Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar. Blah, blah, on to the fic!
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He would return to the Fire Nation as a hero. He had captured the Avatar. Soon he would have the Northern Water Tribe as well, thanks to his uncle's legendary military direction. The failures of both himself and his uncle would be forgotten in their victories.
He would have his honor back.
But somehow, Zuko could not shake the suspicion that something would go wrong. Murphy's law seemed to follow the prince everywhere, every small success followed by failure. His paranoia was understandable, being exiled from his home country on a fool's errand for the better part of three years now. Zuko understood what he was getting himself into, but he just couldn't fight the nagging suspicions that something was going to go horribly wrong.
His suspicions were proved correct when he visited Aang's cell. The lock had been slashed open with what seemed to be an incredibly strong razor, and what was left of the lock was dripping wet. The Avatar couldn't have escaped alone, as he had been in that glowy-comatose-meditative state when Zuko had left him. He must have had help, and Zuko knew it could only be one person. The waterbender girl, the one with that stupid blue necklace, the girl who he had recently defeated to take the Avatar. He knew she had found a master, but he had assumed she wasn't powerful enough to cut through solid steel.
With a roar, he melted the lock in frustration. She may have gotten away from him, but there wasn't enough time for her to have escaped the ship. There was still a chance he could find her. And end her.
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The only thing lighting the walkways in the ship was the glow from Aang's arrows. Despite their brightness, Katara found herself tripping almost every five steps. The tears lingering on the corners of the waterbender's eyes only made the dimly-lit journey more difficult. She wasn't sure why she was crying anymore, as she had Aang back. Well, his body at least. And Katara was certain the Avatar spirit would soon follow. But seeing him like this, dead weight in her arms, she couldn't help but wonder: What would happen if the Fire Nation reached the oasis before them? She shuddered at the thought, and trudged forward.
As Katara dragged his body down the dark hallway as quickly and gently as she possibly could, she couldn't help but wonder one last thing: Weren't airbenders supposed to be lighter than air?
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"It's too dark down here, Sokka. I can't see a thing." Yue remarked not twenty feet into the dark passageway.
"Um…" was Sokka's only reply. He didn't admit it, but she was absolutely right. How far had Katara gotten in this pitch-black walkway anyway? How was she supposed to find Aang? And how was he supposed to find her? This 'plan' was getting stupider every second.
As if on cue, Sokka saw the firelight of a torch a few yards ahead. The twisting hallway had hidden it, and the placement of torches was erratic at best. Some of the hallways were dimly lit and others loomed in complete blackness. Sokka figured firebenders probably had no need for torches as they could make their own firelight anyway. It was extremely annoying for anyone else, however. Sokka grabbed the first torch off of the wall and held it high in front of him.
"Okay, well, solves that first problem. Now, knowing my sister, she probably just ran straight until she found Aang. She's not very logical like that. So I guess if we have any chance of finding her, it'll be straight ahead." Sokka said, pointing toward the middle section of a fork in the hallway in front of the small group.
"And with any luck, the Avatar will be there as well." Yue replied, stepping forward.
"Don't count on it. Katara is prone to dumb luck, but no one can be that-" He was cut off by a panicking Katara barreling out from the left hallway, dragging Aang along after her. "…Forget I said anything." Sokka finished, just as a fireball came rippling through the passageway, superheating the confined space in a second.
"Zuko's-after-me-run-NOW!" Katara yelled at her brother without pausing for breath. Sokka grabbed Aang from his sister's tired arms, slinging the boy over his shoulders without a second thought. Katara normally would have objected to the rough treatment, but this was no time to stop and argue. Momo, perched backwards on Yue's shoulder, saw the second fireball coming first, and frantically flapped his arms to alert the princess.
"What is it, Mo- DUCK!" Yue said a split second before the fireball exploded against the wall next to her. The rest of the group obliged without question. That time, the fire came dangerously close to Katara's head, singeing her hair loopies. She stopped abruptly and turned to face their tormentor, letting Sokka and Yue run past her. Sokka looked back at her, but only for a second. He and Yue ran forward and out onto the deck above, leaving Katara alone with the crown prince. He stopped as well, about fifteen feet away from Katara and the exit.
"Give me the Avatar and I won't kill you." He snarled, rage burning in his eyes and fire burning in his hands.
"Zuko, please, don't do this." Katara pleaded.
"Why? So you can all go off on a merry little adventure while I live in exile for the rest of my life? Is that it?"
"It's not like that-"
"Of course it is. Do you know what the Avatar means to me? How he has tormented my thoughts for the past three years? How bringing him back could change my life forever? You could never understand." Katara paused for a moment.
"You're right. I don't understand. But not everyone deserves happiness, Zuko." She said as she froze both his hands to the wall with a swift movement of the water from the pouch at her side. Katara bolted for the door, not sure whether she was feeling remorse or anger. Either way, it bubbled up from inside her like a hot geyser.
As Zuko unfroze his hands with a quick breath of fire he added to no one in particular: "And I know that better than anyone."
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When Appa finally arrived at the spirit oasis, it was almost dusk. The Fire Nation foot soldiers were now just fighting their way through the palace, so they still had time to return Aang's spirit to his body. Just not that much time. Katara cradled his head as she brought him to the edge of the water, the place where he had meditated before. She waited a few long seconds, but nothing seemed to change. His arrows didn't stop glowing, nor was their any sign that he was returning to his own self again. And to make matters worse, Katara could clearly see smoke leaking over the wall that led into the oasis. They were almost here, and the Avatar spirit was nowhere to be found.
"Aang! Aang, if you can hear me, please come back here! We need you!" she yelled, standing and turning to call in every direction. Then, as she faced his body again, she hesitated and whispered "I…I need you."
"I don't think he can hear you, Katara." Sokka said softly after a long silence. Yue, who had looked on silently until this point added, almost to herself:
"Then there's no hope left."
"No," was all the waterbender could say as she fell to her knees, "there's always been something. I just can't see where it is right now."
They were all so preoccupied with their own thoughts that they almost didn't notice as the wall into the spirit oasis began to melt.
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But what they didn't know was that Sokka had been wrong. Aang's spirit could, in fact, hear every word of their conversation and see it as well, he just wasn't sure of what he could do about it. Being so relatively new to the whole 'Avatar' thing, he didn't have very much control on what he did in the Spirit World. And, as a result, he had no idea how to get back into his body.
He had completed his mission. He now knew that the earthly manifestations of Tui and La had been in front of him the whole time, quite literally. Even so, it felt kind of strange to be asking a couple of koi fish for help.
"Um, excuse me, spirits? I'm sorry to interrupt your…uh…swimming, but I'm Aang…and I'm the Avatar. And I kind of need help getting back to my body before it gets fried by firebenders. So, if you could give me some magic spirit insight, that would really help me out right now. Please?"
The fish gave him no reply, and as he watched them swim and twist around each other, he found it was almost hypnotic. He suddenly felt that he had to look at the wall that separated the spirit oasis from the rest of the palace and the cold, outside world. He saw the smoke and steam mixing together about it, and the giant hole steadily growing in the middle of it.
"Oh no." Aang breathed.
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As Katara held Aang in her arms, she suddenly felt a small pull on him, like a string tied above him was hoisting him up above her arms. She looked up, but all she could see was a smoky gray sky. She held Aang tighter but the pull quickly got stronger and yanked him up into the air. Katara realized what was happening and cautiously stepped back as Aang rose into the air, arrow tattoos still glowing brightly. Yue only looked up at him in awe.
"What is he doing?" she asked, dumbstruck. Sokka pulled on a sleeve of her parka, gently towing her back towards his sister.
"Uh, princess, you may want to stand clear for this." He warned her. She obliged, still staring at the small airbender hanging overhead. With a slow wave of his hand, he pushed the wall of ice back several feet, and created a new one that reached almost to the tops of the cliff walls on either side of the neck of the oasis. That done, the Avatar addressed the firebenders just behind his newly-created wall of ice.
"You will not enter this place. It is sacred and will not be entered by your kind. I am the Avatar and I will not let you disturb the sanctity of this oasis." His voice was impressive. If you listened closely, you could clearly hear Aang's voice, but his voice was laced with the many voices of each of his past lives, booming out and reverberating throughout the entire North Pole. You would think that a voice that powerful would be deafening to a person standing close by, but for some inexplicable reason the voice sounded the same to every person intended to hear it.
Most of the Fire Nation soldiers were quaking in their red and black boots by this point, but they were told to stand their ground. This was all a matter of patience. The Avatar and his friends would have to come out sometime. And when they did, the fire catapults would be waiting.
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Zuko was off the Admiral's ship almost the second the long walkway hit the ice. He felt more confident now that he was riding a black rhino, with his uncle close behind. He urged the beast forward with a flick of the reigns, getting more excited with each crunch of the icy ground under the rhino's massive feet. Outwardly, of course, he showed nothing but his usual frosty demeanor.
"Quickly, uncle. The Avatar is still inside the oasis. Our troops will hold him there for now, but it's only a matter of time until he eludes their grasp yet again. If we want them to do this right, we have to do it ourselves." Zuko said as they entered the ruined remains of what had been the palace gates. Iroh waited a few seconds before speaking.
"Remember, nephew, that the Avatar must be captured alive. I wouldn't want you to be so enthusiastic about this hunt that you lose your prize for another decade. Just…be careful." He concluded.
"I didn't get this far by being careful." The prince snarled, riding ever-faster forward.
"That's what I was worried about." The old general shook his head, and followed his nephew to the great wall of ice and the promises it contained.
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Aang's tattoos glowed fainter until his feet touched the ground, where the arrows resumed their usual pale blue coloring. Katara was waiting to catch him, as always, and he gazed up into her eyes.
"You're back." She said simply, a smile bringing relief back into her face. "I almost thought you'd never come back to us."
"Yeah." He replied, not having the strength to say much else. He let his head drop onto her chest, and she kept him warm as she climbed back on Appa's saddle. Sokka felt that the moment was far too romantic, and decided to break it up in his usual awkward way.
"Weeeelll…Looks like Aang's soul is back in place, so it's time we got a move on out of here." Sokka helped Yue up beside him on the saddle, taking the reigns as he went. Momo perched on Yue's shoulder again, having obviously taken a liking to her. "Hang on to your hats, kids, it's gonna be a bumpy ride. Yip yip."
With that, the group soared up into the air and saw the full extent of what they were dealing with. Foot soldiers stretched from the ice wall to the palace gates, and behind them were five massive steel catapults, each attached to a team of four rhinos. Not only that, but the catapult could be turned on a moment's notice with a series of levers and spinning gears. And each of them was focused on Appa.
"Oh my." said Yue, a hand to her lips.
"Oh no." breathed Katara, sheltering Aang even more with her body as she leaned over to look at the scene.
"Oh crap." said Sokka, knowing he couldn't turn back now. The firing squad attacked, and Sokka swerved Appa out of the way of at least ten fireballs. He had cut it close, and the back end of the saddle, along with many of their supplies, went up in flames. Katara put the fire out as fast as she could, but the unseen-but-definitely-felt flames spooked Appa, and his flying became erratic.
Below them, Zuko finally reached the catapults. He shooed away the technician who steered the metallic monster, and took the controls for himself. Instinctively pulling down on the lever to his right, the fire ball swung wide, completely missing the group. Cursing, he tried again, finally hitting one of Appa's six legs and sending him spinning toward the ground. General Iroh rushed in from behind, grabbing the jubilant prince by a shoulder.
"You could have killed him!" the general said angrily.
"This is no time for a lecture, uncle! I did what I had to do and you can't tell me that I was wrong! You can't tell me what to do anymore!" With a grunt, he shook off his uncle's hand and ran toward the place where he had felled the Avatar.
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Aang was not dead. As he was surrounded by Fire Nation soldiers, however, he wondered if that was actually a good thing. He lay as still as he could, eyes clenched shut. Maybe if he acted dead, they would give up on him and go away. Yeah, and maybe magic hog-monkeys would teach him waterbending. He wished he could open his eyes and see if Katara was all right. Of course, he was worried about the others as well, but Katara was the first name that he thought of.
"He's still alive." Said a sickeningly familiar voice. "You can stop playing dead, Avatar. We have you now." Aang refused to open his eyes even as he was shackled and chained into a rhino-led wagon headed for the ships. He only opened his eyes when he heard a soldier ask:
"What do we do with the others, Prince Zuko?"
"Lock them up away from the Avatar. We can't have them plotting another jailbreak."
"And the flying bison, sir?" Asked the soldier. The second voice, Zuko's obviously, did not answer immediately.
"We will discuss this elsewhere," he said finally, and Aang could hear the sounds of their boots crunching away through the snow. Aang still didn't know where Appa and the others would be held, but he knew at least they were still alive and relatively intact. That counted for something. His head drooped to his chest in sudden exhaustion. Who knew being shot out of the sky took so much out of you? His eyes closed, but Aang felt relatively sure he would live to open them another day.
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Everything hurt.
Katara began to realize this fact little by little as she came back into a fuzzy sort of consciousness. The waterbender tried to recall what could possibly have happened to her to make her sore everywhere from her feet to the crown of her head. It came back to her in fragmented pieces. They had been shot down by something. A fireball. Launched by the Fire Nation. Launched by…Prince Zuko. Yes, yes, this remembering was good. Her vision was steadily becoming clearer, as were her muddled memories. Now what had happened next? Oh, right, she had tried to protect Aang as they fell. She realized it probably had been a bad idea to lock her body position as she fell to the ground, but there was little she could do about it now.
She internally palmed her forehead, as doing it in reality would be more trouble that it was worth. Of course there was something she could do to ease her pain. She was a healer, wasn't she?
The waterbender quickly realized two problems with that plan. The first being the fact that her water pouch was mysteriously missing, and the second being that her hands were chained to a wall.
"Hey, look who's finally awake," came her brother's voice. Katara looked around shakily.
"Wh…where are we?" she asked.
"If you have to ask, you don't want to know," he replied, looking dismally around the cell that contained them both.
Katara groaned as she tried to get into a better sitting position. "You're right," she told her brother "I didn't want to know." As she spoke, she noticed someone was missing. "Wait, where's Yue?"
"I don't know." The warrior replied dismally. "They took her away." He couldn't bring himself to look at her, and so the siblings sat in silence.
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Zuko sat back in the red overstuffed chair that had been at the head of the previous Admiral's quarters of the ship. It suited him, he thought. This was the room of an important man, or at least a man who thought himself important. And when Zuko returned to the Fire Nation with the Avatar and the Northern Water Tribe in his grasp, he would be an important man. Zuko was now much more confidant in his plan. With the Avatar now safely in chains with no one to save him, the crown prince could enact the second part of the plan. And it would hinge on the participation of a certain Water princess…
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A/N: I apologize for this chapter being so…KatAangy. I really didn't mean for it to be that way, but since that's really one of the only canon pairings at the moment, it's what I ended up writing. Ah well. Read and review!