Chapter Two
Author's Note: Well, I'm back again! Thank you to lawliness for reviewing, it's good to know that you think it's an interesting plot, and I hope that others think so too. I hope I can interest enough people with this since I'm really excited about this story and writing it! Well, here comes more….
The group had moved inside not long after. Zuko found himself at the head of a table with everyone else surrounding it. Sokka was talking (as always) with Katara in a quiet voice while Aang sat next to her nodding his head every once in a while as he seemed to be only slightly listening. Zuko himself was thinking things over while Mai sat near him, talking about something or other that had happened with which she hadn't been impressed by and he didn't find interesting at all.
"….was no way I was going to let them do that but, you know, then they did." she sighed, and once he realized she was waiting for a response, he quickly answered.
"Hmm. Sounds bad." he said, but he knew she had just realized he hadn't been listening.
"I should've known you weren't listening." Mai sighed again, and he looked at her, knowing she wasn't going to forgive him if he didn't say anything else.
"I was thinking of the matters at hand." he replied, and looked down at the table. "I have to make choices. And I need to think about what I have to do."
Mai ignored him from then on out at the table and he didn't mind a bit. It was actually quite nice to have silence at his end for a few minutes until he would need to talk. The others didn't mind at all either, since they had Sokka to fill them in with noise. Aang and Katara were pretty much ignoring him now, more endorsed in talking with each other, and Sokka had noticed and become silent. Zuko looked around for a moment, brushed his midnight black hair out of his eyes, (as he had kept it down all day) and then cleared his throat. Everyone looked at him expectantly.
"Well, look, I know I've told you guys what's going on and everything, but I don't know how we'll deal with it just yet. Ideas have come to me but I hardly think that having any of them for a "Plan A" is a good idea, it would be too risky. With that being said, I was wondering if any of you had ideas that didn't involve violence." he announced, and Aang sat up.
"I was thinking we could try to have a talk with them, but if that hasn't worked before, I doubt it'll work now." he said.
"We'll have to take the violent way!" said Sokka, looking excited. "Boy, everything has been so calm for such a long time that this is gonna be fun!"
"I guess we will. But I don't want anyone to be killed, at least, not yet. That's not an action I'm willing to take. I know we've had to deal with the same or similar things before and someone usually has ended up dead but that just makes people angrier." Zuko gave in to the idea. "I think all it will take is knocking them a little bit. But I can't prove that it'll work."
"All the same, we might as well plan for that tomorrow. It'll be raining, I'll be able to Waterbend much easier." Katara said, in a tone that suggested she was becoming more interested in the topic.
"We'll do it." Zuko said, and the conversation was closed as quickly as it had begun. They ate dinner in a rather fast manner, and then he told them where the guest rooms they would be staying in this time was.
Sokka and Katara went straight to bed, but Aang stayed up, on the same balcony that Zuko had been on that afternoon. Zuko followed him there, where the rain was pouring down and the wind was howling. Lightning streaked across the sky, followed by thunder. Aang was standing at the very edge of the balcony, right where the roof stopped, and it seemed he was purposely getting wet. Zuko approached him and stood next to him.
"This storm won't keep them off the gates, will it?" asked Aang, not sounding hopeful at all.
"No. They'd keep it up if snow was going up ten feet deep. I don't think anyone else around here knows what to think of it, they refer to them as "the daily morning poundings" and no one who isn't in it goes near the whole mess of people." he said, shaking his head. He knew that he looked bad, he hadn't gotten sleep and most people were surprised to see he wasn't keeping his hair up or his clothing anywhere near traditional unless there was a meeting, but Aang was used to it all and didn't seem alarmed about anything but his sleep loss.
"I don't know what to think. After all we've done, I would've figured that everything was a peace. But it's not going to be that way, ever. I tell that to the Air Acolytes, and they believe it. I don't know if I do, I keep hoping, but nothing seems to be going in that direction." Aang said, looking worried as he stared into the rain.
"I think about it sometimes but it all makes sense. The world is rarely ever perfectly balanced and if it was, there would be no reason to have governments or order because everyone would have no personality to rebel against them." Zuko said, and he knew Aang agreed from the way he nodded.
"Well, I'm going to head to bed, so I'll see you in the morning, Zuko." Aang walked away, saying as he went out the door. Zuko nodded and took a deep breath, wondering how life was going to be after all this passed.
He stood at the balcony's edge again for a long time, and when he finally decided to go in, it was after 9, yet he didn't know how he would get to sleep. The bed was welcoming to him but he didn't want to try and sleep anyway, he knew what would happen. So he got into the bed and lay there, fighting off drowsiness till he could no longer do so.
Then he fell asleep, and with that, came the voice that haunted him daily. Darkness was all he could see, it was all he could feel. Then the cold voice started, and Zuko thrashed about, wildly, trying to escape it.
"Come, we want you, we need you…." the voice repeated over and over again, until he opened his eyes to see that it was late at night and found himself breathing heavily.
Whatever it was, it wasn't going away. Zuko rolled over and smashed his face into the pillow. He had never told anyone about it, he had never felt the need. This was the second time in his life it had happened, and the first time, he had listened much longer until he had been forced to do the thing no one knew about and he would make sure that they never would. Now it had come back, trying to drag it in with …whatever it was, and Zuko wouldn't sleep. He lay there on his stomach for the rest of the night, not daring to go to sleep but not daring to turn over, for fear of what he might see lurking over his bed. He didn't know what was there but he knew there was something, some dark shadow, watching him. If he turned over or even dared to look at it, it would possess him and take him in, or rather, go into him. He wasn't going to succumb to it, he couldn't.
The morning light was the first thing Zuko registered after he turned over, knowing that the thing was gone and he was safe. He knew what it was but the thought of it scared him too much. He began to get dressed, watching the birds fly around outside for a moment and then returning to apply the boots to his feet or something similar to that; so it took him quite a while to get changed and ready. The first thing he noticed while looking in the mirror was that sweat lined his face, and the dark circle under his eye was slightly larger than it had been. Pushing back his hair he leaned down and flushed water onto his face, trying to get rid of all the sweat marks. Zuko began to wonder if he should put his hair up for the day or leave it down, since he was probably going to be fighting. But not appearing in a stately order was going to leave an unwanted impression on the people, and they would make such comments as to go as far as to trying and annoying him, and that wouldn't go over so well. So he forced himself to put his hair up and put the crown in, which wasn't heavy or anything and he knew it wouldn't slow him down.
Then, he proceeded out of the room and down the hall to the entrance. He wanted to deal with these people first, not eat, but Aang caught him just as he was passing the dining room.
"Come, you have to eat before you try to fight anyone." said Aang, obviously noticing how tired Zuko looked and realizing the fact that he had been trying to get out before he was caught and forced to eat.
Zuko only nodded in consent and once he sat down at the table, the entirety of his breakfast was spent in silence. The others did talk, but Mai wasn't there and Zuko didn't need to have his ears talked off before they were most likely going to be shouted off in the coming hour. Then, after eating, he led the others out the front entrance and to the gates. There, a large clump of people were standing, shouting and pounding on the gates, demanding to be let in. They shot fire at the small group as they approached. Zuko found himself becoming more and more furious as they got closer. Once they stood directly in front of it, he prepared himself to yell as loud as he could.
"SHUT IT, NOW!" he roared, a common thing he had to use at council meetings if someone suggested something that no one else agreed with.
The whole group of people became silent. He felt Aang's hand on his shoulder, and then felt it lift as Aang flew up and landed on top of the gate column. The people became completely silent now, as a few mutters had been issued; no one person could be completely silent if they were in such a large group of people. Then he advanced and motioned for the guards to open the gates. The people didn't come flooding in, they stayed where they were, obviously struck with fear as the Firelord actually came near them.
"I know exactly what you want, but you won't get it." he said in as much of a commanding voice as he could muster with the idea that violence was about to be part of this whole problem.
"Oh yeah?" jeered a man from the crowd. "And what'll you do about it that'll stop us?"
Zuko had been waiting for something like this. So there wasn't going to be a long, nice conversation before he pulled out fire? Obviously not. Lifting one arm he shot fire into the sky, not hitting anyone but was getting ready to. If he had to hit someone, it would be the first person to advance on him with fire. He knew someone would- and then a man stepped out, planting his feet on the ground. Zuko recognized this man as the leader since he seemed to be attracting a lot of awed faces and everyone was watching them now.
The man attempted to hit him but he retaliated and jumped into the air, landing and sending fire towards the other man, who barely missed it. Zuko felt the next flame almost hit his arm, a warm breeze just barely missing him. Then he managed to hit the man in the arm, who yelled and aimed for Zuko's face, but he did a flip and it missed, just barely. The other man was holding his arm, gingerly, trying to block more of Zuko's attacks, but eventually he just slumped down moaning and the crowd went into an uproar. Zuko looked around at the others, knowing as well as they did that the worst was yet to come.
Author's Note: Whew, that was a pretty decently nice sized chapter! Well, that was chapter two, and I hope you enjoyed it! Thank you for reading, and please, reviews really help me write this and continue writing so I beg you and implore you to please, review, review, review!
