Disclaimer: We do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender, or any of the characters, places, nor plots that come along with it. We also do not own Indiana Jones, or other such things that are blatantly not ours, as we would have enough spare time to write something like this versus creating moneymaking things that benefit society.
Chapter Two
Night had fallen. It had been three hours since they had met, and Zuko and Marisu had been diligently planning their rebellion against the Fire Nation.
"Alright, so are we all clear with the plan then?" Marisu asked. Zuko nodded; it was his job to disable the guards if necessary, which it probably would be considering that the Fire Nation palace had the second best security next to Ba Sing Se. It was Marisu's job to get into the palace prison and by some means obtain the key to unlock Iroh's cell and make away with him, unarmed. Then Zuko, Marisu and Iroh would meet up in the palace garden and escape together. It was completely fool proof!
Later, Zuko climbed into the watchtower. "Hey you, sentry!" he called out. The sentry looked at him irritably, thinking it was just another lower-leveled watchman trying to distract him from doing his job. When he saw that it was Prince Zuko, he did not know what to think.
"Didn't you hear?" said Zuko, feigning annoyance, "Lord Ozai said that night-shift patrols aren't allowed to work today."
The sentry looked skeptically at him, "Hey, weren't you banished?"
Zuko hesitated. "…No."
The two stared silently at each other for a moment.
"Okay," shrugged the sentry, giving up.
This process was repeated for the remaining towers and in every hall Zuko passed through.
Meanwhile, Marisu reached the prison with all speed. Now the only thing left to do was find Iroh and the key. After a few minutes of searching, Marisu discovered a spare key under a conveniently placed doormat.
She ran back and forth between the cells until she came across an older man with gray hair and a beard. "Are you Iroh?" she asked, remembering Zuko's description.
"I am," he said, furrowing his brow.
"Great!" Marisu said, smiling, "You have to come with me." She began to unlock the cell when a shadow came upon her. She gasped; she had been found.
"Hey, you're not supposed to be down here!" said a guard, frowning angrily at Marisu.
"D-don't come any closer!" cried Marisu in an obvious panic.
The guard laughed, "Don't worry, you'll probably be down here again soon." He approached Marisu as she tensed and whimpered. As he entered the imaginary line of her discomfort, she threw her hands forward and let out a squeal. Fire rushed from her fingers and the guard went alight. He screamed as he transformed into a pillar of flame and ran off, illuminating the hallway and leaving a thick trail of smoke.
Marisu looked down at her hands in astonishment. (After all, this was quite a feat for a non-firebender, and even more so one that did not know squat about firebending.) She swung the door to Iroh's cell open and grabbed him by the wrist.
"Come on, Zuko's waiting for you!" She pulled him up the stairs before he could get a full word out.
- - -
"We're almost there," said Aang, cautiously steering Appa over the Fire Nation.
"I wonder if the rumors are true?" thought Katara out loud.
"The rumors about the guards at the Fire Nation palace?" Sokka said, because the scene needed exposure, "Well, they better be, since we'll be directly over it in a few minutes!"
"Yeah, we're making pretty good time," commented Katara. After all, they had been all the way over at the Earth Kingdom not more than a few hours ago. Rumors must have traveled really fast in the Avatar world.
"I know that I can't tell exactly how fast Appa is going," frowned Toph as she held onto his fur for dear life, "But I know how big he is, so how come nobody's noticed us yet?"
…Nobody answered her.
- - -
"…And then, I fed all of the puppies to the gator-leopards!" Azula laughed manically as she sat upon her throne of evil, and one of her many servants cowered before her. The door across from her throne creaked open and Azula stopped telling her story so she could scowl dangerously at her visitor. He appeared to be a particularly blackened prison guard. His clothing and hair were thoroughly charred and he smelt strongly of smoke.
"What happened to you?" Azula scoffed.
The guard cleared his throat nervously and spoke, "Well, I was in the prison, and there was this girl unlocking one of the cells. I tried to stop her and she set me on fire."
Azula raised an eyebrow, "So, why didn't you stop her?"
"Because…" he gulped, his knees trembling, "…I was on fire?"
"I see…" Azula's eyes narrowed, "Set on fire to getting fired. This must be a good day for you."
Nobody moved. There was a short silence. Azula's patience was tried enough.
"So get out of here, you moron!"
The guard turned and ran away from the throne room as fast as his shaking legs could carry him. Azula clenched her teeth. "Somebody's going to pay for this!"
- - -
"Look, Zuko! I found Iroh!" Marisu shouted happily as she crossed the threshold and entered the gardens.
Zuko turned and ran to meet her halfway. "Good job, Marisu." He looked ruefully at his uncle. Iroh looked as though he was about to say something when they were interrupted.
"Did you really think that you could get away with this?" Azula asked the trio as she stepped out from the shadows. Marisu gasped in horror, and Zuko stepped forward as if to defend her. Iroh remained still because xXxZukoHartzMe4evaXxX could not figure out something meaningful for him to do.
Azula smirked malevolently, "So, you told the guards to neglect their jobs, sprung my dear uncle from his imprisonment, and expected to just walk out the front door? You do know that there are guards outside of the palace as well, don't you?"
Zuko and Marisu shuffled their feet. Perhaps they could have thought their plan through a little more. Iroh's palm met his forehead. Being the only smart one of the bunch, he realized what a mistake he made when he allowed Marisu to 'rescue' him.
"You guys are in so much trouble," interjected another voice. As if on cue, Ty Lee and Mai sprung out from behind Azula and stalked over to them.
"Marisu, I want you to go find somewhere to hide until this is over," Zuko said protectively, even though it was spectacularly uncharacteristic of him.
Marisu looked horrified, "But-"
"Do as I say!" Zuko yelled. Marisu's bottom lip quivered, but she obeyed and ran off to hide.
Just as Zuko was about to have his butt handed to him, a flying bison fell from the sky and landed in the gardens. It appeared that Aang, Sokka, Katara, and Toph had decided to aid him, although why they would do such a thing when the whole of their relationship with Zuko consisted of non-friendly violence was anyone's guess.
"Avatar," Zuko seethed in italics.
"We don't have time for this!" Katara replied, obviously more aware than Zuko of what was going on around her. An unbelievably poorly written fight broke out between them. Water, fire, wind, rocks, fists, knives, and even the occasional boomerang were thrown around for half a page, accomplishing little with the exception of destroying various flora, fauna, and statues of the Fire Lord Ozai (which were all shrouded in shadow). Nothing consequential happened until a scream was heard from Marisu.
"Ah-ha!" Azula said triumphantly as she discovered the pouting girl hiding behind an exceptionally intact statue. Azula smiled once again as she uttered a rather anticlimactic, "I've got you now!"
"Marisu!" cried Zuko, except in type he said this in all capital letters, in addition to the fact that the vowels and exclamation points were in such quantity that a horizontal scroll bar appeared at the bottom of the window.
Just as Azula was about to take a strike at her, Marisu's eyes began to change from their normal brilliant shade of emerald green to an even more brilliant shade of glowing magenta. Her hair made this transition as well, and she began to rise from the ground in an obnoxiously bright sphere of glory. Everybody who wasn't completely blinded or blind to begin with gasped.
Katara looked over at Aang in shock and wonder, "Aang, that looks like-!"
She would have continued had there not been a huge gust of fire that created a swirling vortex above Azula. Azula shrieked like the whiney teen she was not as she parted with the ground and began to get sucked in. As if the vortex was selective, Mai and Ty Lee were the only two who were sucked up as well before the strange portal dissipated.
Marisu's eyes and hair changed back to their normal (but still brilliant) colors. She fell gracefully from the sky until she hit the ground with an elegant and painful-sounding 'thud'. Zuko dashed over to her with freakishly legitimate concern and scooped her up into his arms. Aang and company did not see this because they were too busy discussing what had happened just moments before.
"Aang, did you see that?" Katara asked in awe, "She looked like-"
"Another Avatar," Aang said, nodding and strangely unfazed by this, "I know."
Toph frowned confusedly, "But I thought there was only one Avatar and he had to die and be reincarnated before another one could show up?"
…Nobody answered her.
"Hey, am I the only one who saw those three totally disappear?" shouted Sokka, waving his arms to get attention, "Into thin air!"
"That could only be some kind of plot hole," affirmed Iroh, who had mysteriously reappeared at this moment.
Suddenly, all further discussion was broken by the rather flustered calls of the rather flustered Prince Zuko, "Marisu! Marisu! Can you hear me?"
Marisu's eyes opened slowly and she smiled gently at Zuko, "Zuko... Zuko, I remember now," she whispered weakly.
Zuko shook his head, "Don't strain yourself, you need to rest." He stood up and carried her back to Iroh. As he walked by, he noticed that everybody's jaws had dropped in disbelief and, more so, horror at what they had just heard.
"…Maybe he has an identical twin brother," suggested Sokka, "One with the same scar, and the same name." Zuko starred daggers at Sokka in response, causing the latter's party to try to return to their own business.
"You know, Zuko," started Iroh cautiously, "Since the Avatar just did you a big favor by helping you two, you should probably keep that in mind and return the favor someday."
Zuko took a moment to think of what Iroh knew would be some kind of insulting remark, "I guess."
"Now, Zuko-" Iroh's would-be lecture stopped short. No retort? No debate? No rant about restoring his honor? Something was clearly wrong with his nephew. He furrowed his brow again and continued, "Since we already owe them, maybe we should ask them if it would be okay to join them on their travels." Certainly, Zuko would never have agreed to that.
"Do what you must," he answered.
Iroh stared blankly at Zuko. He stared blankly for a very, very long time.
"…I think I'll go sit down." Iroh walked a distance away from Zuko before sitting down on one of the destroyed statues, pondering what could have possibly gotten into the boy.
Zuko, who barely even noticed Iroh's reaction, continued searching for a suitable place to set Marisu. Once he had accomplished this task, he noticed that Katara was inching towards him.
"Um… Do you need help?" she inquired apprehensively, looking at Marisu.
Zuko's gut instinct was to refuse her, but Marisu was the most important thing right now. She was more important than his morals, previously established personality, and other pivotal facets of his character. He nodded to Katara and stepped away from Marisu. Katara healed her, but still kept a wary eye on Zuko just in case he planned to burn her hair off should she turn her back.
xXxZukoHartzMe4evaXxX's reputation as an author took a turn for the worst, but she had threatened the readers to give her reviews (or else) anyway.
Authors' Note: Poor Zuko... destroyed like this all for the sake of making fan fiction writers feel happy for their characters, or in this case, for historical(?) accuracy. Maybe this is his punishment for what he did at the end of season two?
...Naw, nobody deserves this.
We are open to all comments, compliments, and complaints if anyone is willing to share. Many thanks for reading this far... we know it was probably as painful to read as it was to write, but we still have three more chapters to go...
