A:N: I do not own Avatar. I do however own Katya.

Chapter 6- Battle on Zhao Shi Island

Katya sat in front of the fire, twiddling her fingers in boredom, the flame flickering as she did so. Everyone had already fallen asleep, leaving her as the last one awake, and she was bored out of her mind. She had tried to go to sleep earlier, but had ended up lying there for over half an hour and had been unable to fall asleep. She was not tired at all, and it aggravated her. With a grunt, she stood up and left the campsite entering the forest.

They had been at the island for several hours, having stopped and made camp as well as gathering some food from fruit trees on the island. Iroh had also mentioned something about tea leaves, and now they were there with a camp for the night. Katya strode onto the edge of the island, and gazed out at the sea, a sigh escaping her dried lips. An object on the edge of her peripheral vision, and her brow wrinkled as she turned her attention to it, trying to determine what it was, when she spotted a circular brown disk hurtling towards her, and she bent backwards to avoid the disk as it slammed into the cliffside behind her.

Her eyes widened as three figures clad in green armour landed on the beach several metres away from her, and she instantly entered an Earthbender stance, surprising the Earth Kingdom soldiers.

"What's an Earthbender doing here? We tracked a Fire Nation ship to this island." one of the soldiers spoke up, confused.

"You fool, she's with the Fire Nation! Look at her clothes!" the central soldier growled, flinging a disk of earth at Katya.

"Capture the traitor!" the other soldier roared, flinging a chunk of rock at Katya.

Katya snorted as she kicked the disk, causing it to shatter. She flung her right arm out in a punching motion, sending a stream of fire to destroy the rock. "Sorry to disappoint, Green, but I'm a Firebender."

Katya slammed her foot on the ground, unleashing what had essentially become her signature move, a spiral of flames swirling along the ground, before shooting up towards the nearest Earthbender. He raised his hand, causing a wall of earth to rise up, blocking the flames, before he kicked the top of the wall at Katya, who launched a fireball in retaliation, the fireball colliding with the earth chunk, and causing it to explode, a cloud of dust filling the gap between Katya and the Earthbenders.

Before Katya could react, two of the Earthbenders launched themselves through the dust cloud, and fired chunks of earth at her, before both of them landed on the ground, causing a large shockwave to surge towards Katya, causing the ground splintered as the shockwave progressed. Katya jumped into the air, dodging the shockwave as two slabs of earth erupted out of the earth where she had been moments ago, and she landed in a crouched position in front of the two slabs as the chunks of earth hit the slabs.

Katya fired a series of fireballs at the two Earthbenders, the fireballs colliding with their chests, sending them skidding backwards, their feet picking up dust as they dragged along the ground. Katya readied herself for an attack when she was suddenly sent flying, and she collided with the cliffside as her vision began to darken and she gasped for air, struggling against the piece of earth now encased around her throat, pinning her to the cliffside, and strangling her as gravity tried to take effect on her body.

She struggled in vain to escape the earth, her eyes widening as she saw an Earth Kingdom ship land on the beach, allowing a dozen or more Earthbenders to leap onto the beach, the leader catching her attention immediately as he was clad in elegant green armour. He strode calmly across the beach upon sighting her.

"Release her. She will lead us to Prince Zuko's camp." the man smirked.

The ring of earth collapsed, causing Katya to fall to the floor in a heap, gasping for breath. Without even thinking, she shot her fist into the air, unleashing a surge of flames into the air, which could be seen from all around the island. The surge of flames suddenly exploded, the noise echoing through the air, and the leader of the Earthbenders turned to look at Katya in anger, slamming his foot to the ground, sending her crashing into the cliffside, before a barrage of earth disks collided with her chest.

One of the disks hit her in the face, and vision from the left side of her face disappeared as she let out a howl of pain, unable to break free from the barrage. Her gaze turned to the treeline as familiar figures burst out, unleashing a flurry of flames at the Earthbenders, a rotund figure rushing to Katya's side.

"Katya, are you alright?" Iroh asked, concern on his face as he spotted the wound to her face.

Katya wobbled onto her feet, stumbling for a moment for regaining her composure and patted herself down, ignoring the pain in her body as anger and adrenaline surged through her.

"I'm not going to let a little beating from some chunks of rock keep me down." Katya grunted, and shot her fist forward, a fireball surging out of her outstretched arm, but she quickly winced in pain, and felt hands grip her shoulders to prevent her from falling.

"You're in no shape to fight." Iroh stated, his grip tightening ever so slightly as she tried to struggle out of his grasp.

"Iroh, I can handle myself, I'll be fine." Katya snarled, anger gaining the better of her and she broke free from Iroh's grasp, running forward into the midst of the battle despite the pain cascading over her.

A ball of earth hurtled through the air towards her, and she slid along the ground, avoiding the ball of earth as it crashed into a Fire Nation soldier behind her, and she scrambled back onto her feet as an Earth Kingdom soldier was upon her, firing chunks of earth at her. Katya brought up a wall of fire, which disintegrated the earth chunks, before lunging at the soldier, her leg kicking out, surrounded by flames. Her leg collided with the soldier's chest, sending him flying through the air and he landed with a thud on the ground, and Katya was already gone, searching for her target.

She spotted him moments later, fighting toe to toe with Zuko, and she stopped for several seconds, in awe as Zuko seemed to effortlessly block the attacks coming at him from the leader of the Earth Kingdom troops. Upon remembering the barrage of attacks launched at her by the man, she let out a snarl of anger and leapt at him, landing on the man's back, causing him to stumble and lose his balance as he struggled to throw her off, distracting him from his fight with Zuko.

Her legs were wrapped tightly around his chest, squeezing tightly towards her own body, in an attempt to wind the man and cut off his airflow as her arms tightened around his throat. Several moments later, she was in the air, and new pain had entered her body as a slab of rock had slammed into her back. She landed next to Zuko, her hand placed on the ground to steady herself as she remained there for a moment, in a kneeling position. She let out a grunt, and stood up, glaring at the soldier as flames swirled around her arms, growing in intensity as her anger took her over.

Gone was the pain she felt, instead all she felt was anger. It made her feel powerful, she had never felt this strong before. "It's time I paid you back for that beating."

"You think you can match me girl? You're a mess, you don't stand a hope in defeating me!" the man laughed. "I shall return to the Earth Kingdom a hero! The great General Zhang, the man who captured the Prince of the Fire Nation, and the Dragon of the West!"

Katya snorted, a smirk on her face, when she felt a hand on her shoulder, and she span round to look at Zuko, her features contorted in rage. "Katya, let me handle this."

Katya shrugged Zuko away, before charging forward, unleashing a series of fireballs at Zhang, who deflected them away with ease. "Is that the best you've got, girl?"

Katya fired several more fireballs, before leaping into the air, and lunged towards the ground, her fist slamming into the ground as flames surged around her, appearing to engulf her in some sort of aura, before the flames exploded away from her, flying towards Zhang, who brought up a shield of earth to deflect the flames. Katya snarled, and leapt at the shield, crashing through it, her fist connecting with Zhang's nose, sending him to the floor as she landed in front of him.

Before she could deliver any more blows, she fell onto her knees as the pain became too much for her as the surge of adrenaline left her. Before Zuko could react, Zhang was on his feet, and slammed his foot into Katya's chin, flinging her across the ground as she came to a halt in a mess between him and Zuko, before creating two spears of rock and sent them flying towards Katya.

Zuko shot forward, destroying the one earth spear with a kick, before grabbing the second earth spear and melting it in his hand, the two ends dropping to the floor. Zuko launched a series of fireballs and arcs of fire at Zhang, who moved backwards as he blocked the fireballs and arcs of fire, before launching a sphere of rock at Zuko who narrowly dodged the sphere, sweeping his leg underneath Zhang, causing him to land on the ground with a thud. He took his gaze off of Zhang for a moment to glance back at Katya's injured form when he heard footsteps to his left, and his head shot round to see Iroh rushing over, the rest of the Earth Kingdom soldiers having been defeated, leaving Zhang as the last one left.

Zhang sat up, and it was then that Zuko was able to notice that Zhang's face was stained with dried blood, his nose also bent out of shape, and a smirk stretched his face as he realized that Katya had broken Zhang's nose. Zhang made to attack, but Zuko punched him in the face, rendering the General unconscious, before making his way over to Katya, Iroh at his side. Iroh shifted Katya into a seated position, and remained behind her, holding her up.

Katya laughed for a moment, before a coughing fit took over, and it was several moments before she recovered. "Looks like I need more training. I got beat pretty badly."

Whilst Iroh had a look of concern on his face, Zuko's was a mixture of rage and confusion. "How exactly were they able to overpower you? You've beaten me in a fight, and you've beaten nearly my entire crew in spars, and don't forget the time you beat nearly a dozen Firebenders all by yourself when we first met."

Katya shrugged, and immediately regretted it as she winced. "I got distracted and lost sight of the third Earthbender. He managed to trap me against the cliffside, restricting my breathing with some sort of ring of earth around my throat. I was on the edge of falling into unconsciousness when I launched the signal into the air."

Iroh looked at Zuko, whose features were still filled with rage. "You're an idiot! You went after him after taking that beating and got hurt even more!"

"Calm down Ponytail, I'm still alive aren't I?" Katya smirked, and Zuko scowled at her.

"You are a nuisance! Uncle, take her back to the ship! I'm sick of the mere sight of her!" Zuko demanded, storming off as Katya stared after Zuko, a look of sadness on her face.

"He didn't mean that, he's just upset." Iroh broke the sudden silence causing her to turn her head to look at him. "He cares about you."

"Ponytail cares about something besides capturing the Avatar? Don't make me laugh." Katya chuckled, gritting her teeth in pain as Iroh assisted her in standing, and the two made their way towards the ship.

"When you've recovered, you're going to need to learn to be lighter on your feet, more agile. You were like a sitting dick almost all the time." Iroh sighed. "But we'll get to that later, let's get you some tea."

The two fell into silence as they arrived back at Katya's room, and Iroh helped her in sitting down on her bed, and he left the room, returning several minutes later with a pot of tea and two cups, handing one to Katya who happily accepted, and then poured the two of them tea. He placed the pot on the nearby table, and sat in the chair next to the table, which was now facing Katya's bed.

Katya took a sip of her tea, glancing at Iroh as silence filled the room, before looking back down at her lap. "Sorry."

"What for, Katya?" Iroh inquired.

Katya pursed her lips as she paused for a moment. "For rushing into the battle when I was already wounded, and should have stayed out of it."

Iroh merely smiled in response, as there was a knock at the door, and a soldier opened the door, carrying a bowl of water and a cloth, and handed them both to Iroh before leaving. Katya looked at the bowl of water and cloth for a moment, her brow creased in confusion, Iroh looking up at her as he soaked the cloth in the water.

"I'm going to need to clean your face, you've got a cut along your left cheek from the bottom of your eye down to the jaw." Iroh stated, and dabbed the cloth onto the wound, Katya hissing in pain as the damp cloth came into contact with her open wound.

Several minutes passed as the two sat there in silence, Iroh concentrating on cleansing the wound so it wouldn't get infected. Once he was done, he pulled an object out of his sleeves, and Katya looked at it, recognizing the object as a roll of bandages.

"Do you just carry around random objects?" Katya asked, smiling, though winced in pain at having smiled.

Iroh shrugged in response. "I'm going to have to cover up your left eye with the bandages so the wound can be covered."

"Oh yay, I'll be like a second version of Ponytail." Katya frowned, and then noticed Iroh's expression change to one of sadness. "Sorry."

Iroh merely nodded as he wrapped some bandages around the left side of Katya's face, and it took him a few seconds to finish wrapping the bandages, and tore the roll, tying the loose end at the back of Katya's head left over from tearing the roll away.

"How long will I be like this?" Katya asked.

"Atleast a week. The cut on your face is quite bad, though I think you'll be able to take the bandages off after three days or so." Iroh responded truthfully.

Katya hesitated for a moment. "Will it scar?"

"I don't know." Iroh answered, frowning.

Katya sighed, and Iroh continued, seemingly with slight embarrassment. "You may have cuts on your chest."

Katya's eyes widened at Iroh, who stood up and offered the bowl and cloth to Katya. "I can tell you're uncomfortable. I'll leave you now."

"No." Katya said suddenly, surprising both Iroh and herself. "I have no idea how to clean any wounds, I might end up doing something wrong."

Iroh stood still for several moments, nodding his head, and sat back down, dipping the cloth in the bowl as Katya lifted her shirt up, revealing a bruised stomach, with several cuts over it. Iroh grimaced at the sight as he dabbed the cloth on the wound at the top of her stomach. Several minutes later, and Iroh had finished cleaning the wounds and had also wrapped bandages around her stomach, doing the same as he had done before with the bandages on her head.

"When will I be able to start training again?" Katya asked, and Iroh looked at her.

"To my knowledge, your wounds on your stomach are not that serious." Iroh muttered. "I believe it'll take between two and five days for your wounds to heal."

"I'd like to start training again as soon as possible." Katya revealed.

Iroh frowned and didn't speak for a couple of seconds, tugging at his beard, before releasing a sigh. "We will commence training after we've been to the prison rig."

Katya smiled, nodding her head, before yawning, causing Iroh to laugh. "Katya, you could use some sleep, I'll see you tomorrow."

Katya lay down on her bed as Iroh stood up and began to leave, and she raised her head to look at Iroh as he opened the door. "Iroh." The portly man turned to look at her. "Call me Kat."

Iroh simply smiled, and left the room, closing the door behind him, and leaving Katya to her own thoughts. She was deep in thought over a potential technique that she wanted to try out as soon as possible, and the usefulness of the technique.

Over the next few days, Katya was visited by Iroh every day, and they talked about various things to pass the time. It was on the fourth day that Iroh visited that was the most interesting.

"We've docked at the prison rig." Iroh said, smiling.

Katya made to stand up, but Iroh shook his head at her, and so she remained seated. "We'll be leaving in a few minutes. The rig was abandoned."

"Abandoned? Why would it be abandoned?" Katya asked.

"It seems that the prisoners rioted and broke free." Iroh explained, a frown on his face.

"So, where will we be going next?" Katya inquired, tilting her head in curiosity.

"We're going to a nearby village to get some supplies." Iroh answered, though he shifted his gaze away for a moment, arousing suspicisions from Katya.

"Iroh, I feel like there's more to this trip than gathering mere supplies." Katya narrowed her eyes at Iroh.

Iroh released a sigh, before a grin was plastered on his face, but he suddenly scanned around him, leaning in to her and answered in a hushed voice. "Between you and me, there's this wonderful natural hot spring that is so comfortable and relaxes your muscles!"

Katya felt a smile tugging at her lips. She had always wanted to go to a hot spring, and now there was a chance on a silver platter for her, albeit with Iroh. She shook her head quickly so no images of a nude Iroh came to her mind.

"All essentials shall remain below the water Iroh, alright?" Katya insisted, a serious look on her face, and Iroh chuckled, a grin on his face.

Katya blushed slightly, as a thought entered her head over a certain someone in the nude, and hid her blush by turning her head from Iroh, who didn't seem to notice. "Zuko won't be joining us will he?"

"My nephew could do with relaxing, but I'm afraid he is focused on his task at hand." Iroh sighed, a look of sadness on his face.

Katya frowned for a moment, before a smile spread across her features. "We'll be sure to tell him how much fun we had at the hot springs, and he'll want to join us next time."

Iroh smiled back at her in response, before he took a glance out of the small window at the top of the wall on his right, and his smile dropped. "I will have to go and train Zuko. I will come by again later, get some rest Kat. We'll be at the dock in tomorrow afternoon. Gives you enough time to get some training in tomorrow evening." With that he winked, and left the room, leaving Katya to her own devices.

Katya dropped down onto her bed, staring up at the ceiling as she daydreamed. Time flew by and before she knew it she had fallen asleep, lost to her dreams.