Thankyouuu to Lionfire5224 who has betaed all my chapters and now chapter 1 and 2 is so much better! This is set around the Western Air Temple ep.
Enjoy!
Chapter 1: Enemies and Allies
It was a quiet, peaceful day as the giant flying bison flew over the rolling hills. The sun was shining, the birds were out, and all was right with the world. Or so it would seem, to most people. But to the group riding atop the six-legged buffalo, things were not what they seemed.
A young air bender had been steering his beloved bison for a couple hours, hoping to arrive at The Western Air Temple before night fall. Everyone on board had made it perfectly clear that they could not stop unless absolutely necessary. There was just too much at stake. And the young Avatar knew this as well.
Suddenly, a flying lemur shot out of seemingly nowhere, landing softly on Aang's shoulder.
"Hey Momo," he said softly, trying not to think to hard about all that had happened. How they had failed.
The entire group let out a consecutive groan as they noticed the gangly sixteen-year-old had awakened from his slumber, for he had been complaining the entire time.
He sat up, rubbing his eye, and complained, "I'm so hungry!"
"Look in the bag Sokka, we should have plenty of food to last us awhile," his sister said, clearly annoyed.
Sokka scowled and peered inside the bag to find nothing but crumbs. To prove his point, he vigorously shook it upside down, his eyes narrowed.
"Nothing Katara! Nothing!" he said in frustration. Katara sighed impatiently.
"Well maybe we should find somewhere to stock up on some food supplies," Aang suggested cautiously. He pointed straight ahead. "We can stop at Ba Sing Se. Appa's starting to get tired anyway and it's getting late."
The Gaang, looked up to see the intimidating walls of Ba Sing Se.
"We really shouldn't delay our trip any longer," Sokka said hesitantly.
"Sokka, there are like a million meat markets on the other side of the walls. I can see them from here," the little earth bender, Toph, said lazily. Aang gave her a worried glance, knowing that she had been feeling sick the entire time.
At the word meat Sokka had made up his mind. "Ok, I guess we can stop and…" he paused. "You know that's getting less and less amusing."
"Yep, sorry to disappoint you!" She punched him in the arm. "But seriously, nobody can see through walls. And you already said we can stop there." She smiled satisfactorily.
Aang took that as a definite 'yes', so he held onto Appa's reins tighter.
"Yip, yip." Appa groaned and then sped off towards Ba Sing Se.
As they arrived inside the walls, Sokka abruptly jumped off Appa's back and ran to one of the many markets set up on the streets.
"Meat, sweet meat," Sokka said lovingly, while kneeling in front of a stall.
Toph rolled her unseeing eyes, and said, "I'm going to find a place to set up camp, do you want to help me, Sokka?"
Sokka shrugged and replied, "Yeah sure, it beats shopping. Katara make sure you pick up some meat."
Katara made a disapproving face and looked at Aang expectantly. He sighed inaudibly, and nodded, trudging along to help Katara find some supplies for their journey.
Later that night, the Gaang found themselves sitting around a campfire, trying not to leave a single crumb of precious food on their plates.
"We should get some sleep. We need to be leaving as soon as the sun comes up," Sokka suddenly said, looking up from the burning embers.
"Oh come on Sokka, can't we sleep in? Just this one?" Katara moaned.
"Yeah, I agree with Katara. We are in a safe place, and there's no rush to get to the Western Air Temple," agreed Aang.
Toph shrugged and simply said, "I was going to kick Aang's butt earth bending." She grinned, punching the air. Sokka frowned.
"No, we need to be out of here and keep moving on. In case you've all forgotten, this place was conquered by the Fire Nation not long ago," Sokka told them sternly. The rest of the Gaang looked stricken, just now remembering where they were and what had happened here.
Defeated, and rightly so, Katara bent some water onto the fire to put it out. The rest of them stayed quiet and the siblings pulled out their sleeping bags, Toph made an earth tent and Aang found a comfy spot on Appa's tail. Sleep quickly took hold of them, and they tried to get a few hours of sleep in before they had to start flying toward the Western Air Temple.
"Someone's coming!" Toph said in a low, harsh whisper.
"Guys, get up!" Toph let down her earth tent. "Someone's coming!" She repeated hastily.
Katara sat bolt upright and jumped out of her sleeping bag, her water skins at the ready. Aang jumped off of Appa's tail and floated to the ground. Sokka stood up with his boomerang in hand, ready to fight.
"Toph, who-" Katara started but Toph held a hand out in front of her to signal to her to be quiet.
"Whoever it is, they aren't friends of ours, but we can take them," Toph said confidently.
Out of nowhere, a lightning bolt was sent straight at Aang and he merely dodged it. His eyes scanned the darkness for his attacker. At the sight of blue fire being shot out of the darkness, recognition dawned on all of them.
"Azula," Aang whispered, echoing what he knew they all were thinking.
He managed to dodge her fireballs and lightning attacks by leaping and twirling through the air.
He couldn't get on the offensive; he could only use defensive manoeuvrers. He stared at Azula's grinning face as she sent a wall of blue flame at him and he soared backwards.
Aang was sent flying into a wall of rock. "Ouch, that has got to hurt." He heard Toph saying. She took up her stance, waiting for the next movement.
She froze, sensing someone coming for her, and turned just in time to block the six knives that came her way. Toph dug her feet further into the ground to feel the vibrations of her opponent, who was obviously Mai. She felt Mai lift her hand up ready to throw another knife, but Toph got in before her and shot several rocks at Mai.
Mai kept a blasé appearance as she threw more of her knives at Toph, who determinedly created an earth wall in front of her. She blocked the knives and then shot the wall at Mai.
Near them was Sokka, ready to throw his boomerang when he felt a sharp jab in his arm before it went completely numb. His boomerang fell to the ground.
"There's only one person I know who can do that," he said, growing pale.
He spun around to see none other than Ty Lee. She smiled brightly.
"Hey there, cutie!"
Sokka took a swipe at her head with his left hand, but she ducked and backed away. He turned to run, grabbing his boomerang as he went.
Ty Lee cart wheeled toward him and flipped herself backwards, her arms extended. Sokka crouched in a defensive stance as Ty Lee came flying towards him, and he gave his boomerang on good swing and it knocked Ty Lee out of the air, and she went flying towards Katara. She recovered in mid-air, and leapt back towards her opponent, brown eyes glittering.
Katara, watched with little interest, her focus entirely upon Azula. She determinedly shot a jet of water towards Azula, freezing it in mid-air. But Azula was ready, and fire and water met between them. While Azula was occupied, Aang saw his window of opportunity and executed a perfect roundhouse kick, sending a gush of air at her, and she was knocked to the ground.
Aang and Katara shifted into the same water bending stance, ready to attack Azula again with a wave of water from a fountain nearby.
Azula propelled herself to her feet, her blue flames acting as a rocket of sorts. Before Aang and Katara had a chance to attack she sent lightning directly at Katara.
Time froze. The lightning was coming towards her too fast, there was nothing she or Aang could do to stop it. I'm going to die…I'm going to die… She screwed up her eyes, waiting for death to take her.
But it never did. Katara eked her eyes opened, and nearly fainted at what she saw.
It was Prince Zuko, standing in front of her protectively, the lightning flowing through him.
"No!" she shrieked, rushing forward, but before she could take one step Zuko had stepped forward, the lightning redirected. It shot out of his hands and straight towards Azula's heart.
The look of pure terror on Azula's face as she crumpled to the ground was one that Katara knew would haunt her for the rest of her life.
She ran to Azula's side, terror filing her. She can't be dead…she can't be dead!
Her hands shaking, Katara quickly bent two small streams of water over Azula's wound, focusing all of her energy on the healing process. She had to make it. She just had to. I couldn't live with myself if she didn't.
Mai and Ty Lee were at Azula's side and seconds after Katara, who worked calmly but quickly, letting the water wash over the wound, fervently praying that she wasn't too late.
"Uhn…" Azula groaned softly. "Wh-what…happened…?"
"She's alive," Katara sighed huskily. Ty Lee gazed worriedly at Azula, who had lost consciousness again.
"We need to get her to safety," Mai said. Ty Lee had nodded.
"Thank you," she said, taking Katara's hands in hers. "We owe you big time." Katara smiled back, a little bit dazed by all that had happened. Ty Lee stood up, carrying Azula in her arms as she did so. The two set off, running towards the rising sun.
"Hem-hem." Katara turned, remembering that Zuko was there. She narrowed her eyes.
"What are you doing here?" She asked coolly, getting to her feet.
"W-well, I, uh, I want to…to join your group," he answered, staring at them all hopefully.
"No," Sokka said simply.
"Please, just hear me out. I came here as soon as I heard that my sister and her friends were on their way, and I got here just in time didn't I?" he said hastily. "I mean you no harm."
There was a moment of stunned silence. Zuko? Katara thought. He did save my life but…She thought back to the day in the Crystal Catacombs, shaking her head angrily.
"He's telling the truth," Toph said softly.
"Well he's probably a good liar, Azula has tricked us before. Plus, how do we know you aren't going to betray us and lead us into a trap?" Sokka asked, hatred in his voice.
"But, I'm good now and I want to help you defeat my father. I want to teach the Avatar fire bending," Zuko said earnestly, his eyes wide.
Aang's eyes widened considerably. Toph smiled. Sokka pulled out his boomerang, and Katara clenched her hands together, trying to control her shaking fists.
She stared at him, her blue as eyes full of hostility. But regardless of her personal feelings, she could tell he meant them no harm. She sighed, relaxing.
"Give him a chance," she whispered softly. "But this is you last one," she added, glaring pointedly at Zuko.
Zuko was taken aback by his threat but kept a straight face, swallowed a lump in his throat and nodded his head once.
"Then it's settled," Aang agreed. Sokka nodded and smiled. "Come on, I'll let you meet Appa."
"Not so fast!" Katara burst out, grabbing Zuko's arm as he tried to walk past her. He jumped, but she paid him no mind as she pulled him around a corner.
"Look, you may have the rest of them convinced that you're entirely good now, but you and I both know you've had problems doing what's right in the past," she said, her voice dangerously cold.
"I-uh, I-" Zuko faltered, taking a step backwards. Katara narrowed her eyes even further.
"And if you take one step backwards, or make one wrong move, I'll make sure it's the last move you ever make," she said, poking his chest pointedly. She turned, flouncing off angrily towards Appa, where the rest of the group was ready to take off. He won't hurt us ever again. I'll see to that.
Hope you liked it. Please review!