"Let's go." Zuko said.
I nodded and put the hood of the cloak up. I didn't look back as we ran out of the cell.
"There's one more thing I have to do before I can leave. Will you help me?" Zuko asked.
"I'll help you with anything and everything." I said, giving Zuko's hand a light squeeze.
"Alright. Cover your face up somehow in case the hood comes off and don't use any of your spirit summoning. They'll know who you are if you do." Zuko said, handing me a pair of sais that were strapped to his waist.
I nodded, taking them and giving them a quick spin before tucking them into the leather belt of my dress. I ripped a piece of my skirt off and used it like a bandana, tying it around my face so it covered it from the nose down. As we sneaked around the fortress, Zuko explained that he was trying to free the Avatar. I wondered why, but didn't ask. Wouldn't that be bad for the fire nation? At this point, I was also wondering about the scar on his face from when I saw him; It was a scar from being burned. Unlike the Zuko I used to know, this one now had a sour look on his face even though I only saw it for a couple seconds before he put his mask back on. His head was shaved except for his pony tail in the back and his eyes seemed... different. They looked as if the life had been taken out of them.
Zuko indicated that we were close to the Avatar's cell. He took off the helmet of the soldier he just knocked out and tossed it to the feet of the four soldiers guarding the door of the Avatar's cell and then jumped onto the ceiling. I stayed in the same spot, putting my foot on top of the body of the knocked out guard. As one of them approached me, he attempted to attack me with his fire bending. I rolled out of the way and gave him an uppercut, hitting him with the butt of one of my sais. Then, I also jumped on the ceiling, a couple feet away from Zuko, closer to the end of the hall we were in. I jumped down when the rest of the guards went to examine their fallen comrade. When they all looked at me, Zuko attacked. Both of us ran towards the cell door. There was one guard left. He picked up the horn mounted on the wall to sound an alarm, but I threw one of my sais at the horn. He dropped it and got ready to fire bend. Before the flame could reach me, Zuko came with a bucket of water and spun around, throwing the water at the fire and then sweeping the guard with it. He fell flat on his face, out cold. I opened the door and walked in behind Zuko, who unsheathed both of his broadswords. To my surprise, there was a little boy with a tattoo of a blue arrow on his hairless head chained up to two columns in the room. This kid couldn't have been the great avatar... He screamed as Zuko came towards him, slashing through the air with his swords. He stopped screaming when the chains around his hands and feet had been cut. Then he started walking towards the door.
"Who are you? What's going on? Are you here to rescue me?" the boy asked.
Zuko opened the door and exitted the room. I went after him, motioning for the boy to come with us. He walked towards the door after I went out of it.
"I'll take that as a 'yes'." he said.
I grabbed my sai from the horn and then turned the corner with Zuko. I tapped on his shoulder when I saw the boy on his knees, looking at... a bunch of half frozen frogs that were crawling away from him.
"My frogs! Come back, and stop thawing out!" the boy said.
Zuko sighed and walked back towards him, grabbing his shirt and pulling him away.
"Wait, my friends need to suck on those frogs!" He yelled.
I shook my head. I have no idea how how long he had been in that cell for, but even though I occasionally talked to myself there, I wasn't that crazy!
We went underground, into the sewers of the fortress. When we were out of it, Zuko poked his head up and then motioned that this was where we were going to get out. He climbed out of the grate with us short behind. A couple feet away was a rope. I pushed the boy towards it so he could climb first. When he was about three-fourths of the way up, the alarm sounded. A guard appeared on top of the wall and cut the rope. I went underneath to catch him, but before he hit the ground, he used a blast of wind and gracefully landed... This kid was an air bender. Zuko unsheathed his broadswords and pointed them left. I grabbed my sais and ran after him with the Avatar. As we ran, the gates started closing. The boy ran in front of both of us.
"Stay close to me." He said as a row of guards covered the closing door.
He blasted all of them away with a large gust of air. Unfortunately, more guards surrounded Zuko and me as he continued to head for the door. He stopped and threw all the guards away from us with another blast of air. Then, the Avatar gave us a boost to the top of the wall, over the gate... He was powerful, sure as hell. We ran along the walls until we were surrounded by soldiers again. The soldiers were heading towards the walls with bamboo to scale them. We got rid of the soldiers from the bamboo and then the Avatar picked them up. He handed one of them to me and then one to Zuko.
"Take this and jump on my back!" he said as he hopped onto the tip of a standing bamboo ladder. I did the same to one by me. Right before the ladder fell, I put the other one that the Avatar had handed me before down. I made it to the other wall, just outside of the fortress door and pulled the ladder up. Unfortunately, a firebender burned down the ladder Zuko and the Avatar were using. The Avatar caught the wall and I ran to help him, but he fell before I reached him. I was too far away.
"Shit!" I cursed.
Four fire benders surrounded them. Right before Zuko was blasted with fire, the Avatar put him behind his back and created a wind ball.
"Hold your fire! The Avatar must be captured alive!" Zhao yelled as he approached the two.
Zuko immediately went into action and came up behind the boy, crossing his swords in front of his neck. The gate shortly opened and they inched their way outside. I hopped down from the wall in front of them and backed away slowly with them, sais in hand. We kept walking in the same formation even though we were about a half a mile away from the fortress. All of a sudden a shot was fired, going straight for Zuko. As I blocked it with my sais, another one was fired that I failed to reach. It hit Zuko, square in the head and he fell to the ground. The Avatar made a gust of wind that riled up a cloud of dirt. My hood was blown off. I coughed and looked to see Zuko's mask was off and the Avatar was on the ground staring at him with a look of shock on his face. I slung Zuko over my shoulder and looked at the Avatar with my purple eyes.
"Run." I said.
He started running, but then looked back at me, struggling to get off of my knees with Zuko's weight on my back. He grabbed my hand and then blasted us out of sight with a gust of wind.
We were all hiding in the forest. I made a bed of leaves for Zuko and put him down in it. I took off his hood since the Avatar had seen his face. He was still looking at Zuko in shock.
"Do you know him?" I asked, taking off my makeshift bandana from my face.
"Know him? This guy is constantly trying to kill me! He finds me where ever I go!" the boy yelled.
He looked at me at first with a little bit of anger. His look quickly melted away and then he blushed a little and looked away.
"Who are you? You saved me with him too..." the boy said, looking at the ground next to me.
"Liiru... and you? I'm pretty sure you have a name too, little boy." I said.
"I'm Aang..." he answered.
There was a short silence between us.
"So, what are you doing with him...?" Aang asked.
"He saved me, just like he saved you." I answered.
I looked at Zuko's head to see that nothing was there. The arrow had just knocked him out. I sighed and carressed Zuko's cheek a little. Then I turned to the Avatar.
"You're so... young... I wouldn't expect someone like you to be the Avatar... And why is Zuko after you?" I asked.
That's when it started. Aang told me everything about what had happened to him. He wasn't so bad. He was actually nice. We sat there, on a tree, talking about our pasts. I also explained to him my story. We were able to relate to one another on a different level since both of our people had been slain by the Fire Nation and we were the only ones left.
"I'm gonna go get a drink from the river. If you see him waking up, run... I'll tell him that you ran off and I brought him here." I said.
"Okay." Aang answered.
I smiled and got up, walking to the direction where I heard running water. I reached the river after about a fifteen minute walk. I knelt down beside a small alcove that was calm compared to the rest of the rushing river and looked at myself in my reflection. This was the first time I'd seen my own face in five years... It was amazing how much I had changed. I was no longer the little twelve year old the Fire Nation had stolen from the east. I traced the line of dots that started an inch down my temples, right above my left cheek bone, and trailed across my nose to the other side of my face. The same dots were on my forehead, about half an inch away from my eye brows. In the center of my forehead was an emblem of the word "soul" in my native language. My eyes had an intricate cat eye design to them, also part of my tattoos. I sighed and took off Zuko's cloak, splashing water on my face after taking a good look at it. I took off my robe and dove into the water. It was freezing, but it was sure as hell better than feeling nothing. I scrubbed the dirt off of my olive colored skin and then cupped my hands in the water, drinking from the river greedily. Then I took a deep breath in, closing my eyes, and smiled as I let it out. I was happy to be out in the open. Everything had such beauty to me. After about ten minutes, I got out of the river and put my robe and cloak back on. I braided my long red hair and headed back to the place where Aang and Zuko were. Zuko was just waking up. Aang and I locked eyes and I expected him to run off, but he stayed, sitting on the tree we were in before.
"You know what the worst part about being over a hundred years old is? I miss all the friends I used to hang out with. Before the war started, I used to always visit my friend Kuzan. The two of us, we'd get in and out of so much trouble together! He was one of the best friends I ever had and he was from the Fire Nation, just like you..." Aang paused for a moment and looked at Zuko.
"If we knew eachother back then, do you think we could've been friends too?" Aang asked.
There was a moment of silence between them. Zuko got up on one knee and blasted fire at Aang. Aang jumped up in the canopies of the trees, dodging it, and got away.
"The least you could've done was given him a thank you..." I said, leaning on a tree.
"And why would I do that?" Zuko asked, turning around and looking at me.
"He saved your life, you know even after you've been trying to kill him... He could've left us there and by now, both of us would've been dead." I answered.
Zuko stayed quiet.
"Why are you after him, Zuko? He's a good kid... You've got better things to do with your time." I said.
"How could you say that? You don't know me anymore..." Zuko said.
I looked to the side. "If you're such a different person, why did you save me then...?"
We stood there silent for about a minute. Tears welled up in my eyes when I figured out the answer.
"You didn't come for me, did you..."
Silence answered me.
"You thought that they were guarding him when I was in there... And then you just used me to help you..."
Again, silence.
Zuko walked up to me and placed a sack full of coins in my hand.
"Here, take this. It's enough to buy you some new clothes, food, and a place to stay for a while. I suggest you get out of the fire nation before you do any of that though. People know your face." He said.
"That's it, then... You're just gonna leave me here?" I asked.
Silence...
Tears flowed from my eyes. I let go of the sack and it dropped to the floor.
"You should've just left me there then, Zuko!" I yelled.
"Are you really that ingrateful that I let you out of that hell hole? I've given you a chance to start a new life, Liiru!" Zuko yelled back.
"You were the only thing I lived for in there! I don't remember anything before the day that the Fire Nation massacred my village. I've got nothing to return to! The only reason I kept myself alive was the slim chance that I might see you again... And I'd rather be back in there, being used as a sex toy for the guards and beaten, with a purpose to my life than be free and know the only reason why I'm still alive doesn't exist anymore..." I said, my voice becoming barely over a whisper.
My anger had melted away. Now I was just crushed. Zuko said nothing back, but his face had softened.
"Go. The next earth village isn't to far from here..." Zuko said.
"That's all you've got to tell me? To leave?" I asked.
Once again, there was no answered.
"Let me ask you, something. What the hell could possibly make you just stop caring about your 'best friend'? I always cared about you! I was in a fucking cell, locked up like an animal, and I still cared about your problems more than mine!" I yelled, my anger returning.
"You really wanna know? I spoke out of turn at a battle meeting and had to fight my own father because of it! Then, when I refused to fight him out of respect, he burned my face and banished me from the fire nation! That 'good kid' is the only way I can regain my honor back! I'm sorry you weren't my priority before that!" Zuko yelled.
He turned around, his back facing me, looking out at the forest. So that's how he got that scar... I felt horrible now... After a couple seconds, I walked behind him. I leaned my forehead in between his shoulder blades on his back and took both his hands in mine.
"I'm sorry..." I whispered.
"I could never just forget about you. You were my only friend there. It's just... I... I need to get my honor back. That's the most important thing to me..." Zuko said, his hands gripping mine gently.
"I'll help you... If you want me to." I said.
Zuko dropped my hands and answered with silence again. I was expecting him to tell me to leave.
"Let's go, then..." He said, starting to walk.
I smiled and followed him.