It's too late.
Sitting in the meditating room, the flames flickering and dieing with my breath. I close my eyes, and the candles die in unison.
I close my eyes. And I see water.
I open my eyes and the candles flicker with life.
I open my eyes. And I see fire.
It feels as if the flames are burning me all over again. The scar is hurting anew, but with a foreign pain. I rest my eyelids again, the flames responding, dimming the room to black, and I see the water girl…
There are two guards, posted at the entrance to her cell. My footsteps echo of the walls as I make my way to it, noticing the slight movement in its confines. I stand before the bars and I'm slightly surprised to see the prisoner is already standing before me opposite the metal bars. The flame torches light her face in a strange manner. Making her skin glow a shade of bronze or brown I never thought a humans face could be. Her hair is not woven in the usual braid; instead it's loose around her dirty face. And her clothes are also streaked in dirt, torn and I suspect there is even a stain of dried blood at her shoulder. She doesn't look very happy.
"What do you want Zuko?"
I smirk. She knows exactly what I want.
"Guess." I say, folding my arms. Her blue eyes gleam in anger.
"Forget it. You already know I won't tell you." She glares at me with such force…if looks could kill. I decide to try a new approach, but I already secretly know it won't work. Her loyalty to the avatar, her friends, wont let it.
"What if I tell the guards to stop bringing you food? How long can a peasant last with out any food or water I wonder?" she blinks. Her eyes return to my face with a different flare.
"You and Azula can kill me for all I care. I wont ever betray the ones I love."
I flinch inwardly. And her razor like eyes don't miss the effect her words have on me. I suddenly can't look at the filthy peasant, focusing my eyes on something else.
I betrayed uncle.
No. He betrayed you.
"Zuko?" I hear my name whispered as gentle as the wind. I look up at the owner of the voice. Her eyes are so soft, her shoulders no longer stiff in anger.
"Its not to late Zuko. You can still change. You can still make the right choice."
She wraps her fingers around a bar, leaning towards me.
Silence.
"Please Zuko. I know you're not a bad person. I know you don't want to hurt anyone. I saw that in the caves. You can help us finish this war. Put an end to all the pain, the suffering."
She sounds like she's begging.
"No." I say, hardly recognising my own voice.
I open my eyes. The walls are covered in stretched shadows, swaying between the darkness and light of the dancing flames. The side of my face where feeling still exists is warm with the heat radiating from the candles. I sigh deeply.
Every time I close my eyes, she's there. Haunting me. Haunting me with all the mistakes I made, all the things I did and can't take back.
If only I'd thought it through, if only I'd never went back…
I am the blue spirit.
And I drift in and out of the shadows like a ghost in the night. Crossing the corridor, I hear the increasing sound of heavy footsteps coming in my direction. Without hesitation I slip out of sight behind the frame of a doorway. The guards that had been posted at the water girl's cell pass me by. I wait with easy patience for their footsteps to disappear.
Azula thinks I am asleep in my chambers, and when I snuck out of my room, my purpose seemed to be confirmed when I saw a guard stood by my own door. She doesn't trust me, so how can I trust her?
Just one guard? She underestimates me too…
When I reach the cell the water girl is imprisoned in, I can hear her steady breaths. She's fast asleep. Slowly I turn the key I stole from the guards after our last meeting in the cell door. She still doesn't stir. The cell door creaks lazily as I pull it open and slip in to the room. Finally the water girl turns to one side and faces me. Her eyes are not groggy with sleep, it looks as if she was wake the entire time. Her expression is not of surprise, more of anticipation.
"Zuko? Is that you?" how she guessed it was me, I have no idea. But before the girl speaks again I cover her mouth whispering in to her ear,
"Follow me and don't make a sound" she nods. I suddenly remember a certain incident some time ago, involving a tree, some pirates and a blue necklace…
The escape was just as easy as breaking into the water girl's cell. Beyond the upper ring of Ba Sing Se, both of us have our backs against the wall of an alley building with our chests rising and falling as if we'd just endured a life threatening battle. I scan the alley one last time then turn to the water girl.
"Find the avatar and your friends before sunrise. By then Azula will know you're gone and start searching for you." I say hurriedly to her without attempting to hide my identity- since she already knows. Even as I warn her of Azula she doesn't make a move to go. Instead, she looks at me with an unreadable expression, biting her bottom lip.
"Are you listening? I said go!" what was she doing? Azula could be here at any moment!
She catches the sleeve of my arm just as I decide I should leave first. I turn to face her, annoyed now.
"Come with me Zuko." She says in a pleading voice. I am caught completely of guard.
"I can't." I reply.
"Please." she was begging again.
"I can't go with you. If I come, then I won't be able to slow Azula down and stop her from catching you." Her mouth falls open. I can tell she's lost for words. She looks quiet amusing. For once I'd made her lost for words. Realising herself, she closes her mouth and shakes her head. She looks up and it's as if her eyes are glowing blue with an emotion I've seen before;
Undying loyalty to the avatar and her friends, her belief in them, her belief in the cause she fights for…her belief in me?
"Go" I say forcefully, pushing her with my free arm.
"Wait" she says instead. Then to my astonishment, she tugs on my sleeve a fraction harder, removes the useless mask, and kisses my forehead lightly. I can't speak.
This girl was crazy.
She smiles with all her teeth.
"Thank you." Then turns and sprints away into the darkness of the alley without looking back. And I'm left standing there, mouth agape, thinking that she must be the weirdest or craziest girl in the world.
Probably both.
For the first time in a long time I slept all through the night in the earth kings palace. I dreamt repeatedly of the escape and the previous days events. The things the water girl said and did; the conversation at her cell, the escape, and her asking for me to come with her. The memories flitted across my mind like a stream of water, washing my thoughts clear and pure.
Thud! Thud!
I sit up, abruptly in my bed; the bed sheets a twisted mess, and my hair is just as bad.
"Who is it?" I yell annoyance filling my voice. A guard replied through the wood of the door.
"Sir, Princess Azula wishes to see you straight away. She says she has a special surprise to present you with."
My head reels. Azula knows just how to surprise all right.
I call back to the guard that I'll be there as soon as possible and he leaves to deliver the message to my sister.
Again I think of the water bender, hoping that it has nothing to do with her.
When I stepped outside onto earth and grass where I practised my bending, I noticed Mai and Tylee immediately. I say nothing to them deciding that I should wait for Azula before I do anything rash. Moments later Azula arrives, clad in earth kingdom colours and a trail of Dai lee agents in her tread."Zuko! Good morning!" she says with a sweet voice.
" The guards told me you wanted…" but she cuts me off, and its here I notice the scratch on her pale cheek.
"Yes I did. There's something I wanted to show you." The sweet tone in her voice dissolves to a tinge of cold. Her golden eyes, which are so like mine, glare at me as if they see straight through me. I don't react, holding a well practiced expression that is free of all readable emotion. Then she turns her head slightly to one side signalling something to the Dai Lee that accompanied her. Like a green curtain at some play they split side ways without barely a sound. I look down at the surprise Azula has intended to show me. When I see the blue lump on the floor my heart lurches into my stomach. One of the Dai Lee approaches the lump, pulling it over so I can see.
I don't want to see. But I can't stop my self from looking.
The body turns over and I see the water girls face; mouth open, face streaked in blood, and her blue eyes closed. Never to open again.
" I caught her running towards the outer wall. She put up quiet a fight. Somehow, she managed to escape her cell and get away. Do you know how she might have managed that, all by herself?"
"No." I say softly.
"Oh well, I guess it doesn't matter anymore now that she's dead…"
I can hardly hear what she's saying. I can't seem to be able to take my eyes of her face. It's like I'm waiting for her to sit up and get to her feet. Open her eyes and yell at me to come with her this time whilst she battles the Dai Lee, trying to escape again.
But of course she doesn't. She carries on lying there in the earth, covered in blood and dirt. Her hair is wilder than I last saw it, sprawled behind her limp body and fluttering slightly in the calm breeze. Her eyes are clamped shut, and I'll never get to see the multitude of blue shades it can change in just one moment.
I stare at one single candle and its flame, and can feel it burning my eyes. I can see her lifeless body in its blaze. Burning her, like I was once burned once before but everywhere. I breathe deeply to settle my own boiling blood, calling out for justice. Then I close my eyes. I see water once more. But this time its real and it trickles down my scared and unscarred cheeks. I recall her pleading voice begging me to come with her…
"It's not to late Zuko…"
With eyes as soft as blue silk...
"Please Zuko..."
And when she looked at me with them with the most purest, hopeful expression…
"I believe in you…"
I will not let her death be in vain. I will bring her justice and all those that have suffered like she has because of this war. I will end it. For peace, for justice, for her, and her belief in me…
Wow…this is kinda different to what I had in mind. I can't believe I killed Katara! Gasp!I think I made Azula far to evil for my liking…cuz I really like her, she's just so cool and bad ass!
And when is the new series coming on?!!!!?!!! I can't bare the waiting and the waiting and the waiting…
Sorry for all the spelling mistakes I'm sure you'll be able to find! I know how incredibly annoying they can be. You see, I'm useless at spelling and I type without checking what I've wrote too much- and hence all the mistakes!
Forgive me. I'll give you chocolate.
Don't forget to review! If you do…more chocolate for you!
And oh my gosh! I can see the sun! It's not raining! For once! stupid British summer…grr…