A/N – Get ready for an epic, action packed chapter of awesomeness! I had so much fun writing this! Make sure you don't start reading unless you know you can finish!
Disclaimer – All of ATLA's crazy awesome plot and characters don't belong to me, but this epic fight scene does!
Chapter 4 – Ambushed!
Katara was ushered back into her small room after eating a quick bowl of rice and steamed vegetables with Haru and Sokka. Iroh hadn't dined with them, but still had brewed a large pot of tea for the three teenagers to share. Some of the guards had been difficult, and didn't let them talk much; forcing them apart to eat separately. Katara remembered exchanging glances with Haru a lot during the meal, their curiosity with the prince's actions earlier etched into their faces. She had tried to catch Sokka's eye, but he was too busy scarfing down whatever the guards put in front of him to notice.
She lay down on her bed thinking about the day's horrible happenings and brought her knees to her chest. She thought the day she would leave the Southern Water Tribe would have been a grand and glorious departure, with the whole tribe's best wishes and loving faces to remember. Now terror filled and heartbroken faces were carved into her memory from when she was dragged away unwillingly. She would never forget.
Katara eventually was lulled to sleep by the ships soft rumbling.
She woke up to a terrible blast that threw her from her mat and almost hit the table.
"What on earth!" she exclaimed. Another blast came, this one closer. Katara slammed into the opposite wall and moaned. It took a little while for her to get her head to stop ringing, but she soon noticed the door had been flung open from the last blast.
Her heart raced. 'Maybe I can slip away with all this confusion' she thought as she peered into the empty corridor. As she ventured out still deciding what to do, a few Fire Nation soldiers bolted around the corner.
"Stop right there!" one of them yelled.
'Too late', she thought, and sprinted in the opposite direction.
When she reached the stairs she knew led to the deck, she heard fighting and screaming coming from above. She glanced behind her and saw the soldiers round the corner.
"Come back here you little-" SLAM! One of the soldiers dropped to reveal Sokka holding what looked like an iron piece of pipe.
'Wha-' the other soldier turned, but Sokka quickly smashed in his skull faceplate with a sickening crunch. The man slumped over and Sokka ran quickly to his baby sister.
"Sokka! What's going on?" Katara asked.
"I think Zuko is being ambushed!" Sokka replied excitedly. "Let's go see!" He grabbed her arm and pulled her up the short flight of stairs out onto the deck.
"Ewwww…" Sokka groaned and took a step back into Katara. Then she smelled it. It was worse than the spray of an artic skunk hare. Katara looked around holding her nose, her eyes watering. The sun was still down, but it had already begun to cast a small bit of light into the sky as dawn approached. And what she saw she didn't believe.
A small fleet of water tribe ships had surrounded the metal monster. There were soldiers everywhere in disarray, and some had taken off their faceplates so they could hold their noses.
"IT'S DAD!" Sokka shouted ecstatically and his face glowed as he recognized the fleet's flagship. Katara thought he saw him jump five feet in the air as he ran to where the nearest group of fighters were fighting and started to swing his iron pipe with reckless abandon.
'Dad!' she thought as she turned to see the ships and then to a figure on the second tier in heavy combat. She recognized him immediately. "IT IS DAD!" she let out, her heart overwhelmed with all the emotions of her father leaving her and finally seeing him again after all those years. She ran without thinking what was going on around her. She had to get to her father. She tore through the door that led to the upper tiers and came into a large common room with stairs in the corner. There were a few water tribe warriors fighting Fire Nation soldiers, and she recognized one.
'Bato?' Katara asked uncertainly.
Bato heard a voice call his name behind him, but didn't let it break his focus. He dodged a fire blast, and quickly moved to the floor where he kicked his legs into a fast sweep, downing his man. He then jumped on top of him and smashed his faceplate-less head with his elbow.
The other warrior wasn't as lucky. At Katara's voice, he turned, confused at hearing someone feminine on the ship and was caught to his knees by the heel of the other Fire Nation soldier's foot.
The Fire Nation soldier than hesitated slightly because he couldn't decide whether to help his friend, who had just been floored beside him, or continue attacking. In this hesitation, a Water Tribe warrior ran in the back doorway and stuck him with his spear.
Katara just gasped as she witnessed the soldier's death. And three masked heads turned to find the source of the noise.
"Katara?" Bato said surprised beyond belief as his eyes spread wide and eyebrows disappeared.
But before they could embrace or exchange words, a blast of black earth sent Bato reeling across the room and landing hard against the wall.
Haru had entered from yet another entrance, a large pile of coal pushed along at his feet.
"What are you doing!" Katara exclaimed. Haru was slightly surprised to see Katara at the other end of the room but his face quickly hardened as he turned to his next two opponents.
"Stay out of this, Katara." He said slowly, and started to attack the other warriors with large chunks, just like Bato. Unprepared, and completely taken off guard by an earthbending attacker, the other two warriors were unceremoniously knocked out and slumped to the floor.
Enraged and adrenaline pumping furiously through her veins, Katara looked for any source of water to bend. She saw a very large pipe near the ceiling that she was sure had water in it, and focused on it, trying with all her might to get it to freeze or back up somehow. Nothing happened.
"Come on…" she struggled out scrunching up her face.
With nothing happening, Haru had time to pin Katara to the floor as gently as he could with some spare bits of coal.
"Stay down, Katara! You could get hurt!" he yelled as he ran across the room toward the stairs, and the slight hint of worry in his voice infuriated Katara to bursting point.
"How could you…" Katara started darkly. "How could you fight-for-THEM!" she screeched waving her arms wildly.
There was a massive explosion from above, as torrents of water cascaded straight onto the young earthbender. Haru was washed smack into the steel counter near the stairs, and groaned as he tried to sit up.
Katara was in his face before he could gather his bearings.
"Why?" was all she said with tears now in her eyes as she realized Haru was a traitor. Haru made a shaky movement with his left arm, but Katara roughly threw her hands up, knowing from her past experience that this usually froze the water haphazardly. She was not disappointed, and Haru was stuck to the counter by an encasement of ice.
Haru was baffled at Katara's strength, never thinking of her as a threat. But now he was stuck, so he answered truthfully, "Right as we were first attacked, Iroh came to my room and gave me his word that he would have me released if I helped to defend the ship." He paused thinking if he should continue. "I was so excited because Iroh never goes back on his word."
"So you're on their side now!" Katara fumed. "How could you? Think about what they did to your family-!" There was a shout above her that made her remember her purpose for coming through here. She flew to the staircase with worried thoughts of her dad, but whipped around to face Haru before climbing.
"You better hope I never see you again." She said threateningly, and quickly climbed the staircase.
*10 minutes ago…*
Zuko was in a tight spot. He looked around at the encircling Water Tribe ships and shouted for a damage report from the mines that hit them.
"The engines have stopped and the rudder is jammed sir" replied an out of breath engineer who had just run up. "We haven't found any hull damage, but the smell is unbearable…"
"Go check it again" ordered Zuko. "I'm sure I felt something crack down there."
"But sir…" the engineer complained holding his nose.
"GO!" Zuko yelled in his face, and the man nodded running off.
'Where is uncle?' Zuko thought, and as if on cue, Iroh huffed up the outside stairs to the bridge.
"We are being boarded" he reported quickly trying to catch his breath.
"Can we win this?" Zuko looked to his uncle for advice on his next move.
"We should have the advantage if they fight us directly; we outnumber them 2 to 1. But we were caught off guard by their mines and this horrid smell, so I ensured that we have an ace up our sleeve if things gets dodgy."
"What?" asked Zuko, his eyes now watching warriors with masks dressed in blue climb up onto the deck.
"I convinced Haru to fight for us on my word of his release if we come out of this on top." Iroh explained watching to see if Zuko would disapprove.
"That was probably wise…" Zuko looked toward his uncle with trust. "They won't expect to be facing any earthbenders."
"Exactly" stated Iroh. "What of the other prisoners? They are sure to side with the enemy once they find out they are water tribe."
"Right after the blasts, I sent some men to guard them." Zuko said hurriedly. "Haru must have slipped by…"
They heard the door to the second tier below burst open and looked over to see three masked warriors turn to face two of Zuko's firebenders and three spearmen. The warriors fought furiously and traded blows putting up a pretty good fight.
"I recognize that one." Iroh said pointing to the warrior who was taking on the 3 spearmen all at once. "It's Hakoda, leader of the men from the Southern Water Tribe. He's been on the fire nation's most wanted list for about five years now for raiding ports and ships near the earth Kingdom coast."
"But we're so far from the coast, what could he be doing in these waters?" Zuko queried feeling like he was missing something.
"Maybe he is returning home…" Iroh mused as he watched one of the firebenders give a pretty nasty burn to one of the warriors. "…and he just happened across our ship?"
'Too coincidental' , Zuko thought, watching the firebenders overtake the two warriors, and then his eyes widened as he realized something from yesterday.
"Uh… uncle…" Zuko started and turned to face Iroh.
"Hmm?" Iroh replied and slipped into an aggressive firebending stance to get ready to shoot some massive flames at one of the water tribe ships.
"I-think-his-kids-might-be-on-this-ship!" Zuko exclaimed as the door directly behind him shot open.
Hakoda stood there spear in hand having managed to get past the three soldiers Iroh and Zuko hadn't been watching.
"Surrender!" he shouted shoving the spear-point to poke the armor on Zuko's back.
Zuko slowly raised his hands, but caught a wink from Iroh, who had turned his head just slightly to let his nephew see.
As fast as he could Zuko ducked and rolled just as Iroh whipped around to let the colossal fire-blast he had meant for one of the Water Tribe vessels fly out towards Hakoda.
As soon as he had seen Zuko get out of the way, Hakoda expected the attack. He dove towards Zuko, dropping the spear, but catching his foot as he felt his back burn from the immense heat.
They tumbled out onto the balcony and somehow Hakoda ended up having Zuko pinned to the ground his hand on his throat while Iroh was attacked from more warriors coming up the inner stairs.
"You fire nation are all the same…" Hakoda said. "…and you all die the same."
Zuko clawed his fingers at the chief's tight grip and realized something. 'He doesn't know' he thought. "How could he know?'
"Let – me - go" Zuko sputtered. "Or Sokka - and Katara - will never see - the light of day – again." He half bluffed.
"Sokka… and Katara…?" surprise and horror filled Hakoda as the firebender he was killing breathed out the names of his children. His grip slackened, and Zuko was able to inhale enough air to burn Hakoda's wrists away from him and kick him back into the bridge.
But before Zuko could deliver a final blow, a massive tier splitting pipe blast shook the entire structure so horribly he was thrown from the balcony, barely able to catch the side with one hand.
Zuko feared for his life as he glanced down to the deck below. He wasn't sure he would survive if he fell...
Hakoda was helped up by one of his warriors that had breached the brig and took out a long knife, turning toward the balcony.
"Zuko!" Iroh yelled, still trying to get up from the last blast.
Katara rushed up the stairs to the second tier and the first thing she noticed was Prince Zuko hanging far out over the deck on the upper balcony. She rushed to the right side stairs to get a better look, and saw four Water Tribe warriors who had infiltrated the bridge, and her dad, who was slowly walking to the edge of the balcony.
She smirked. 'Victory water tribe!'
"Uncle!" Zuko shouted, desperately trying to climb back up, but to no avail.
Then Katara saw Iroh on the other side of the ship halfway up the stairs moving his hands in circles, some sparks forming.
*Just a few moments ago...*
"Zuko!" Iroh yelled as he slowly struggled to his feet.
The blast had thrown him out on the left side of the bridge and winded him, but fates would have it that the warriors now in the bridge couldn't get to him directly due to the door that had jammed shut after the blast.
He took two seconds to analyze the situation. Zuko was hanging from the balcony. Hakoda was walking toward him with a sharp knife drawn.
"Uncle!" his nephew shouted.
He took one second to make a decision. The sun peaked over the horizon and hit Iroh with the powerful first rays of daylight. He took in a controlled breath that was a necessary three and a half seconds long, and started circling his hands.
As he conjured the lightning, he analyzed the angles, and saw that he could make the most accurate hit to the chief on his left leg, right above his kneecap.
This is where he aimed, and this is where the lightning struck, not only severely damaging the leg, but also blasting him straight up and over his nephew.
As soon as the warriors saw their leader plummet, they started calling "Retreat! Retreat!" just as Iroh expected.
What he did not expect, and had not expected in the last 40 years of his life, happened just across from him on the other set of stairs.
"Blessed Agni…" he breathed awestruck and staring.
A/N – I'M EVIL! I'm also kind of new to this, so would this be the appropriate time to beg for reviews? To spark some interest, I'll tell you that the next chapter will be titled, 'The Avatar Awakes'. And thanks to all that have already reviewed!