Chapter Two: "Awakenings"
Her body long addicted to the opium her jailers used to keep her docile began to protest its absence. Hidden in the hold of a freighter carrying finished goods from the heart of one empire to the hands of merchants in another she suffered the withdrawal.
The cramps had her curled up in a ball until the muscle spasms kicked in and she flopped around the floor like a fish out of water. Strangely as her guide looked on she smiled like a Cheshire cat.
"Hahaha! Zuko, this is all Zuko! He wanted to go to mother, tell her how merciful he's been! Look at ME MOMMIE I SPAIRED THE WICKED 'ZULA! But oh no the only reason I won was because I caught her in a rare moment of weakness and brought a water-rat for help! He knew, he couldn't PUT ME DOWN, so he tried to CRIPPLE ME! "
Then the sun crested the horizon, and like every firebender alive she felt its power flow into her. Azula sat up, and felt the sweat drenching her body. She began breathing deeply, and at every ex-haul the room filled with sparks of orange flame.
"Haaaaaa . . . . .haaaaaaa. . . . . . haaaaaaaaaaaaa! Yeaaaa that's the stuff."
Her rescuer approached and Azula spoke sounding down right cordial.
"Hello friend, believe I have neglected to ask your name."
He knelt on the floor for lack of a chair.
"Call me Hu Jing, I am something of a scholar but my studies often take me to . . . unusual places."
She struggled to stand on uneasy legs.
"My lady you should rest."
She turned from him.
"I need the sun."
Azula noted the alien expression on the mans face. Was it concern or curiosity? Her people skills where getting rusty. He spoke.
"That may not be the best idea. I paid for our passage without them knowing who we are."
Though her delirium, she smiled an evil smile.
"That was your mistake, they should always know just who you are."
The fire princess began leaping from box to bot until she reached the main entrance tot he hold in the ceiling. Hu's eyes widened his mind struggling to grasp the very idea that she could be doing this. A heart beat later he heard the crew screaming.
This time Zuko sat in the throne room surrounded by fire, and a thousand years of tradition. Before him knelt the jailors that let Azula escape.
"Explain Colonel."
Considering their history the leader of the Rough Rhino's kept his composure.
"Every lock untouched, and all the guard dogs silent. However he got in, he's better than anything I've seen. The only thing that drew Vichir's attention was that she started screaming at him. Whoever it was knew who was guarding her. No tracking dog could pick up a sent, and not one track has been found. By now she's in withdrawal and can't move under her own power. My Lord I know how me must seem to you, but the fact remains she's out there now. I think you know who we need sir."
Zuko was silent for a long moment.
"June."
The Sun was riding high in the sky at the peak of its power. As Azula balanced herself on the ships rigging letting its power flow into her Hu appeared beside her like a shadow in an eye blink.
"Well if they were going to tell anyone before they most certainly wont now. You should not be able to move much less do any of this."
She answered him.
"You're not a bender are you? All that power from the sun, you have to know how to grasp it. Some fools lived though the damn comet and don't even realize that, fools. It dawns on me, if you'll excuse the pun that I know nothing about you Hu Jing or this lord of yours."
He looked away from her just a bit, and Azula could tell he was reluctantly holding something back.
"My Lord has given me certain instructions, one of them being he would introduce himself to you Princess."
[!] Humm just who am I relying on? Time to see is all my skills are rusty. [/!]
"Are we to play games with the questions you can and can not answer Hu Jing?"
His face lit and he smiled at the sound of the word "game".
"I would love to! My Lords orders are few but unbreakable, so I can not tell you where we are going or who he is even in riddles."
She raised an eyebrow just a hair.
"Why are the unbreakable, just a man of your word?"
"Very much so. My honor is very important, my word hard given, and my honor not something I'd violate my good Firelady."
Azula started making mental notes.
"What is the nearest geographic feature to our destination?"
"The Si Wong Desert."
"Lovely, and your shale we say occupation?"
He really was loving this by the look of him.
"I'm a gopher! Go for this go for that, and no I don't always ask before taking, but I never take the only one!"
"A thief then. Ever have to kill?"
"Not if I can help it."
"Why?"
"Because I'm a thief not a reaver."
[!]He does what he does, and aims for perfection. Anything else seems like unacceptable failure to him. Very nice. . . .[/!]
For a moment he couldn't help but thing of Mai, and she shook her head dispensing with this game, and focusing on practical realities.
"Opium, it will without the sun be an issue, and my . . .pride aside Hu Jing, I might not have the where with all to do this in the morning without it. Vile substance that it is."
She noted the real compassion in his eyes as he answered her. She HAD gotten though to him with that little game.
"Your Grand Father Azulon declared it the second scourge after alcohol, and made its use in all but the smallest amounts for medical reasons punishable by death. I though it better to acquire something to ease the symptoms though our arrival make preparing it impossible before this morning. I should say your recovery astounds me."
Azula frowned as much from the her situation as the NEED for help.
"The sun must set Hu Jing, and the night I fear will be a long one."
Even balanced on rigging high above the deck he bowed his head.
"I will make the preparations Princess."
Zuko looked down at the parchment for the fourth time.
To Hakoda chief of the great southern water tribe.
I write this in hopes you may pass this message on the to Avatar Ang, knowing that spending so long in one place would be asking much of someone so used to roaming, and with so much work to do. I however know that Ang and Katara would not part for long, and that makes you my best hope for contacting him. The first great threat to peace has come since the end of the war . . .
He looked up from the paper to see Mai peeking into the room.
"You know most Fire Lords have people write stuff for them?"
"I'm not most Fire Lords."
"Riiight. So she's out whats the plan?"
Zuko put down the brush he was using to write, and put his hands on his face.
"The Rough Rhino's, and a bounty hunter named June. The details take some explanation but June can find anyone alive period. Colonel Mongke and his men are legends, they might be enough . . . Azula's not going to be in top form for a while. . . maybe never . . . you're going to burst my bubble now aren't you?"
She smiled that barely their smile of hers.
"I think your right, and yea it might work, but what if it doesn't?"
"I write the Avatar, and hope."
He knew he was I trouble when she pulled over a chair and sat next to him. Mai took his hand and held it in hers.
"Zuko I think you're a little confused about what part of why Azula's dangerous and that's something is something the Avatar can help you with."
He squeezed her hand before replying.
"A lot of people with a lot vested in the war would be happy to help her Mai, I know that."
"Dum-dum, that's what the Avatar would help you with, but not this."
She took his hand and placed it on her stomach.
"You are the hereditary ruler of the fire nation, and anyone else related to you can fill your chair. A civil war would be a family spat the Avatar might not help you with. Hell after the last century a weakened divided country might be better for the world even if it worse for the people you have to protect as Fire Lord. Azula doesn't have to be a threat to the worlds balance or whatever to be a threat to our country today tomorrow or twenty years from now."
Zuko took his hand back very slowly.
"That's ice-cold."
"You want to gratitude from the royal fire academy for girls you have to pass a class in heredity."
Next: "The Si Wong Desert"