Hola again, my little readers. Today we start the fourth chapter! Aren't you excited? Isn't this just the best? Don't you wanna scream at me for waiting so long to update? I know you do, and I don't blame you. Mucho apologies for the lateness of this chapter. But I had finals, went out of town, and then found myself swamped with other things. Oh well, I did get plenty of reviews on the upside! Thanks go out to everyone who reviewed, you all make me happy inside. Now, to the many of you who DIDN'T review, here's a new excuse for you to send one in! I would like to say in advance that NO, I am definitely not going for word by word conversations straight from the show! First off, it's too hard, second, you'd all know what they were going to say before you read it, and third, a new character would definitely change what's being said most of the time. With that being said, I am going to absolutely follow the plot and story line- of course. However, I may not visit each episode (I mean, there's 61 of them! That'd be a lot of chapters!). So I'm going to do the main, most important episodes, ones with Zuko and the Aang gang in them, and my personal favorites that Xia or Zuko are/would be in. So, without further ado, Chapter Four. Disclaimer: If I owned Avatar, people would know already. And I'd be genetically designing a real life Zuko to fit my criteria perfectly. Which, I am sadly not. But I wish I was. Not that I'm smart enough to genetically engineer anything, but hey.
Nope. That didn't quite make sense to me either. -I-
"Good morning!" Aang turned his head to beam back at her.
"Morning." she replied as she stretched her arms a bit.
"You're an early riser too?"
"Bad habit." Xia grinned. She always woke up with the rising sun, no matter how little she'd slept or how tired she was. "I blame it on my parentage."
Aang laughed, "I've always been an early riser. There's just so much to see during the day that I-" he broke off as Katara sat up and stretched with a yawn.
Aang beamed at her, "Good morning! Did we wake you up? Sorry!" he said hurriedly, his cheeks turning bright red. Xia had to cover her mouth to conceal her grin.
Katara shook her head, blinking at Xia a couple of times as if confused why she was there. Then she seemed to remember last night's events and nudged Sokka, probably so she wouldn't be alone in the back with a stranger. "Wake up."
"Wha?" Sokka grunted, the end of the word turning into a snore. Katara jammed her elbow into his gut, and he bolted upright, making a gurgling noise. "WHAT?" he shouted, whirling around at Katara, "IS YOUR PROBLEM?"
"It's morning." she replied simply with a shrug as she rebraided her long brown hair.
Sokka jabbed his finger angrily at the sun on the horizon. "No! No it is NOT, KATARA! Do you know how early it is?"
"Very early?" Katara guessed dryly.
"So early that sarcastic mocking about it is banned!" Sokka yelled.
"Oh, darn."
"BANNED!" he glared at her for a moment before looking over at Xia for the first time that morning. He looked sort of startled, before sighing in disappointment. "Oh. You're still here."
"Yep. I almost rolled over to my death in my sleep once, but your snores woke me up before I went over the side." Xia retorted, adding solemnly, "You've saved my life, Sokka."
"Darn it. I'll be sure to snore quieter tonight then."
Xia snorted, "Good luck with that one."
Sokka opened his mouth to say something back, but Katara suddenly interrupted. "Sokka, give me your pants."
"What?" Sokka appeared startled by the question. "You've got a skirt of your own, you know."
Katara sighed in exasperation. "I don't want to wear them, you idiot. You've got an enormous hole in them. I'm going to sew it up."
"Oh…" he suddenly glanced over at Xia and began to protest, "I am NOT taking my pants off. Especially in front of a girl. Especially a girl we just met. Especially a girl we just met who's from the Fire Nation. Especially a girl we just met who's-"
"Fine then. Walk around with your underwear showing. Fine by me."
Xia held up her hands in mock surrender. "I wasn't planning on looking, believe me. I prefer to remain unscarred for life."
Sokka scowled at her before grumbling, "Turn around."
"Happily." Xia went to the front of the saddle, looking past Aang's shoulder. Aang tried to show Katara a trick with Airbending and marbles, but she wasn't looking. He faced the front again, frowning glumly. "So where are we going?" Xia asked, mainly to get him to snap out of it.
"Oh, he has no idea. I just personally hope he doesn't forget the North Pole is northward." Sokka sighed from behind her.
"We're going to make a quick stop in a minute." Aang said cheerfully, perking up and ignoring Sokka's comment.
"I don't know Aang." Katara said doubtfully. "We've made an awful lot of stops, and I'm not sure if we can afford to make many more."
"The North Pole cant be that far, Katara. We can take a little break."
"Well… we do need to resupply…"
"So is that where we're going?" Xia chimed in. "The North Pole?"
"Yeah, so we can learn Waterbending." Aang nodded, still facing forward. "You can learn with us!" he added brightly, obviously pleased there was another person who had similar abilities to his. Xia smiled slightly and focused on the clouds, blocking out Katara and Sokka, who'd begun to bicker.
"You're such a sexist!" Katara flung Sokka's pants into his face.
"Well, it's only the truth! Sorry if it hurts!" he protested as he stood shakily and tried to put his pants back on, half sewed-up hole and all.
"Don't make me knock you over." Katara grumbled, looking threateningly at the edge of the saddle.
Sokka quickly plopped back down with a smirk. "Just try, little Sis, just try. Bet you couldn't- even if you wanted to- since you're a girl and all. OUCH!" he yelped, breaking off to rub his jaw where Katara had slapped him.
-I-"Are you crazy?" Sokka shouted at Aang, who was now standing with them on the shore, panting and dripping wet.
"I didn't know there was a giant sea monster thing in there!" he managed to protest.
"You're safe, and that's all that matters." Katara said quietly. "Let's get out of here before anything else happens."
Sokka opened his mouth to say something when Xia's hood was flipped over her eyes and her wrists were bound. The air around her lashed out and she could hear a couple of thuds before something slammed into the back of her head and everything went black.
When she woke up, someone was taking a blindfold off of her. She was tied to a pole, Sokka on one side of her, Katara on the other. She blinked a couple of times before realizing that someone was talking. "Where are the men who ambushed us?" Sokka demanded, looking around.
"There were no men!" a teenage girl with elaborate white make-up smirked. "We ambushed you. Now, tell us who you are and why you're here!"
"There's no way a bunch of girls took us down!"
"A bunch of girls, huh?" the white faced girl took a step closer to Sokka, looking threatening. "The Unagi's going to eat well tonight!"
"No, don't hurt him, he didn't mean it!" Katara spoke up, "My brother's just an idiot sometimes!"
Xia snorted, "Sometimes?"
"Okay, well, most of the time." Katara amended.
Sokka glared over at Xia and said dryly, "Oh, great. You woke up."
Xia demanded. "What's the Unagi? Where are we?" She shifted and gently began Firebending through her bonds.
"It's my fault." Aang interrupted her questions. "I wanted to ride the Elephant Koi. I'm sorry.
An old, very angry looking man still glared at them. "How do we know you're not Fire Nation spies? Kyoshi's stayed out of the war so far, and we intend to keep it that way!"
"Well, we aren't." Sokka pointedly shot a glance at Xia, who rolled her eyes.
Aang straightened up, "Kyoshi? As in Avatar Kyoshi? I knew her!"
"How could you have?" the old man scoffed. "She was born here four hundred years ago."
Aang took a deep breath, "I know her, because I'm the Avatar."
The girl shook her head angrily "The Avatar disappeared a hundred years ago!"
"That's me!" Aang admitted sheepishly.
"Throw the imposters to the Unagi!" the old man cried.
"Yeah, still don't know what that is." Xia grumbled.
"Aang, do some Airbending!" Katara muttered as the warriors- all girls- stepped forward. Aang launched up into the air and gently floated down as the small crowd that had formed ooh-ed loudly.
"It's true! You are the Avatar!" the old man cried.
"Now watch this!" Aang shouted triumphantly, whipping out his marbles and Airbending them in a circle. The crowd went berserk.
"Well, since that's cleared up." Xia shoved the remains of her bindings in her cloak pocket and withdrew a small knife, cutting Katara free as well. Sokka looked at her expectantly, but Xia grinned and handed the knife to Katara, who looked back at her, puzzled. "You can free him whenever you want to. Just keep in mind those sexist cracks he let loose this morning."
Katara began to grin as well and Sokka's face fell. "What? You can't seriously be thinking-"
"Sokka, shut up or I won't cut you loose." Katara ordered, and Sokka stopped talking quickly. Xia followed Aang to where they were going to sleep, and Katara started walking with her.
"Where are you going?" Sokka shouted at them.
"Well, I never said that if you did shut up then I would let you loose." Katara smirked, pocketing the knife. "Don't worry, I'll untie you at some point. Maybe after dinner."
"KATARA!"
-I-
"Stupid girls." Katara grumbled, carrying the basket back to their room from the market place. "Stupid show-off. Stupid Aangie-poo." she spat out the pet name like it was a disease. Xia walked beside her, masking a grin. Ever since their capture of Sokka, the two'd been getting along extremely well and had stuck with each other a lot. Then again, they were two strangers in a town, and Aang was showing off, and Sokka was hanging around with the Kyoshi warriors. The only other people they knew- even if it was only a little bit- were each other.
Katara turned to Xia, still frowning. "You can Airbend too. How come they aren't all fawning over you as well?"
Xia shrugged. "I'm not the Avatar."
"You're the daughter of the Sun Spirit, probably the first half-spirit ever!" Katara protested. "That's something!"
Xia shook her head. "And I'm also from the Fire Nation, Katara. I Firebend. Not only that, but I'm a Firebending Master. They're afraid of me." she said simply.
Katara stopped walking to look at her. "I… Is it always like that when you're not in the Fire Nation?"
Xia nodded, "Think about it. When you found out I was from Fire Nation, how did you feel?"
"Scared…" Katara admitted, looking down. "Suspicious… I hated you."
Xia shrugged again. "You took it better than most. Some aren't as nonviolent." she sighed. "If I've learned anything the last year I was searching for Aang, it's that it's much easier for me to pretend that I'm not from my true home. It's safer."
"Xia… I'm sorry."
She smiled weakly, "It's not your fault." she opened the door to their room and Katara put down the basket and thankfully changed the subject.
-I-"Xia! Fire Nation soldiers landed on the shore! We need you." a Kyoshi Warrior with extremely short hair burst into the room she'd been sitting in.
Xia scrambled up, grabbing her cloak, tucking her hair into the hood, and pulling it over her head. "Have you told the others?"
"Katara and Aang are coming. They were at the beach." the warrior replied. Her voice was weirdly deep and familiar.
"And Sokka?"
"Oh, very funny, Xia. You're hilarious." the girl rolled her eyes.
Xia stared at her for a moment and her eyes widened. "Sokka?"
Sokka, wearing entirely Kyoshi warrior clothes, deflated, "You were serious?"
"Why are you in a dress?" Xia stammered, trying not to laugh.
"Suki made me! And- oh, nevermind! Just come on!" Sokka said in exasperation, grabbing her arm and tugging her out the door. They positioned themselves with the other Kyoshi warriors. Xia could hear the footsteps of large animals approaching, but she couldn't see over Sokka's shoulder.
"Not him again." Sokka grumbled, looking ahead. Xia tried to look around him, but there was another warrior in the way.
"Who?" she asked curiously, but then she heard one of the soldiers shout, and momentarily her heart stopped. When it started working again, it was pounding hard.
"Come out, Avatar! You can't hide from me forever!" the voice was so familiar. Different than the last time she'd heard it. Older. But it sounded like…
Sokka suddenly shifted and Xia could see out the window of the house and out into the street. She glanced out and froze.
It took her a moment to comprehend what she was seeing. Xia blinked a couple of times, trying to make sure she wasn't loosing her mind. But, no. It was Zuko, mounted on a Komodo Rhino and glaring out into the village. He had a scar across one side of his face, but it was his eyes that were the most different from the Zuko she remembered. They were full of anger and hatred.
Xia realized that the Kyoshi warriors were starting the attack, and she held back, still in shock. She looked out the window and saw Zuko turn his Komodo Rhino to whip Suki aside. And it suddenly hit her. He was hunting Aang. The person she was supposed to protect and help.
Xia ran out of the house and into the rode, facing the soldiers. She whipped her hands up and into the defensive Firebending position. The part of her that was still able to think rationally knew that she'd have to at least look like she was regularly Firebending, or Zuko- who'd trained with her thousands of times- would be able to recognize her despite the hood that was covering her hair and casting a shadow over her face.
Blue and red flames spiraled out as she whipped her leg across her body in a fluid motion. There were shouts of surprise from the soldiers, who obviously weren't expecting a Firebender to fight them. Zuko spotted the fire and jumped down from his Komodo Rhino, glaring at her. "So the Avatar travels with a traitor."
Xia shrugged, and, knowing her voice must sound completely different than the last time he'd heard it, replied, "If you could call me that."
Zuko looked at her harder, as if he was trying to realize who she was. To distract him, she sent a column of flames at his head. He ducked and jetted fire at her legs. Xia flipped over easily and shot a sphere of fire at him, but he dodged, staring at her shoulder.
Xia glanced at her shoulder: a single red-gold curl had escaped her hood during her flip. She swore mentally as Zuko's eyes widened in disbelief. "… Xia?" he whispered.
A soldier suddenly threw a knife at her, and her hand flew up, melting the weapon in mid-air.
"Wait, no!" Zuko began as another soldier came up from behind her and Xia began battling both. She hurled a jet of flame at one of the soldiers, and he cried out in pain. Zuko's face hardened ever so slightly and he turned to look away from her. "Are you going to hide behind a bunch of girls, Avatar?"
"Hey! Over here!" Aang suddenly shouted, appearing behind him.
"Finally." Zuko muttered, summoning a huge amount of flames and throwing them at the Airbender. The two began fighting and Aang hurled Zuko into a house with a blast of air.
Aang scooped up his glider and turned to Xia just as she sent a soldier flying back. "Come on!" he shouted at her.
Xia nodded and sprinted back to their room with a little Airbending. She grabbed her own glider and jumped out of the window, soaring toward where Katara and Aang where talking. "I'll call Appa." Aang was saying glumly, and Xia dropped down next to them, managing a quick nod before the three went over and got on Appa. Sokka joined them, blushing slightly.
Appa grunted and launched into the air, Zuko angrily shouting at his soldiers below. When they were out over the ocean, Katara said quietly, "I know it feels wrong to just leave, but it's the right thing."
Aang didn't answer, and he suddenly leapt off Appa, falling into the water below. He appeared again above the surface, right on top of the Unagi, holding it by its feeler things. Aang pulled hard, and water soared out of its mouth and onto the blazing village, putting out most of the fire. Xia took a deep breath and let herself connect emotionally with the rest of the flames, and willed them to die down. When she opened her eyes, Aang was back in the saddle with them.
Aang sighed and looked at Katara, ready to be scolded. "I know, I know. That was stupid and reckless."
"Yes, yes it was." Katara grinned and hugged Aang, who sighed happily.
Xia glanced at Sokka for a moment, and then started chuckling. "By the spirits, Sokka. Get out of the dress, I can barely take you seriously when you're not cross dressing."
"It stands for bravery and, and-" Sokka began defensively.
"I understand that, but it doesn't make it any less stupid looking on you."
"I don't know." Aang spoke up with a grin. "I think you can pull off wearing girl's clothes, Sokka."
"Oh, shut up, airhead."
Zuko looked up at the sky, still soaking wet. From here he could still vaguely see the four people sitting up there on the flying bison. And if he squinted, he could see the fourth figure's hair glinting in the light, the color of the sunset.
-I-
Zuko stared out at the ocean, feeling confused. Xia had fought against him. Xia. His best friend for six years had opposed him. How many times had he wished those past few years that she'd come with him, or that someone from his old life would show up? And now Xia had, but she'd fought with the Avatar, the one thing that could help him return home. And then she left with him.
He shook his head to clear his thoughts and signaled the captain to keep going strait. If he looked through his spyglass, he could still the faint outline of the Avatar's bison on the horizon.
A few hours later, they reached the shore he'd seen the Avatar stop near.
"Sir, do you want the troops to armor up?" one of his men asked.
Making a split second decision, Zuko shook his head. "No, I'll go alone."
Uncle raised his eyebrows. "Prince Zuko, is this really such a good decision?"
"I said I'd go alone!" Zuko repeated angrily. He walked off the boat without another word and set off into the trees. Silently, he followed a set of tracks from the beach. He suddenly heard whispering, and he froze, holding his breath.
"Stupid insomnia." he heard a quiet girl's voice mutter, and a small light came closer to him. When the girl came closer, he could tell the fire was coming from her hands. The fire and the moonlight illuminated her face. Recognizing her, Zuko took a step back then swore under his breath when a twig snapped underneath his heel.
Xia whirled around toward where the noise had come from. "Who's there?" she demanded, the flame in her fists growing white hot.
Taking a deep breath, Zuko stepped out of the shadows, his hands up slightly. He lowered them and the two stared at each other for a moment. Breaking the silence, Zuko muttered, "You look different." And then he realized what he'd said and turned red slightly. But it was true. She looked nothing like the little girl he'd seen last. Except her eyes still held that determined glint and her hair was the same color, but it was longer and out of its braid, falling in gentle curls to her ribs.
"It has been three years." Xia answered evenly. They were silent for a moment before suddenly Xia ran up and hugged him tightly. Zuko blinked in surprise before returning the hug. "I missed you." she said softly.
"I missed you too." he replied just as quietly as he instantly forgot why he was supposed to be angry with her. But then she pulled away and took a step back.
"What are you doing here?" she asked, seeming to remember what had happened earlier.
"What am I doing here?" Zuko asked incredulously, "Xia, what are you doing here?"
Xia looked back at him defiantly. "I'm where I'm supposed to be, Zuko."
"With the Avatar?"
"Yes." she nodded.
"How did you even get out of the palace?" Zuko demanded.
"Your father let me around a year ago. I convinced him I needed to travel the world to learn bending."
"Wait," he whispered. "You've been out for a year. A year?" he was suddenly angry again. "And you never once tried to find me, your best friend? Not once?"
"It's not like I knew where you were." Xia snapped. "And my father told me to find Aang to help the balance-"
"The balance? There is no balance." Zuko interrupted her scornfully. "I can't believe you were fooled like this. You, of all people!"
"Of course, me!" Xia retorted. "I finally saw what was staring us in the face our whole lives! And I know you'll eventually realize it too." she took a deep breath, then went on quickly. "Zuko, come with us. I know they don't trust you, but maybe I could convince them to let you come. Katara and Aang trust me, and Sokka does too, I think, even though he won't admit it. You could help us, you could teach Aang Firebending. I can't because the spirits forbid it, but you could."
Zuko closed his eyes and shook his head, not believing what he was hearing. "…No. How could you even ask me that? The Avatar is the only thing that keeps me from my home, Xia! Our home." he suddenly opened his eyes and said in a hopeful rush, "What if you helped me capture him? I know you've somehow gotten the idea that what you're doing is right, but you'll eventually realize it isn't. Help me, and everything can go back to how it was."
Xia took another step back. "I can't. It can never go back to how it was when we were children. Even we know that." she said after a pause.
Zuko's fist clenched. "So you're choosing him over me? A stranger you just met over me, your best friend for six years?"
"Those six years were a long time ago," Xia said quietly, "This isn't about me or you."
"I will capture him, Xia. And I will return home." Zuko said angrily.
Xia stood up straighter. "If you hurt him, I will kill you."
"It's my destiny to kill the Avatar!" Zuko nearly shouted, forgetting entirely that the Avatar and his other friends were nearby.
"Then it's my destiny to kill you." Xia whispered, tears forming in her eyes.
Zuko turned away, stung. "For the sake of what we once shared, you won't be attacked tonight." he said finally, not looking at her.
"Thank you." Xia replied softly. The air around him whipped up gently, and when he turned, she was gone.
-I-
Okay, yeah. I know Zuko didn't catch up with the gang again for a while, but I really didn't want to wait until forever to have them see each other again! I really wanted to write this last scene… even if it was them fighting… … … Zuko was in this chapter! SQUEEE!
Well! I hope you liked this chapter, mucho apologies once more for the ENDLESS wait. Hope it was worth it. As always, review, dear readers! And please, refrain from mutilating my small, mostly nonexistent self-confidence. Thank you.
~Chloe Knightshade.
