Forbidden | Avatar the Last Air Bender

Chapter 9: An Old Friend

When someone you love becomes a memory - the memory becomes a treasure.

Tasha's POV

I narrowed my eyes and studied her closely. That girl, with her well kept hair that was tied into a braid, with that familiar voice of hers - it was like a distant memory of someone I knew.

Her water bending skills were good too, I must admit. One of the best I've seen from a girl so far.

But that necklace that she was wearing... It's like I have seen it somewhere before.

No way, she couldn't be her.
Don't tell me she is ...

Katara.

It must be her.

Katara's my old childhood friend. We got separated after my dad had to move to the North-west to fight the war. To cut a long story short, she was... my best friend.

I smiled slightly as I recalled the tearful memories of our childhood together.

Soon, my smile faded away as I saw Zuko in the midst of a battle with Katara and the Avatar.

The sudden realisation struck me that I was indirectly her enemy as a person who was serving the fire nation.

And I couldn't forgive myself even more. After what I did 10 years back, Katara never wrote back to the letters I've been sending her from the North. She seemed to blame me for leaving her all alone - as the last water bender of the South - after I left with my family.

My eyes wavered as I saw Katara trap Zuko in ice, and the battle soon came to an abrupt end.

"What do you want?" The Avatar asked coldly, pointing his glide weapon accusingly at Zuko. "Why do you keep wanting to capture me?!"

"I want you." Zuko hissed, trying to melt his way through the ice.

I know I shouldn't have, but I did an action that I've truly regretted at that moment.

I walked forward right into the middle of this fight. I wanted it to end. I didn't want any of this to happen, no enemies, no fighting, nothing.

"Who are you?" The Avatar narrowed his eyes to me in his fighting stance.

I ignored him and stared at Zuko. He gave me a stare, a stare that was telling me to do something he desperately needed to do.

But I am not obeying him. Not this once, when I have a score to settle with an old friend.

Katara's POV

That girl who just appeared out of nowhere... she seemed very familiar. I stared into her eyes, and it was unmistakable. Those eyes of hers shows that she wasn't part of the fire nation.

But... she is, after all, wearing Fire Nation armor and weapons. Why does she seem so fearless of the situation that she's in right now?

... Why do I feel that I have seen her before?

Tasha's POV

"Hey, you-" Katara suddenly spoke. "What do you want?"

A shiver ran down my spine with her sudden interruption, after hearing her voice for the first time in years.

Trying hard to ignore her, I looked up to Zuko.

"Prince Zuko." I narrowed my eyes, my eyes piercing daggers at him. "Stop what you're doing, right now!"

"Prince Zuko? The Prince of the Fire Nation?!" The Avatar and Katara chorused together in shock.

"I will not stop unless I get the Avatar!" He shouted, struggling in the ice. "Would you just get me out of this?!"