Part Of Me.

So it begins.

Chapter three.

Katara quickly stepped away from the Fire bender once he let her go and cursed herself for allowing herself to be held by him. These people were monsters. She would never allow herself to be that close to one again. Turning around to see Aang facing him, fear made her heart twist.

"I'm not a child! I'm sixteen!" Aang yelled at the soldier but reigned his temper in. He knew he'd need a clear head to take them on and protect these people.

Zuko scoffed at the younger man, finding this whole charade amusing. "You are a child and you're coming with me."

Hearing a small cry, Aang looked around at the terrified faces. Seeing Katara try to put herself between her village and the Fire Nation soldier's made the decision for him.

"If I go with you, will you swear to leave these people alone?" He demanded of the older boy in front of him, his grey eyes locked on to gold. He would fight for them if he had to, but someone always gets hurt.

The soldier looked around as well, at the children clinging to their mother's, the girl who faced him trying to shield them all and nodded once. He wasn't going to lower himself by attacking defenseless people.

"No! Aang don't do this!" Katara shouted and ran to him, gripping his arm with unshed tears in her eyes.

Zuko rolled his eyes at the two.
Figures.

Aang gave her a sad smile and touched her hand. He didn't want to leave but this was the only way to keep everyone safe. "It'll be okay Katara. Just take care of appa for me until I get back, okay?" He waited for her to nod before he walked towards the ship.

"Head a course to the Fire Nation! I'm going home." Zuko said to his crew. Ready to leave this ice block (and the head strong, blue eyed girl) behind him. All he needed now was a hot meal and sleep. Now that he had the Avatar, sleep should finally come easy for him....

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"Aang! Aang!" Katara could only watch from her seat on appa as Aang sank in the water and prayed to the spirit's that he'd be okay. The world couldn't lose him now. Over a hundred years of war was destroying them all and Aang was their only hope. This was why her and her brother came to rescue him in the first place.

Just when she was about to jump in after him, an unearthly blue light stopped her and her jaw dropped when Aang broke through the surface riding a swirling pillar of water, eyes and tattoos aglow.

Zuko stood on the deck of his ship in awe at the power the boy possessed and caught himself when water slammed into the side of the ship, almost causing him to lose his footing.

He turns around just in time to see the water tribe siblings land on deck and started towards them only to pause when the girl takes up a stance. His eyes widened when the water around her started moving. He had thought all the water bender's had been wiped out. Apparently he was wrong. But from her sloppy form, it was obvious she had no proper training. This would be an easy fight.

Katara breathed deeply and tried to hit the men in front of her but froze Sokka's feet instead.

"Katara!" Sokka yelled trying to break himself free of the ice.

Turning her back on the laughing men, she managed to bend the water over to them, freezing them in place with a satisfied grin on her face.

Seeing the girl struggling just to bend that small amount of water made he pause. She was so inexperienced that he actually didn't want to fight her. He was like that once and the feeling of helplessness was not one he wanted to revisit. Seeing his men thaw themselves, he knew they wouldn't hesitate to take her out and for some unexplainable reason, he didn't like that thought.

"Stand down!" He ordered his men. He couldn't understand this feeling that filled his chest and made him burn hotter but he knew he wasn't going to let them hurt her.

"But sir-" One confused guard started, only to be cut off by the Prince advancing on him.

"I said, stand down." Zuko hissed. His men were smart enough not to push him when he was this angry so they backed off.

Katara stared at him, wondering why he stopped his men from attacking her. They could easily beat her and capture her and Sokka. So why stop? When he turned around to face her, she narrowed her eyes at him, he was taller than she thought and the scar on his face almost hurt to look at, but she felt something more was hovering just under his intense gaze. Something she couldn't pinpoint.

"Katara! Come on! We have to go!" Sokka shouted, trying to pull the unconscious avatar into the bison's saddle. She broke eye contact with the scard boy and climbed up into the saddle, carefully pulling Aang into her arms as Sokka took off.
She had to stop herself from looking back.

"What should we do sir?"

Zuko turned away from the flying bison, angry with himself for letting them go, and for what? Cause he saw something in the water bender that reminded him of himself?

"Dig the ship out and follow them!"

Iroh walked up beside Zuko, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"We'll find them again my nephew, but you did the right thing by letting the girl go."

Zuko snarled and shook his hand off, storming down the stairs below deck. How could he be so stupid? This could have been his only chance at capturing the Avatar. Years he's been searching, years of training all wasted for nothing! His sister was right. He was weak. He wouldn't make that mistake again, next time he'd take out the girl himself. Slamming the door to his room shut, he kicked up one of the chairs and burned it.
The girls name rolling off his lips like a curse.

"Katara."
...........

Hey guys!! Thank you so much for reading my new story! Please feel free to let me know what you think and let me know if there's any mistakes or if you have any ideas!

A big shout-out to billie_zuko_potter for being the first one to read and vote!