144I'm also looking for a beta reader if anyone is willing to volunteer. I need someone who can both catch any canon mistakes and is familiar with the proper use of English grammar and rules. Let me know if you are interested.
Blood and Tears
Chapter One
Zuko hit the ground hard, the earth slamming into him with the force of hammer. Instinctually falling back on martial techniques drilled into him from the time he would walk, Zuko tried to tuck and roll his body along the force of the blow. Unfortunately, too many other blows and lack of food had weakened him to the point that even the training of the lifetime couldn't help him. He knew, even as the ground rushed up to meet him, that it was a futile exercise.
The sound of bones snapping, and the hot flare of agony that ripped across his collarbone, proved him right.
"You'll stay down, boy, if you know what's good for you."
Rude laughter and jeering taunts rang out around him. His vision swam, black spots crowding out his vision in his one good eye. Slowly he gathered his legs beneath him, ignoring the scrape of bare legs and knees across the sharp pieces of rock. His right arm now useless, Zuko shifted his weight to his left and pressed upwards. He was no longer sprawled across the ground but kneeling and bent over.
Without warning, a jagged shard of rock flew at him from his blind side, tearing the exposed skin across his shoulders. Zuko was too tired to even flinch at this latest pain. Staring down into the dirt beneath him, he panted, his breath causing fingers of pain across his ribs as he watched as three fat drops of blood splatter against the earth.
Why was he here? He couldn't remember. He knew he had to get up. He just couldn't remember why.
Then above the sound of the laughter, he heard it - a woman's voice, pleading with him to stay down, to do what they asked. To stop fighting. He shook his head and his vision swam with the motion. Stay down. She wanted him to stay down. Why? He couldn't remember, but he knew that he couldn't do what the woman's voice asked of him.
He had to remember. The woman . . . her voice was still pleading. He could hear it, only now her pleas had changed. He could hear the fear and desperation. She was no longer pleading with him, but with the ugly voices that laughed and jeered.
"Leave him alone! You're killing him!"
Who were they killing?
The woman's voice mixed with the other hated voices until all that he could hear was a dull roar that filled his ears like the sound of rushing water.
Water. He was so thirsty. When was the last time he'd had his fill of clean, fresh water?
Water. There was something he was supposed to be remembering . . .something about water.
Beyond his sight, the woman's voice cried out in pain and frustrated rage.
He remembered. The water girl.
Rage filled him, the anger a heat that simmered through his veins. Eyes narrowed into hate-filled slits, Zuko gathered his strength and staggered to his feet. As Zuko stood, swaying slightly, the laughter around him died.
"Let 'er go." His words were soft and slightly slurred, his split bottom lip making it difficult to speak.
The hated voice of the prisoner boss, Arun, came from his left. Him, Zuko definitely remembered. "Well, would you look at that, the Little Dragon wants to go another round."
Little Dragon. The taunt, even now, made him flinch. His father had called him that. He hated that name. He hated it all the more because he knew that if these Earthbender scum knew who he really was, they'd have killed him long ago.
Zuko swung around, his steps shaky, to face the voice. His vision, already bad from the day he'd received the gift of his father's displeasure, was now almost useless. The blow to the head he'd taken earlier left him with spots that danced before his one good eye. The light seemed abnormally bright, washing out the colors and bleeding them together. It didn't help that he was also seeing double.
"Let 'er go." He'd have liked to say more, but only the clenching of his teeth kept the nausea down. Although, losing his meager midday meal on Arun's shoes did have a certain appeal. Too bad he couldn't actually see those shoes.
He heard the movement of his opponent and lifted his good arm to block the blow he couldn't see. In the end, it did him no good. A ham-handed fist struck him below his upraised arm, impacting hard against ribs that could stand no more abuse. Zuko went down amidst cruel laughter and one horrified scream.
Arun laughed all the harder seeing the crumpled form of the Fire Nation troublemaker. He should have killed him when he'd first arrived. If they hadn't needed strong backs to work the mines, he would have. Those of the Fire Nation deserved no mercy. With a flick of his wrist, he pulled a small boulder from the hillside and sent it hovering over the bloodied head of the boy at his feet.
Arm outstretched to hold the rock in mid-air he approached the struggling girl being held between two of his guards. Bending low, he grinned, showing broken yellow teeth. He laughed again when Katara pulled back from him in disgust. "Choice is yours, girl." He reached his other hand out and ran a dirty finger down her cheek. "You come with me to my hut tonight with no fighting, or the Little Dragon over there gets squashed." Arun turned his head and spat in the direction of Zuko before adding, "Fire Nation whore like you ought to be grateful for my interest, girl. You align yourself with me and I can keep you out of the mines."
There had been a time when Katara would have fought and raged at the implication that she was Zuko's whore. That had been over two weeks ago. Now, she just went limp, sagging into the hard hands that gripped her arms. Tears streamed down her face. Zuko had fought this man for her, though she didn't know why. She couldn't let him die, not like this.
It was over. "I'll be there tonight," she whispered.
"Knew you'd see it my way, girl," Arun smirked, confident in his victory. Another flick of his wrist sent the rock hurtling back against the hillside with an impact that Katara could feel through the soles of her bare feet.
"Let her go," Arun grunted at the men holding her.
Katara collapsed on the ground as her support was suddenly removed.
Bending down, Arun scooped up one end of six foot length of chain from where it was rested in the dirt. Fingering the thick, black iron links he swung the manacled end in a short arc. The other end was firmly attached to Katara right wrist. It was these chains that linked all the prisoners that worked the mines together. There could never be any escape with twenty prisoners tied together. Arun had removed Katara and Zuko from the chain line, and then released Zuko completely before the fight, boasting loudly that he'd wanted it to be a fair. It had been anything but fair.
Now, with cold, dispassionate eyes, Arun jerked the end of the chain he held, pulling Katara across the ground to where Zuko lay in a bloodied heap. "Can't have you running away on me now?" Snapping the manacle over Zuko's left wrist, Arun gave a sharp tug that had Katara sprawling in the dirt. The two guards laughed and Katara fought to hold back her tears.
Clapping the two guards on the back, Arun set off toward the dining tent where the guards ate, secure in his absolute power over the prisoners.
A few steps away, Arun stopped and turned back to Katara, who was still huddled in the dirt next to Zuko. "Best get the Dragon up and moving, girl. If he doesn't report to the work line by the time I finish eating -" He left the threat unfinished but the boulder imbedded in the cliff face rocked menacingly back and forth a few times before going still. Katara understood the threat all too well. When Katara didn't answer, he added with a leer, "See you tonight, girl."
Not even bothering to get to her feet, Katara crawled the remaining few feet across the ground until she reached Zuko's battered body. All the prisoners here in the mines were bruised and battered to some degree or another. If the hard work of the mining didn't beat you down, then Arun and his cronies took great pleasure in spreading as much pain and humiliation around as they could. Zuko, being a member of the hated Fire Nation, with his pride and obvious contempt for the guards, had earned more than his fair share of abuse.
Katara felt a stab of guilt. This latest round of cruelty was because of her. Arun had started his harassment as the prisoners had started the early morning shift. Still groggy from days of little sleep and inadequate food, Katara had been unprepared when Arun had grabbed her from behind. At her shriek of surprise and outrage, the other prisoners in the long line waiting on the morning's thin gruel had looked up as she struggled feebly in Arun's grasp.
The faces looking back at her had been a sea of blank-eyed apathy. Any pity they felt for her was carefully concealed behind masks of indifference. Everyone there knew that to interfere on her behalf would incite the anger of Arun. No one had been willing to risk that anger except Zuko, and the Fire Nation prince didn't even like her. He blamed her, and rightly, her guilty conscience noted, for their capture and imprisonment.
Katara wiped away her tears with the heel of one grubby hand, heedless of the dirt she smeared across her face. The young prince didn't move when she touched his shoulder. For one brief, panicked moment she thought he was dead and that she was alone in this awful place. More tears, this time of relief, ran silently down her cheeks when she caught his shallow exhale in the next moment.
She didn't even bother wiping away these new tears. She'd never been much of a crier Before; Before being captured, Before being stripped of her bending abilities, her dignity and her freedom. She'd been fearless Before. She knew what fear was now in the After. Fear was seeing her brother and Aang go down beneath the onslaught of two dozen Fire Nation soldiers and being unable to help. Fear was the taste of defeat at being sold, along with Zuko, to the mine operation by an unnamed and masked firebender. Fear was knowing what was going to happen to her as soon as the sun dipped below the horizon and Arun came for her.
Fear had a new dimension now as she gazed at the still unconscious Zuko. Arun, as the guard leader, liked to linger over his breakfast. She had maybe an hour to get Zuko up and moving or he was dead. Even in the two weeks that they'd been in the camp, she'd already seen Arun kill three of the prisoners. He'd even killed one poor man as he'd stood in the long line of chained together prisoners. The guards had thought it funny to leave the dead body in shackles, pulled along by the others in the chain until the man's body had finally deteriorated enough for his arm to pull out from the shackle that held him as tightly in death as it had in life. She couldn't let Prince Zuko die, not like this, like a beaten down dog in the street. She had no doubts that the proud prince would rather die fighting and on his feet.
Was that why Zuko persisted in defying Arun, she wondered. Was Zuko looking to get himself killed in a blaze of glory as the only way out of this? Maybe that was why he'd come to her rescue. It made more sense that he had been using Arun's assault on her to give him a reason to attack, rather than just coming to her defense. Zuko, had after all, made no secret of his loathing for her. Then again, even a known enemy was better than no one at all. Zuko and Katara had history, even if that history was enmity and fighting. Katara sighed. Idle speculation would get her nowhere and her hour was slowly ticking away.
Reaching out a hand, she brushed her fingertips across the side of Zuko's skull. Beneath her fingers, the short stubble that had grown in where he normally shaved his head felt soft and silky. Quirking a small half-smile, Katara thought it was probably the only soft thing about the Fire nation prince. The smile faded thought as her fingers encountered the butchered remains of his ponytail, the hairs now only slightly longer that the stubble. Arun had cut the pony tail off on their first day in the prison camp. It had been the first fight between Arun and the guards and Zuko. It was also when Zuko had discovered that he could no longer summon his fire.
Katara trembled at the memory. It had also been the day she'd discovered that her waterbending skills had been stripped from her as well. The hadn't found out until days later how it had been done and by that point it was way too late for either of them. Camp rumor from the other prisoners said that once bending abilities had been stripped that they never came back.
She shook her head to dislodge the memories. She had to get Zuko get up and moving. "Zuko?" she said, careful not to mention his title unless she was overheard. "Wake up."
The prince didn't move. Sliding her hand down, she gentle shook his shoulder. "Zuko!" she hissed, a little more forcefully. They needed to get up, the line of prisoners would be moving soon. It was then that the obvious finally penetrated into Katara's muddled and tired mind. They were no longer in line, but only attached to each other. For the first time in weeks, a shadow of the old, defiant Katara surfaced. They were no longer attached to the line of other prisoners. The guards and other prisoners were eating. They were alone and the forest edge was within sight. Her new found fear rose up as well. No one escaped from this place except through death. She and Zuko were chained together, they'd never be able to travel fast enough to get away. They were both starved and weak and had no idea where in the four kingdoms they were beyond being somewhere in the Earth Kingdom. It was madness. It was suicide.
A burst of loud laughter came from the direction of the food tent, the guards, no doubt, tormenting someone else. Katara made her decision. If Zuko really did want to go out fighting, she was about to give him his fight.
Katara bent back to Zuko. "Zuko! Get up now! We're leaving."
Leaving seemed to have been the magic word, for the young man stirred. "'Tara? Wha?" Zuko's speech was still slurred and he seemed to have a hard time focusing on her.
Feeling her precious time before Arun returned slipping away from them, Katara ignored Zuko's questions. "Can you get to your feet?" she questioned.
"'es. Leavin'?"
Offering her own shoulder, Katara tried to get Zuko to his feet. It was difficult; the young man was both heavier and taller than she was, making the lifting awkward. But with Zuko's own stubborn determination and the whispered promise of leaving, she soon had the two of them on their feet, though Zuko swayed alarmingly.
It was lunacy. They'd never make it.
Pointing them both towards the edge of the camp, Katara started walking, supporting a stumbling Zuko along side of her.
Maybe dying fighting was better after all.
If you didn't figure it out yet, this is a Zuko/Katara fic.
Next up: Katara and Zuko make their escape and Arun is hot on their heels. We also learn the answers to some questions like how were Katara and Zuko captured. What happened to Aang and Sukko? How were Katara and Zuko's bending abilities stripped from them?