I Want To Live
Disclaimer: I claim ownership over nothing but my own plot idea
Chapter 1
He sat with his back against the cool wall of the cave, his eyes constantly darting to the opening, ready to move at any sign of danger.
He sighed.
Another night of sleeping in a cave, another night on the run, another night of sleeping in shifts.
He looked down at the girl sleeping next to him, her eyes scrunched up, her fingers twitching.
She was dreaming again, he knew what the dream was about, it was the same one they all had. He brushed some hair away from her face, and the touch of his fingers against her skin seemed to calm her a bit.
His eyes then turned to the boy who slept on her other side, arms wrapped protectively around her small frame.
The two of them had made a pact, they would stay together to protect her, they couldn't afford to lose anyone else, especially not her.
Feeling her twitches, the sleeping boy woke up, looked down at the girl, and sighed.
"She's dreaming again," he said with a sad tone in his voice.
"Did you have the same dream?" The other boy asked.
"Yeah… Here, I'll stay up now, you get some rest too, and it's almost morning anyways, so you better get in a few hours of sleep."
A nod of agreement, and then the two boys switched places. He took his spot alongside the sleeping girl, propped his head up on one arm, and wrapped the other one around her middle.
"Hey, but before you go to sleep, do you think you could just um," the boy looked down at the dwindling fire.
"Oh, right, sure." He made a small fireball in his hand, and lobbed it over to the fire, increasing the size of the flame, before drifting off into what he knew would not be good sleep.
"Zuko! Where are you? We need to get out of here; the roof is ready to cave in!"
Sokka ran over towards where Zuko was shooting fireballs at oncoming firebenders, knocking them over into each other, his obsidian-black sword was stained dark red with blood, obviously from his attackers, who were probably now missing quite a few limbs.
"Where's Katara?" Zuko asked, expecting to have seen her behind her brother.
"I don't know, we need to find her, and we need to get out of here, we need to retreat, we stand no chance!"
They heard a scream. Katara's scream. A quick glance at each other, and they sprinted in the direction it came from.
And then they saw what they never wanted to see ever. Katara huddled on the ground, surrounded by a ring of firebenders ready to blast her, and the worst of all, Aang being held up in the air by his arms, the rest of his body limp, with a hole straight through where his heart was supposed to be. And through the hole they saw her.
Azula.
She held her fingers in the lightning position, and a vicious smirk on her face, and they knew that she had been the one to kill the avatar. And there was no spirit water to save him this time.
Zuko was ready to charge, his entire body seething with rage, but Sokka grabbed his arm.
"It's too late," he said, his voice darkened with sorrow. "We just need to get Katara and get the hell out of here, there will be time for revenge later."
Zuko understood, and with all of his energy, blasted fire into the backs of the firebenders circling Katara.
Sokka ran forward, his sword slicing through the rest of them, scooped his sister up into his arms, and ran back toward Zuko.
"Let's go."
As they ran out Zuko turned around to see a piece of the ceiling collapse on top of Aang's mangled body. He heard a sickening crunch.
Zuko woke up from his sleep to sunlight streaming through the cave onto his face. He stood up and walked to the opening and vomited. This was slowly becoming a ritual, because that was his body's first reaction every time his mind replayed that final scene and he heard Aang's body crunch against the floor of the fire palace.
He walked back into the cave and wiped his mouth on his sleeve. Katara looked up at him with sad eyes and silently offered him a cup of tea. He accepted and drank it. Katara's tea every morning always calmed him down a little bit, brought him back to earth and out of his dreams.
Sokka sat trying to clean his sword, but they all knew that some of those bloodstains would never come off. They were there like a scar, a reminder of the most horrible day of their lives.
They had lost the war, so many of their friends had died, Toph had been captured and put in jail, and they hadn't heard from her, they had no idea if she was even still alive. And Aang, well, they knew what the outcome of that was.
Zuko looked over at the tally marks they made on the cave each morning as a counter of how long they'd been here.
Six days. The longest they ever stayed in one place since the battle three weeks ago. They were constantly on the move; Azula had the entire fire nation out looking for them.
Sokka turned his attention away from his sword, which he knew would never be clean again and to his maps. They were covered in erratic red etchings, their path of travel since leaving the fire nation capitol.
"So we're pretty far north in the fire nation right now, maybe we can return to the north pole," he suggested. "The quicker we get out of fire nation territory the better."
His eyes met Zuko's, expecting him to just agree as he usually did. Except for this time.
"I think we should go back and rescue Toph."
Sokka stared at him, his face completely blank, blinking his eyes.
"Um, what did you just say? Did you just actually suggest we go back into the fire nation capital? Because last time I checked, that is a REALLY bad idea."
"I know, but we can't leave anyone behind, especially not family. We've lost too many already."
Toph had become Zuko's resident little sister since he had joined the group, filling the void that Azula could never fill, poking fun at his stupidity, but supporting all of his ideas. She could always be found either following him like a shadow, or riding on his shoulders parading around like a princess.
Since they had lost her to the fire nation Zuko had felt quite a bit more alone. Even though he knew quite well she could take care of herself, he still couldn't help but feel like he had a duty to protect her. She was after all, the first of the group to accept him in, after the Day of Black Sun.
She would often joke that after they defeated Ozai and Zuko claimed the throne, she would take up permanent residence in the fire nation palace, since she had no plans to return to her own family any time soon.
Zuko knew he had to go get her. He had to know his little "sister" was ok, and he wanted to bring her home to their family.
Zuko was brought back from his thoughts by fingers snapping in his face.
"Did you even hear a word I just said, Hotman? This is a suicide mission, and we can't afford to lose any of us in there!" Sokka was rambling, trying to prove his point, and trying to convince Zuko to change his mind.
The two were equally stubborn, so it was going to be a long argument.
These arguments had become very common between the two boys, usually along similar discussion lines. Zuko would have an idea, Sokka would think it was crazy, and they'd go back and forth for a good deal of time, until Katara would usually step in and break up the argument, simply by saying "enough."
But of course this time it was different. From her place against the wall, Katara sat with her knees hugged to her chest, and her arms wrapped around her legs. She let her head drop into her lap and her curls spilled over to cover her face.
In a low voice, without even looking up, she interjected,
"I think we should go back and save Toph."
The two boys looked to Katara, and then to each other, and nodded.
With everything she had been through, the boys had a mutual unspoken agreement that whatever Katara says goes.
"Alright then, it's settled. While I don't agree with it, we'll go back and save Toph. We'll leave tonight, how about that?" Sokka replied, and then turned to his collection of maps to flip to the one that he and Zuko had created together of the inner workings of the palace.
Zuko joined Sokka to look over the map together and devise a plan, and couldn't help but notice a small smile resting on Katara's face.
He sighed and hoped that maybe soon everything would be back to almost normal.
A/n: This is my first story in I don't know how long. It's weird to be actually writing, and actually have a plot kind of in my head.
I know the relationships seem a bit weird right now, but in case you were wondering, this is being written post Sozin's Comet, and obviously things did not go well for the gaang. Everyone seems to be getting along all too easily you say?
I'll delve into that in the next chapter, expect a bit more back story there.
Originally I was going to leave Toph out entirely, and just make the story about the three of them, but maybe they'll save her.
Haven't officially decided yet. What would you like to see?
Title is tentative, by the way. Contest for better title suggestions. Winner gets, I don't know, something.
Review please!