Burning Love

Book One: Heart, Chapter One

By JadenXJesse lover

A/N This story starts at the Battle of Ba Sing Se, when Aang and his friends are trying to recapture it from the Fire Nation.

It was a cool, silent night; the moon was a couple of days from full and the sky was dotted with stars. The still air lay undisturbed until a sudden gush of air followed the group of shadowed figures. Then the silence broke as the first strike began.

Earth benders, lead by Toph and Bumi, struck the ground and sent a pulse of rock at the foot of the-strongest-wall-in-the-Earth-Nation and easily crushed the foundations. Then Iroh and Zuko shot a rolling tsunami of flames at the vast army of guards. Their flames were bettered tenfold by Sozin's Comet; they burnt much fiercer and had melted some of the enemy tanks. While the swamp benders attacked with their giant moss giants, crushing the enemies.

Under the distraction o the attack, Aang and Katara silently built a tunnel under the enemies, using earth bending to make the crude shape and ice bending to freeze the shape. 'Sokka! The tunnel's ready!' Aang beckoned at him.

Sokka, Toph and Zuko then followed the two down the tunnel. 'Are you sure this leads to behind the guards and tanks?' Sokka nervously asked. 'Don't worry! I can feel the tunnel ending up way behind the guards! We'll easily ambush them!'

Meanwhile, the Order of the White Lotus advanced forward and left the tunnel entrance exposed. This was a rookie mistake as Dai Li agents had scaled the ruins of the wall and found the hole. They easily knew the hole was not natural, because of the crude shape and the ice around the walls.

'Guys! We've got Dai Li agents on our…' Toph was interrupted by violent earth trembling and slabs of earth being thrown at them. Since they were air born, Toph couldn't dodge them and was momentarily unconscious, from the blow. Zuko was the quickest and could easily defend himself whilst throwing fire balls left, right and centre.

'Katara! Look out!' Both he and Aang ran in front of her and defended her. The young air bender raised a rock shield and the ex-Fire Nation prince obliterated the massive oulders with his fire whip. 'Thanks, Zuko!' Katara shouted as she left her boyfriend's protection to shower the assassins with icicles and freeze them in place.

Toph began to stir and earth bend, but due to grogginess her shot was not as powerful and therefore her shot only broke the Dai Lis' frozen prison. 'Toph! What the fuck?' Zuko furiously shouted.

'Well I'm sorry, Your Majesty! I can't help getting hit once in a while or be alert while half-unconscious!' She complained,

Then suddenly two Dai Li agents swooped in and kidnapped Aang and Katara. 'KATARA!' Zuko shouted and soon added as he remembered 'Ummmm, AANG!'

But it was too late they were already out of the tunnel and heading towards the boiling rock. A/N The boiling rock is the high-security prison in the Fire Nation.

…

'Hurry up, Zuko! There are some guards coming!' Sokka whispered

Zuko continued to sort through the files, looking for Katara and Aang's file and cell number. 'Found it' He whispered loudly and ran out with Sokka, barely unseen by the guards.

At the top floor, by a bridge, they split off; Sokka went to look for Aang and Zuko went for Katara. Soon Zuko found her cell and knocked on the door, 'Inspection!' he ordered with his best guard voice. He then carefully opened the cell door, only to be greeted by Katara bending his blood, and therefore him, into a painful position. 'STOP THAT!' he yelled with his usual anger. She did as she was told, hardly caring as to what would happen. Somehow a few days in prison has hardened her and made her bitter.

'There's no use, you'll just call back up and beat me up again…' she said half-heartedly, 'You know, all the other prisoners are scared of me; they've seen me controlling the lousy excuses of life, like a puppet master. They all call me the Bloody Puppet Witch! At first it was just one lousy jerk! But then I got addicted to it and… why am I telling you all this?' she shouted,

'Well, I've just got that… familiar look…' Zuko proudly said as he lifted his helmet,

'ZUKO!' she hugged him so tight his face went red, it was most likely blush, but he did not want to show it.

'There's no need to worry! Me and Sokka have a plan ready, he's gone to get Aang and we just need to rendezvous. And well…'

'Zuko! Please stop, before any of that, there's… there's something I need to tell you. Everyone thinks and expects me and Aang to be the perfect couple. And even though he's a great kid and he's the Avatar… well…' she took a deep breath 'There's someone else… someone I've known for years… but I've only known him for several weeks. That someone is… he's… YOU! Even at the very start, when you attacked my village, under all my hate and anger for you… I still… still love you…'

What came next surprised them both, both Katara and Zuko leaned in and shared a kiss on the lips…

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