Heeeeere is Chapter 3! Thank you everyone who have sent me reviews, you have NO IDEA how you can make a person's day with them! And thank you those who put me on their favs/alert lists, though I'd love it even more if you'd drop even a small little review to make me smile. Sorry if I didn't reply back to your reviews on my previous chapters, I've been swamped with orders to my new shop (cyathula dot etsy dot com), where I sculpt Appa charms, Totoros, and many others! Okay, okay, shameless plug, but it really is very true.
I stayed up all night writing this chapter, because it started out as a simple idea, but somehow grew legs and just wrote itself out, not letting me sleep! I will definitely be coming back and revising or expanding stuff in this chapter later when I'm more awake. If you guys catch any mistakes, have any suggestions, or just want to say hi, PLEASE, by all means, I'll be the happiest person in the world!
9/1/10: I'm a clinically insane proofreader, so I've already added little bits and pieces to make the chapters flow better, and plugged more thoughts and words into our favorite characters.
9/9/10: I'd totally forgotten Momo! Haha, well he makes a brief appearance now, though he is still a very minor character and won't show up too much especially in Zuko's view. Special thanks for Blackcat90 for letting me know. =)
*Added more needed dialogue between Toph and Iroh!
Pointless disclaimer: I don't own AtLA, if I did, I would feed more than the last two minutes of the series to a nice shredder I just invested in.
The Catacombs of Destiny
Ch 3: Out of the Catacombs
-z-
"I'm getting this oddly familiar fear that we're going to be stuck in a weird underground cave forever," Zuko said, leaning against a glowing crystal rock as he watched Katara weave ribbons of water in the air, making rather pretty patterns that reflected the lights of the crystals. A flick of water smacked him in the face, making him jump. "What was that for?"
"Are you still going on about how they wouldn't let you go spelunking with them?" Katara said, rolling her eyes.
He frowned. "You gotta admit it doesn't make any sense that an old man is good enough to go traversing the caves while I can't."
Katara rolled her eyes again. "I guess someone forgot he was struck by lightning and needs to recuperate."
"I feel fine!"
The girl raised an eyebrow at him, and he glared back. Somehow he felt strangely guilty, like he'd been found out. His chest was still hurting like hell, but he had high confidence in his poker face. Zuko knew he was being dumb about not letting her give him another healing session since he gained consciousness, but his pride just wasn't going to let the waterbender that near him. She was pretty cute, he admitted, but the thought of a girl placing her hands on his chest while he was fully conscious made him blush. He was also sick of being weak, and lying around doing nothing was making him restless. He kept his gaze steady on the waterbender, and shot a burst of flame at a stationary ribbon of water in the air (which Katara forgot about since she was still staring at him), turning it instantly to steam.
"Hey!"
The rest of the ribbons of water shot towards him, but he anticipated that. He brought up his arms, which brought up a relatively weak wall of fire that was still able to turn some of the water to steam.
A searing rush of pain flooded his abdomen after he raised his arms, and he doubled over, moaning.
"Okay, tough man, in the water you go," said an exasperated voice. He wasn't sure what she meant until he felt her shove him off the rock and he plunked into the very cold pool of cave water. "Aaahhhh! What the hell, this is freakin' COLD!" he yelled, as he splashed around trying to keep himself afloat. The pool was deceptively much deeper than it looked. He made for the edge of the pool, but realized Katara was in the water as well, in front of said edge. Zuko was trying to comprehend how she was standing in a bottomless pool when he felt a current beneath him, gently pushing his body up and buoying him so he could float on the surface, supine. He looked over at Katara, who looked very amused. He was about to comment, when she floated over and pushed his chest just under the water.
"I've been wanting to bring you here. With a large pool of water this pure, I think you will be perfectly fine after this healing session."
A bright glow emanated from her hands over his stomach, and any complaint he had dissipated in a rush of pure relief.
-t-
"Any place bigger than my parents' estate is TOO BIG!" Toph cried, throwing up her hands. "I feel like these catacombs only cover the area under the Palace..."
"We might could use this to our advantage," Iroh spoke in his slow and steady way. The palace grounds are so grand that we may never find the end. It might be best to find an opportunity to break into the Palace. Miss Toph, can you feel out individual people above us and who they might be?"
Toph stopped. She concentrated hard on the myriad vibrations in the ground, picking out thousands of minuscule vibrations and quickly dismissing all of them—but one. "Hey, it's Bosco the weird bear...bear! He's just pacing around in a small circle. The Earth King must be there, too. I can tell some other people are moving around in small spaces, next to one another... it's a prison all right." She concentrated harder on the fuzzier vibrations. "I think I see Azula, too, kinda far away. She must be sitting down or something, I can't see her too well. But there's a bunch of Dai Li agents stumping around, so I'm betting it's her."
"So Azula is still here... I wonder why..."
Toph cocked her head. "Why wouldn't she be? Doesn't she want to rule the city?"
The old man shook his head. "I do not believe my niece cares to rule a city. The city is overtaken, the fun is over. If she would be idle, she would be in the Fire Nation, close to Ozai."
"It's only been a few days..." Toph said, resuming her walk down the new tunnel they were exploring that day. "You know, I bet she's trying to find us. Can't be too hard to send down some of those loser Dai Li back down the other cavern to check out our remains and find that there aren't any."
"Yes, of course..." Iroh sounded somewhat distracted.
"Shouldn't we go rescue the Earth King and his stupid bear-bear?"
Toph felt the old man start to shake his head, but stopped. Probably 'cause he thinks I can't see it. "No, if we do, it will give away our position that we are nearby. If the Dai Li discover this particular cavern, we would be trapped. Not to mention, much of this ancient city would most likely be destroyed. I think this particular cavern has only survived so well intact because no one has discovered it."
They walked further down the cavern, and Toph idly felt out the abandoned living spaces around them. It seemed like they were in an ancient residential neighborhood. Toph felt a slight shiver go down her spine at the eery emptiness of the place. The further they walked, the more distinct Bosco the bear's restless pacing became. She didn't even need to stop and concentrate to pick it out. Toph found it unsettling, and frowned at the tiny space the bear must be confined to.
Toph suddenly heard a slight chuckle. "Alright, gramps, what is it, you can't chuckle and not tell me!"
"Oh, I am just thinking of my nephew and your friend, Katara. She is a very nice young lady, isn't she?"
"Sugar Queen? Yeah, she can be way too much though. I can only take so much before my teeth start hurting, ya know?"
"Really? I guess I have not noticed. I am still amazed that she could heal Zuko's scar. It is an old scar, and from what I know of healers from the water tribes, they can only heal fresh wounds. She must be an amazing bender. With an amazing heart, too."
"Oh, don't give her so much credit. She's totally got a crush on him, I can hear her heart go nuts a mile away."
Iroh laughed. "You don't say, how could she develop a crush on someone who's been her enemy for so long? Oh... ...nah, surely not."
"What? Tell me!"
"There was a time he had tied her up to a tree. He had found Katara's necklace and was trying to get her to tell him where the Avatar was in exchange for it. That's really the closest interaction I can remember them ever having. Hardly a situation to sow the seeds of romance."
"Man, I totally missed out on so much before I joined the group! So much juicy stuff! I did remember everyone commenting on Sparky's new hair after that time in the ghost town. Sweetness wouldn't shut up about how much better he looked and how ugly he was before!"
"Ah yes, the warrior's tail. One of the royal hairdressers somehow convinced him it would require less care than any other style, I think, which is why he chose it before he left the Fire Nation."
"Hair is so stupid. It's just a huge bunch of blah on the head."
Iroh patted her on the shoulder. "You're right, matters of beauty should never be that important. They serve to distract people from what truly significant: the heart. "
"Right you are, gramps."
They walked in silence for the next few minutes, and Toph found she couldn't stop smiling. Iroh was just the kind of person she always wanted in life but never realized. The kind of wise warmth that was way above the rest who deserved her sarcastic daggers. She found herself wanting to skip and jump like the kids she always detested and was just about to do so when she felt a slight vibration in the levels above, barely noticeable but unique in its light hops.
"Twinkletoes!" Toph cried. "I can feel him! Those floaty steps, definitely him! He just landed somewhere behind us... He's headed to the prisons! Gramps, we got no choice now, we gotta go find him! I bet he thinks we're in prison!"
"Calm down, calm down. Just who... is this Twinkletoes?"
"Ah, right... it's Aang, um, the Avatar. He was off at some temple somewhere during this whole fiasco learning from some guru about some Avatar state stuff. And he's back!"
To her surprise, the Iroh frowned. "How fast can you travel back and get the other two?"
"Less than five minutes by my awesome rock skiing skills, why...? Oh..." Toph's face suddenly drained of color.
"I suspect—"
"Azula and the Dai Li are on the move, she knows!" Toph cried frantically. "How could she know? Twinkles' footsteps are so quiet! We have to go, now!"
"I was afraid of that..." Iroh muttered, running after her.
-k-
"How do you feel?"
"Absolutely perfect."
"Perfect? Wanna test that?" Katara said, about to toss the water she bended out of their clothing back into the pool. Seconds later, she had multiple whips at her disposal, ready for battle.
Zuko cracked his neck and dropped into a firebending stance, a wide smirk on his face. At the sight of his smirk, Katara frowned deeply, remembering a time when he'd tied her to a tree and threatened her with her mom's necklace. If she remembered correctly, he had the same smirk there, too. She still couldn't believe the shaggy-haired boy in front of her was the same as the jerk back then. And even harder now to imagine, since after his final declaration that he was going to actually join them, he seemed so much lighter and easy to talk to.
She quickly circled him and moved away from the pool, her water whips following her. "Let's move away from the pool, the area's too confined."
"Whatever you want," he replied, shrugging.
Once they were out in the larger atrium, Katara struck first, immediately lashing out a long whip that Zuko dodged easily. He swung out of his crouched position and unleashed a volley of fireballs at her. In a split second, she had frozen one of her whips into an icy arc as a platform to slide away from the fireballs which melted off sections of the arc behind her. At the apex of the arc she made, she instantly froze another water whip and sliced away sharp thin discs to throw at the firebender below. He threw up a shield of fire to melt all her discs, but another whip had snaked around to grab him by the legs and freeze him to the ground. He tried to melt the imprisoning structures as fast as he could with fire from his hands but was instantly doused in more water which froze his body and his arms as well.
Katara smiled devilishly as she hopped down from the icy playform and walked towards the prince, who was frozen in a somewhat awkward, crouching position. Sweet retribution! She never did forgive him for tying her up to a tree and prancing around her with her precious necklace from her mother. He gave her a derisive glare. "Smirk away, peasant, know that I wasn't at full strength and this is a cheap victory for you."
"Yeah, it was an awfully short battle, wasn't it, Prince Zuko?"
"Don't call me that, I'm not a prince anymore," he said testily. "Now can you get me out of this ice block, it's freezing."
"Ooh, not 'til you apologize for tying me to a tree that one night many weeks ago! Remember? So humiliating, having all those pirates leering at me! The rope hurt my hands and I didn't just ask you to untie me!"
Zuko rolled his eyes. "Oh, please...first, you were my enemy, and second, you had it coming, standing out there on the river when a waterbending scroll was stolen—"
BOOM!
"What was that?"
Bits of rock fell from the cavern ceiling, a small piece hitting Katara on the head. Both of them instantly looked down the corridor that Iroh and Toph had gone down.
Suddenly a rock tsunami seemed to barrel down from the corridor they were staring at and Katara was about to jet when she heard Zuko screaming at her to free him from the ice. Instantly, the ice splashed to the ground and he ran after Katara to the higher ground near the walls of the cave. As quickly as they saw the avalanche coming at them, it stopped, with Toph at the apex, her feet buried in the rock. "HURRY UP AND GET DOWN HERE! IROH AND AANG'S BATTLING AZULA!"
Next thing they knew, Katara and Zuko found themselves holding onto to Toph for dear life as she rock slid back to end of the corridor. With a quick thrust towards the ground, Toph elevated a piece of rock floor below them and tunneled the way through the ceiling. They popped out into a dungeon of some kind, and prisoners were calling loudly.
"Aang, how is he here?" Katara said, feeling completely overwhelmed by the noise as Toph quickly fixed the floor back to the way it was.
"I'll explain later, but Aang's our ticket out of here on Appa as long as we can keep Sparky's mad sister and her robot minions at bay. Come on, follow me, hurry up!"
A large explosion thundered out, and Zuko pointed towards the blown out wall of a hallway and the courtyard outside. Another fierce explosion rocked the area, and finally Katara understood what it was: Iroh and Azula were both fighting lightning with lightning, and the power was staggering. Aang, meanwhile, held off Dai Li agents with his own earth and airbending skills. "Katara!"
"Aang!" Katara yelled back happily, and her gaze slid to the right of him at a blue and red clad figure. His hair was untidy, and he fought with distinct hooked swords...
"JET! Oh, La! You're alive!" Katara cried. Dai Li agents had trapped Jet's swords in rock and was pressing him down. She immediately popped the cork of her water skin and razor sharp icicles honed in on the backs of Dai Li agents fighting him.
"Heya, Katara! Thanks, I owe you one there!" Jet cried, as he hooked over a Dai Li agent who was attacking Aang, and kicked the man hard in the head.
She ran towards Aang, and helped him fight off another wave of agents. "Are we taking back Ba Sing Se?"
Aang shook his head as he blasted a wave of air in front of him, pushing back some of the enemy. "Fire Nation soldiers will be coming soon, and we can't beat all of them. I just called Appa, we need to get out of here once he gets here!"
Katara nodded, and looked at Jet, who looked quite healthy since the last time she saw him, which was near death. "Jet, how d'you—"
"No, Uncle!"
Katara whipped her head around to see Iroh suddenly faltering and a small black dagger sticking out his back. Zuko, in that brief loss of concentration, was immediately attacked by a pink-clad girl who did a strange set of non-fatal looking jabs against him. In an instant, he collapsed in a boneless heap on the ground, motionless but still able to curse out the girl, who was apparently named Ty-Lee. Iroh still stood, however, and shot fire bursts at the girl who had taken out his nephew. The girl somersaulted aside easily, and tried to go after Iroh, who kept her at bay with fire punches. Azula smiled hungrily at her uncle and her brother as she circled her arm in a familiar way...
"WATCH OUT!" Katara found herself whipping anyone who got in her way as she broke into a frantic run towards Iroh and Zuko. Toph was running, too, next to her, and with one swift, sharp jab of her arm in the air, a giant slab of rock rose from the ground, throwing off whoever was on it, and forming a shield in front of Iroh and Zuko to catch the lightning that issued forth.
"Aah!" Toph suddenly cried and faltered, and Katara saw with horror that a dagger was now protruding out of her right leg. Katara whipped her head around to find the miserable dagger thrower and suddenly found herself face to face with the girl in pink.
"Hi!" the girl said cheerfully and looking like she just arrived at her birthday party. In a blink of an eye, she was suddenly gone. Katara instantly put up a shield of ice around herself and Toph, and could hear the cracking of ice where the girl must have been trying to jab at her. With a twitch of her finger, the ice shield immediately turned into tiny icicles and burst out, catching the girl by the surprise and embedding themselves in her body. "Ow! That's not nice at all!" she cried painfully, then promptly disappeared again, making Katara paranoid for the next few seconds.
"YOU'RE MINE, AVATAR!" Azula screeched, as she conjured devastating electricity. Katara saw Aang bring up a clump of earth to use as a shield similar to what Toph had done. He was swift enough, however, and avoided the bolt which blasted out a wall of the palace. Aang flung the large lump of earth at the princess, who broke it apart with a smaller bolt issued. Katara ripped her eyes from the fight to see a white speck in the sky. Appa!
How were they all going to get on Appa in this ruckus? She ran towards Iroh and Zuko, who was being supported by his uncle as he looked like he couldn't even stand on his own. Toph was already there, fighting off Dai Li agents who tried to apprehend them.
In the briefest, blink of light from the moon, Katara saw another dagger whizzing through the air towards Toph—she can't see it flying in the air!—and Katara jumped in front, catching the dagger in her arm.
"Touching." A girl dressed in red and black robes suddenly dropped in front of her. In her hand were three more daggers, which she instantly threw. Katara whipped out her water and froze them in midair in a large clump of ice. Then she quickly unfroze the water (letting the daggers drop to the ground), and hurtled it as new icicles toward the girl, who dodged them and took out another dagger. Every movement of her hurt arm made her eyes water in excruciating pain, and she was feeling lightheaded. She needed to take this girl down! Finally, she melted the icicles back to water and shot them at the girl's hands, gloving them and freezing them. The girl looked slightly dismayed at her frozen hands, and quickly ran off.
"What'd you do, Katara? Are you okay? What happened?" Toph cried, as Iroh and Zuko came over.
"She was struck by a flying dagger, and fought off a weapons master." Iroh said simply. "Katara, Toph, do you mind helping me with Zuko? I know you are both hurt, but he will not be able to regain any movement for at least a few more minutes."
"Uncle, what are you planning?" Zuko asked frantically, as Iroh slid his arm out from around his shoulders. Toph reluctantly took his place.
"You youngsters need to leave, I will distract everyone as you get on the bison."
"No, you have to come, you can't stay here! She'll kill you!" Zuko cried frantically.
"Oh she can't kill me, Nephew; you give me too little credit! Now, go and don't disappoint me!"
Toph, Zuko, and Katara watched in dismay as Iroh moved faster than they could blink, and stood in front of Aang, who looked as shocked as they were. He said something to Aang, who looked upset. Aang then called Jet, who called his two friends, who brought out Bosco the bear and the Earth King.
"OH LA!" Katara heard a familiar voice cry. She looked up and saw Sokka, who had palmed his forehead at the number of people gathered to board Appa. Momo the lemur sat on his shoulder, looking wide-eyed at the number of people as well (or, Katara realized, that's how he always looks...) "First come, first serve, people!"
"Sokka!" Katara's look of joy at the sight of her brother instantly turned into a deep scowl. "EVERYONE is getting on, no buts!"
"Think of poor Appa here! There were only supposed to be TWO more, not TEN more!" Sokka cried back weakly, as Aang called up a wind and swept the Earth King and Bosco into the saddle. Next came Katara, Toph, and Zuko.
"Wait, what the hell is he doing here?" Sokka yelled, pointing at Zuko. "He's our new friend!" Katara and Toph cried, giving him a threatening look. Aang then called to Jet ("JET? CAN SOMEONE WAKE ME UP?" Sokka cried, slapping himself repeatedly on the cheek), Smellerbee, and Longshot, who all stopped fighting to catch the whirlwind onto the bison. Appa groaned heavily at the weight, but managed a happier growl when Aang twirled himself onto the bison's head. Momo quickly jumped off Sokka's shoulder and made himself at home on Aang's head.
"RUN LIKE THE COWARD YOU ARE, ZUZU!" Azula laughed maniacally, but every time she tried to get shots at the bison, Iroh countered her and forced her attention back on him.
"GO!" cried Iroh. As the courtyard disappeared from sight, Katara finally dared to look at Zuko, who was completely ashen. "We'll get him back, Zuko."
"Yes," he hissed through clenched teeth. "There's no doubt about that."
YEEEEUP, Jet's alive, I honestly liked him quite a bit and thought it a bit raw to let him wheeze out. Not to mention, the series doomed the other two to die either of hunger or suicide as well, and that's SO WRONG! Not to mention, Katara should have been able to save ANYONE from the brink of death if she could save Zuko from a lightning bolt in the chest in that last battle. Er right, so... how did Jet survive? I guess we'll find out later! Next chapter will most likely focus on all the crazy relationships a large new family like the one on the back of Appa could possibly garner! Fun times! Got suggestions? Let me know!
On a side note, Mai has no romantic connection with Zuko. My reasoning is that she's always been friends with Azula, and any friend of Azula is no friend of Zuko's. Now, I actually like Mai quite a bit as a character, so she's gonna stay as cool and bored as she's always been and I'm not going to assassinate her character as Zutara stories tend to do.
I have two giant commissions to sculpt (Totoro girls and an Ohmu from Nausicaa, if you care), so progress might be slow. But...
If ya wanna experience an amazing power where you can control a person (short of bloodbending, *shiver*), send me a REVIEW and rest assured, I will have opened up the writing program within 5 minutes and be writing the next chapter! =P Thank you!
