderment and loathing.

[Zuko]

Zuko fell to his knees as he was released from his ice prison and he rubbed his arms for warmth. Looking up as Katara approached, he was dismayed to see the shard of water poised to strike, but was not truly surprised. Still, she had given him a chance, he had to seize upon that hope.

Getting slowly to his feet, Zuko raised his hands palm up to show he meant no harm as he watched the blade of ice. He tried to keep his pride intact, but his eyes betrayed his shame and uncertainty.

"I didn't come here to fight you. I know that's kind of hard to believe, with all those times we fought before. I'm, uh, sorry about that. But, I'm not that person anymore. I'm good now. And I came to join your group, because I realized my destiny is to help the Avatar. And since I can firebend, I thought you could use my help, so..."

The prince recognized that he was rambling and dropped his eyes downward in embarrassment before falling silent. Gathering his courage he started again and nodded toward Katara's icicle knife.

"Uh, maybe we can start with you allowing me to move?"

[Katara]

((zuko, i've seen the new episode, and i've seen how katara should act. i was wondering if you wanted to start this over in the western air temple?))

[Katara]

{Thread ended and as if it never occured}