7. Dreams can be deceiving like faces are to hearts
"If you weren't on a date with Zuko last night then what where the two of you doing?" Suki asked.
"I told you we were just having tea."
"In a fancy dress? At night? With everyone gone?"
"I didn't know everyone was going to be gone."
"You can tell me." Suki insisted. "I won't say anything. I didn't last night. Kyoshi warriors' honor."
"All right." Katara said. "It wasn't a date, but it felt like one. I wanted it to be one."
"Oh my spirits! Are you starting to fall for Zuko?"
"I don't know. There's this weird thing between us. I don't know what it is but I keep hoping it will go away, but it won't go away."
Suki smiled. "That's how I felt about your brother. Even when he was making a total ass of himself in front of me I still liked him."
It was a beautiful mid morning day and Katara had asked Suki to fly into town with her for supplies. It gave the two of them a chance to talk without having to worry about the others eavesdropping. It was nice having someone around her age to talk to. She didn't have any friends her age back at the South pole just little kids and Gran-gran. With Suki around she had someone to spill her heart out to and share secrets with. When she voiced her insecurities to Suki she didn't try and make things better. She didn't pretend to understand. She just listened.
"Sokka can be rough around the edges, but he's a good person. Zuko is a monster." Katara pointed out.
"Was a monster. He's changed. Plus you have to admit he's got a nice body, and he's nice to look at."
"A bonfire is nice to look at too, but if you get too close you get burned."
"I know." Suki said. "He once threw a little bonfire that burnt down my village."
"Exactly! Don't forget he almost had you thrown in jail."
"Actually that was Azula. She was the one who attacked us when we found Appa. She's the one who would have thrown us in the Boiling Rock. If your dad hadn't of shown up when he did and help us escape she would have."
"What's the Boiling Rock?"
"A Fire Nation prison."
"Where is it at?"
Suki shrugged. "On some island in the middle of nowhere. While Azula was attacking us she kept saying she was going to throw me in there. Which means it's probably their worst prison."
"Well thank Yue you or my dad didn't get thrown in that prison." Katara said. She pulled on Appa's reins and guided him down for a landing in the middle of a field of sweet grass. "Wait here for us Appa we won't be gone that long."
Appa licked Katara then began grazing on the sweet grass.
"What should we get for dinner tonight?" Suki asked. "The boys are out hunting pheasant-duck for dinner so that means we probably won't need a meat dish."
"Why don't we get some Elephant koi just in case." Katara said. "We've got some extra spending money ."
"If we've got extra money let's go all out and prepare a feast. We deserve it"
"You're right. We do deserve it." Katara said and hooked her arm through Suki's and the two walked over to the fishmonger's stall and inspected the elephant koi stakes. After selecting the best looking stakes they headed over to the vegetable stalls.
"So back to your feelings for Zuko." Suki said.
"There are no feelings for Zuko." Katara said. She picked up a sea radish checked it over and placed it in her basket. "I don't have time for romance."
"You have to make time. Do you think it's easy for me and Sokka?"
Katara followed Suki over to the fruit stalls. "I don't have to make time for Zuko."
"OK, you don't, but if you're not going to be with Zuko just make sure it's for the right reasons."
"There is no right reason for me to be with Zuko. Look I'm done having this conversation. It's pointless."
"All right."
Katara sighed. She doubted very much that Suki was just going to let this drop. She wouldn't tell the others but she could still talk to Katara about it and she would.
After stopping to buy a bushel of apples and moon peaches for Appa and Momo the two loaded up their supplies and flew back to Taku.
As Katara and Suki were flying back to their temporary residence Zuko walked around the grounds with Sokka hunting pheasant-duck for dinner."
"Soo how are you feeling? Sokka asked. "Cus you look good. Good enough to oh I don't know bend some fire. I mean since you're up and walking around. And while your doing your jerkbending maybe you can start teaching Aang so he can kil-kick your father's butt."
Zuko smirked. "It's OK Sokka. I know Aang is going to have to kill my father."
"You're OK with that?"
"I'm OK with saving the world. My dad isn't."
"Yeah he's bent on destroying it."
"Listen, most of my blisters have scabbed over-
"Eww!" Sokka interrupted. "I didn't need to know that."
"I think that means I'm over this fever." Zuko explained.
"Oh, so what do you figure two more days and then you're back to teaching Aang how to flambé your father's face?" He pantomimed bending fire from his fist.
Zuko shook his head. "Tomorrow. I'll start Aang's firebending lessons tomorrow." He liked Sokka but sometimes he would also like to punch Sokka in the face.
"You're really OK with Aang killing your father?"
"Let's just say there's no love lost between us."
Sokka put his hand on Zuko's shoulder. "Well for what it's worth my dad thinks your a good guy."
Zuko wondered what it would be like to have a father like Hakoda. A father who held you when you cried and gave you advice when you needed it. A father that would look at you with pride just for trying. The unconditional love of a father was not something he grew up with. Zuko wasn't entirely sure that his father even knew how to love. He didn't love their mother he had just coveted her. He favored Azula, but he didn't love her either. He just trained her like an animal handing out praise and attention like treats for her good behavior. As long as she did what he wanted she was useful to him
Hakoda was the polar opposite of his father. He was a hero not just to people in the Water Tribe, but around the world. In his travels with his uncle he had heard stories about Chief Hakoda's greatness and his compassion. The only things he heard about his father were tales of his tyranny.
"Suki things you're good too, but then again she thinks you like my sister. So let me just say this if it's true. I think you're a good guy too, just not good for my sister. Not right now."
"Not ever?"
"So you do like her." Sokka noted.
"I do, but it's complicated. I did have a girlfriend. Mai."
"That gloomy girl who sighs a lot?"
"Yeah. Everyone in the Fire Nation thinks I'm a traitor. I couldn't drag her into it."
"Does she think you're a traitor?"
"What! Why do you ask?"
"What I mean is you don't want to be dating someone whose on the same side of the war you're trying to end."
"I never thought about it like that." Zuko said. "She did tell me I was betraying my country." He confessed. "On the night I left the palace to come find Aang I wrote Mai a letter-
"You broke up with your girlfriend in a letter!" Sokka shrieked.
"Keep it down!" Zuko commanded. "I told you I didn't want to drag her into this. She found the letter anyway and confronted me about it. Things got pretty intense. I had to lock her in her room to get away."
"Oh man I thought breaking up with her in a letter was bad, you're lucky Mai doesn't track you down and fill you full of knives."
"I wish I knew where she was."
"Just remember that she's still the enemy."
"Mai's not bad."
"Riiiight. Mai is just hanging out with Azula because she's the third member of their all girl group The Flameos."
Zuko's eyebrow twitched.
"It doesn't matter anyway. Whatever is going on in your love life keep it there and leave my sister out of it. Sokka pulled his space sword from his belt and pointed it in Zuko's face. "I know when we've fought before you've always won, but if you hurt my sister I swear to Yue that Aang's going to need to go into the Avatar state to stop me from killing you."
Zuko didn't say a word. Hakoda's children became very scary when the people they loved were threatened. No wonder the Southern Water tribe had survived as long as they had. Their fierce loyalty to each other was an awesome force to be reckoned with.
"Look, the only thing I want to focus on right now is teaching Aang how to firebend." His sharp golden eyes scanned the land for any signs of a pheasant-duck but he saw nothing. Then a jeweled green color flashed in and out of a bush. A pheasant-duck!
Sokka saw it too. He drew his sword as Zuko took up an offensive bending stance.
"Don't attack! It's me Haru!"
"Haru?"
Zuko and Sokka ran forward and helped Haru scramble out of the bushes.
"What happened to you?" Sokka asked. It was obvious that he'd been in some type of altercation. His lip was bloody. His eyes were blackened and his clothes were torn and dirty.
"Azula." He said. "She's been working on taking out our resistance groups. We're becoming a real thorn in the Fire Nation's side. Our group has been liberating this area. Taking out Fire Nation camps and sabotaging their equipment. I was on a patrol with The Duke and Pipsqueak and a few others, but then Azula and her two friends attacked us and we got split up."
"Come inside and Chunhua will patch you up." Sokka said.
"No! I don't want to draw attention to wherever your staying. It's too risky. Besides not everyone from my group escaped. Some of them got captured by Azula."
"Who? How?" Sokka demanded.
"Rumiko, she's second in command of the Kyoshi warriors, and your father. I'm sorry Sokka, Azula took them both to boiling Rock."
"Are you sure you don't need supplies?" Zuko asked.
"I'm sure. Sorry I can't stay and help you out, but I've got to find the others." Haru said.
"It's Ok." Sokka said. "Go find your friends."
"You don't have to tell me twice." Harua said.
Zuko and Sokka watched him walk away until they couldn't see him anymore.
"This is not OK." Zuko groaned.
"Why? What's wrong?"
"The Boiling Rock is the highest security prison in the Fire Nation. It's on an island in the middle of a boiling lake, and it's inescapable."
"I don't care. My father is there we have to go there."
"How are you going to get there? Zuko asked. "On Appa? Last time I checked prisons don't have bison day cares."
"Look, I have to do this. He's my father and it's my job to rescue him. I couldn't rescue my mom. I have to regain my honor. You can't stop me Zuko."
"You need to regain your honor? Believe me, I get it. I'm going with you. We'll take my war balloon."
"What do we tell the others?" Sokka wanted to know. "It's dangerous enough with us going. We can't let Aang and the others know."
"So we won't tell them. We'll leave them a note. Don't worry I'll write it." Zuko said. "I'm good at that."
Appa had barely gotten his six feet on the ground before Aang, Toph, and Chunhua came to help unload the supplies and put them away.
"Is that elephant koi I smell?" Chunhua asked.
"I wondered what that stench was." Aang said and wrinkled his nose.
Katara rolled her eyes. When was Aang going to get that as someone who grew up in the Southern Water tribe that fish was going to be a main staple of her diet. He acted as if she ate fish and wore furs just to offend him instead of accepting that it was a necessary part of her culture. For an Avatar there where times when he wasn't very understanding of cultures outside of his own.
"Don't worry we got plenty of vegetables for you." Suki reassured Aang.
"I thought we could eat outside on the patio." Katara suggested. "Toph could make a fire pit and Zuko can heat up the coals and we can cook and eat our dinner outside."
"I'm for it." Toph said."But Zuko isn't here. Neither is Sokka."
"Where are they?" Suki wanted to know.
Chunhua handed Katara a note.
"No pheasant-duck in this area. Gone to secret hunting spot. Back in a few days. One more thing. Aang, practice your firebending while I'm gone. Do twenty sets of fire fists and ten hot squats every time you hear a badger frog croak. Zuko
A second later a badger frog croaked.
"Nobody else has homework. Aang whined as he began his exercises. "One hot squat. Two hot squat. Three hot squat. Four hot squat."
"Nobody else is the Avatar." Toph pointed out while she got to work making a fire pit.
Katara seasoned the fish while Suki made some side dishes.
Chunhua clapped her hands. "I know just the leaves to wrap the fish in." She pointed to Aang. "Little airbender come with me. I need someone who can get the leaves from the top of the trees."
"You know, a friend of mine actually designed these war balloons." Sokka said.
"No kidding." Zuko said. He wished that Sokka would shut up. He hated trying to make small talk.
"Yep. A balloon. But for War."
"There's one thing my Dad's good at it's war."
"Yeah, it seems to run in the family."
"Hey, hold on. Not everyone in my family is like that." Zuko said hotly.
"I know, I know, you've changed."
"I meant my Uncle. He was more of a father to me. And I really let him down." Zuko said and bent more fire into the furnace of the war balloon.
"I think your Uncle would be proud of you. Leaving your home to come help us, that's hard."
"It wasn't that hard." Zuko admitted.
Really? You didn't leave behind anyone else you cared about? You don't have another girlfriend that I don't know about?"
"Nope. Just Mai. She was my first, and now probably only girlfriend."
"My first girlfriend turned into the Moon." Sokka said morosely.
"That's rough buddy."
When Chunhua and Aang got back Chunhua began wrapping the fish up in leaves and setting them on the coals while Aang made vegetable shish kabobs.
"Sokka is going to be grumpier than the unagi when it's sea sick when he finds out that he missed out on this feast." Toph said and bent a stone table with matching benches for everyone to sit on.
Katara sat on a bench and formed a water knife to cut the kernels from an ear of arctic tundra corn. Some of her best childhood memories were popping tundra corn on the fire. Their father made it the best. Sokka could never wait for it to cool down before he started shoveling it in his mouth by the fist full. He would burn his fingertips and his mouth every time he ate it rather than wait for it to cool down.
"Especially when he finds out that he missed out on the popped tundra corn."
"I've never had it before." Suki confessed. "Is it really as good as Sokka makes it out to be."
"It's even better." Katara said. "Wait until you taste it."
Sokka and Zuko had finally made it to the Boiling Rock. After a disastrous crash landing of Zuko's war balloon, which Sokka later had to sink so no one would find it, the twosome and actually managed to sneak into the prison and slip into guards uniforms undetected. After a quick check of the prisoners manifest Sokka located his father's prison cell number and went to free him. Zuko stood in the hallway outside of the door as lookout.
"Thank goodness you're okay." Zuko could hear Sokka say through the other side of the cell doors. He couldn't see him but he was willing to bet that Sokka hadn't bothered to take off his guard's helmet before speaking to his father.
Hakoda's next words confirmed Zuko's suspicions.
"If you take one step closer you'll see just how okay I am."
Sokka must have realized his mistake and lifted his visor because his next words were. "Dad, it's me."
"Sokka, my son."
They were probably hugging. Zuko couldn't ever remember his father hugging him.
"You know Sokka, you should be more careful with that guard outfit on. I almost punched you in the gut."
Zuko laughed. He would have liked to see that.
"So where's Bato? Was he one of the people in your group?" Sokka asked his father.
"He was. Him and some of the other Yoshinama fighters are being held at a prison near the Fire Nation palace. They singled me out as their leader and sent me here."
"You mean the Kyoshi Warriors." Sokka corrected.
Zuko smirked. Sokka was a lot like his father.
"That's right."
"Their second in command Rumiko is here and she's gonna escape with us."
"Good Sokka, because there's no prison in the World that can hold two Water Tribe geniuses.
"Then we'd better find two." Sokka said.
Zuko pinched the bridge of his nose. They were going to rot in prison.
"'Scuse me, I need to get into that cell." A female guard announced.
Zuko started. He'd been so busy listening to Hakoda and Sokka's conversation that he hadn't even seen the guard walk up next to him. "No, you can't go in there!" Zuko shouted suddenly. He wracked his brain for a plausible excuse. "The lights are out the prisoner could sneak up on you." Oh real smooth. He told himself.
"Step aside, fool." The female guard said trying to push past Zuko.
Well there was nothing for it. Zuko grabbed the guards arm and pushed her into the wall. Damn Sokka and his fly by the seat of his pants plans.
"Hey! Hey! What are you doing?"
Hopefully buying enough time for Sokka to escape. Zuko thought. If he got caught they could kiss their freedom goodbye. A few heart stopping moments later Sokka slipped out of his father's cell and began to walk down the hallway as inconspicuously as possible.
"Guard help! I think he's an imposter!" The eagle eyed prison guard cried out to Sokka. "Argh! Arrest him! Get him off me and arrest him!"
Having no other choice Sokka turned around and assisted the female guard. "You're under arrest!" Sokka barked convincingly and help to subdue Zuko by pinning him up against the wall. "Don't worry, I'll figure it out." He whispered in his ear before dragging him off to meet his fate.
It didn't take long to learn of his fate. He was taken to a small room with just him and the prison warden. This did not bode well for their escape plan.
"Well, well, well. I never thought I'd find you in here, Prince Zuko."
"How did you know who I am?"
"How could I not? You broke my niece's heart."
"You're Mai's uncle? I never meant to hurt her."
"Quiet! You're my special prisoner now. And you best behave. If these criminals found out who you are, the traitor prince who let his nation down. Why, they'd tear you to shreds." The warden said his voice dripping with vicious pleasure.
"So what's in it for you? Why don't you just tell my father and collect the reward?"
"Oh in due time believe me, I intend to collect." The warden said. His velvet voice rubbing his power over Zuko in his face.
He didn't know what Sokka's plan was, but whatever it was he hoped he came up with it soon.
Unbeknownst to Zuko Sokka was coming up with a plan to execute soon. He met up with his father in general population to discuss it with Rumiko. The threesome found a quiet and secluded place behind the stairs.
"So listen, My dad and I came up with a plan together. We're gonna commandeer the gondola and we're gonna take a hostage with us so they won't cut the lines."
"We'll never make it onto the gondola. There's too many guards." Rumiko said.
"I already thought of that. Hakoda said. "We'll need a distraction."
"What kind of distraction?"
"Yeah." A voice above them called out.
Sokka, Hakoda, and Rumiko looked up simultaneously at June, who'd been sitting on the stairs, eavesdropping on their conversation. She looked like a totally different person without her black leather and her shirshu, yet she didn't look out of place in a prison uniform.
"What kind of big distraction are you going to cause in order to get out of here?" She asked.
"We didn't. We... We didn't say that." Sokka stammered.
"Yeah, you heard wrong." Rumiko agreed.
"I heard you hatching an escape plan and I want in." June insisted.
"There's nothing to get in on." Hakoda said.
"Yeah, the only thing we're hatching is... an egg?" Sokka said feebly
"OK, well, I come with you or the Warden hears about this egg too." June threatened.
"What are you in here for anyway?" Sokka asked. "Forget to curb your shirshu when you were on Fire Nation grounds?"
"No I refused to track down the Avatar for that flaming bitch Azula. So you owe me."
"I guess we have no choice." Rumiko said with a sigh.
"Zuko isn't going to like this." Sokka said.
"Angry boy is here?" June asked with a laugh. "This ought to be good."
"Oh sure this is real good." Sokka snarled and grumbled all the way down the hallway to Zuko's cell.
"Zuko, are you there?"
Zuko quickly ran to his cell door and looked out through the small window. "I'm here."
"I just got done talking to my Dad. We came up with an escape plan together."
"What are you doing here?" A disembodied voice shouted from outside of Zuko's cell door. He watched panic flash across Sokka's face before he turned to answer the guard the voice belonged to.
"I was just telling this dirty lowlife what I think of him!"
"Well, you'll have to do that later, he's coming with us."
"Why?" Sokka asked.
"Because we have orders straight from the Warden. That's why." A female guard spat.
"Could I just get ten more seconds to rough him up a bit?"
"Fine, the female guard said, ten seconds."
In the next moment Sokka had slipped himself back into Zuko's cell. He held up his mattress for Sokka to punch and Zuko grunted in fake pain.
"We have a new plan." Sokka said in between fake punches. "Be in the yard after dinner."
Ten seconds later the doors to Zuko's cell opened. He dropped his mattress and Sokka pounced on him and tried to put him in a head lock.
"All right, that's enough." The male guard groused. He grabbed Zuko roughly by the upper arm and hauled him out of his cell.
"What are you doing? Where are you taking me?" Zuko demanded as the two guards dragged him down the hall.
"I didn't do anything wrong." He shouted.
The two guards didn't care if he was innocent or not. They stopped before a holding cell, opened the door, and shoved him into the room as hard as they could. He crashed landed into a wooden chair.
"Come on Zuko. We all know that's a lie."
"Mai." She was the last person that Zuko ever expected to see at a Fire Nation prison. "How did you know I was here?"
"Because I know you so well."
"But how?"
"The Warden's my Uncle you idiot."
Zuko slapped the palm of his hand to his forehead. Of course he should have know. Idiot!
"The truth is, I guess I don't know you. All I get is a letter."
The letter. She brought the letter all the way to the prison with her.
"You could have at least looked me in the eye when you ripped out my heart."
"I didn't mean to-"
"You didn't mean to? Mai interrupted. She unrolled his letter and began to read it out loud. "Dear Mai, I'm sorry that you have to find out this way, but I'm leaving."
"Stop!" Zuko shouted at her. He didn't want to hear another one of his past sins."This isn't about you. This is about the Fire Nation."
"Thanks Zuko. That makes me feel all better." Mai sneered and tossed the crumpled up letter at his head.
"Mai, I never wanted to hurt you. But I have to do this to save my country."
"Oh, You're still under the impression that you're saving the Fire Nation. I told you before you're not saving it. You're betraying your country."
"That's not how I see it."
The two glared at each other.
Sokka's words replayed in his head. "What I mean is you don't want to be dating someone whose on the same side of the war you're trying to end."
"All right that's enough." The male prison guard called from outside of the door. "Back in your cell until dinner time. This reunion is over."
"Thanks be to the spirits." Mai said.
Zuko allowed the guards to escort him to his cell. As the male guard shoved Zuko back into his cell the female guard stuck her foot out and tripped him. Zuko was unprepared and without his hands to break his fall he hit the ground hard. A blister that hadn't healed burst somewhere on his body and pain like a white hot burning star consumed him.
Five minutes later Sokka was knocking on Zuko's door to release him for dinner. When he didn't appear in the window after he had repeatedly called his name Sokka opened the cell door and slipped inside.
"Zuko!" Sokka shouted. Zuko was lying on the floor covered in sweat and writhing in pain like he had when he'd first come down with the Spirit Fever.
The walls of the prison fell away and as Zuko opened his eyes the intense pain began to vanish. He was now outside. He stood up feeling completely disoriented but still took the time to scan his surroundings. As far as he could tell he was still in the Earth Kingdom. The area was hilly enough to be in the Earth Kingdom. The lush green land spread out before him as far as he could see.
"I'm sorry about what I said earlier. I didn't know about your father." A voice said seemingly out of nowhere.
Zuko didn't need to see the speaker to know who the voice belonged to. Katara. Was this one of her dreams? Had he somehow become trapped in one of her darkest memories?
"That's OK. It's funny, the way you were talking back in the store, it reminded me of him." A young earthbender he now knew to be Haru said.
"Thanks."
"My father was very courageous. When the Fire Nation invaded, he and the other earthbenders were outnumbered ten to one, but they fought back anyway."
So many people loved their fathers. How different his life might of been if he could have just done the same. Zuko thought
"He sounds like a great man." Katara said.
"After the attack, they rounded up my father every other earthbender and took them away. We haven't seen them since."
How many of Katara's darkest memories were the direct result of something the Fire Nation had done? How many of Haru's?
"So, that's why you hide your earthbending?"
"Yes. The problem is that the only way I can feel close to my father now is when I practice my bending. He taught me everything I know."
"See this necklace?" Katara asked "My mother gave it to me."
"It's beautiful." Haru told her.
This was Katara's memory, but how? Had the fever brought him here?
"I lost my mother in a Fire Nation raid. This necklace is all I have left of her." Katara told Haru.
"It's not enough, is it?" He asked.
"No."
Half way across the land Katara stood up abruptly. "I don't feel well." She said.
"Katara! Katara!" Suki screamed as she watched her friend fall to the ground.
Katara felt as if she were falling in slow motion. The bowl of tundra corn kernels that was in her lap hit the floor faster than she did. With a clatter the bowl spun wildly several times on it's side before landing upside down. The kernels cascaded across the patio. She could hear shoes crunching the kernels into the floor as everyone scurried around her.
"Katara nooo!" She heard Toph yell. The sound of genuine fear in Toph's voice put fear in her.
"Quick get Chunhua!" Suki ordered. "Tell her Katara is burning up!"
The white hot pain came back again causing Zuko to blackout. When he came to he pushed himself up on to his feet and slowly checked out his surroundings. This time he was on the old coal rig that had imprisoned hundreds of earthbenders in the name of the Fire Nation. He was still stuck inside of Katara's darkest memories.
"Come with us." Haru pleaded with Katara.
"I can't." She said."Your mission is to take back your home. Ours is to get Aang to the North Pole."
"That's him, isn't it? Haru asked. He had spotted Aang and App in the distance. Aang was absentmindedly airbending a little piece of coal around and around. "The Avatar. Katara, thank you for bringing my father back to me. I never thought I'd see him again. I only wish there was some way." Haru trailed off knowing there was no way he could bring Katara's mother back to her.
"I know Katara said and reached down to touch her necklace but gasp when she only touched skin. "My mother's necklace! It's gone!"
The memory changed abruptly from Katara's to one of his own. He was standing on the deck of the same coal rig that Katara and Haru had been on. He was dressed in his Fire Nation uniform and scowling so deeply he almost didn't recognize himself. Zuko watched as his dream self bent down to pick up something off the deck floor. He clutched the object proudly in his hands. Katara's mother's necklace. The one he used to hunt down Aang. At one time in his life this had been one of his proudest moments. Now it was one of his darkest memories.
"What's wrong with him?" Rumiko asked as she bent down beside Zuko and took his pulse.
Sokka had snuck the others into Zuko's cell. Now that he was sick they were going to have to fight their way out if they couldn't sneak him out.
"I think one of his blisters got infected. We need to get him back to my sister as quickly as possible." Sokka explained.
June looked outside Zuko's cell window. "That might be a problem."
"We just have to stick to the plan. All we need is some kind of distraction." Sokka said.
"The only thing that would distract people in this place is a prison riot." Rumiko said dryly.
"That's it!" Sokka shouted. "We'll cause a riot it's the perfect distraction."
"Okay. Let's say by some miracle this all works and we make it on the gondola. The Warden will still just cut the lines, even if we have a captive." Rumiko pointed out.
"Not if the Warden is the captive." Sokka said triumphantly. "I have to go it's almost lunch time. After lunch they'll let you all out into the courtyard. That's when we'll start the riot. Sokka said. He looked through the cell door window and when the coast was clear he opened the door a crack. "You wouldn't happen to know how to start one would you?" He asked as he paused in the door way.
June perked up. "A prison riot?" She stood up and shoved Sokka out of the door and then slipped out behind him. "Please, leave it to me."
Katara felt like she was being pulled down, down, down by a current. She was a rock sinking in a slow hot pulsing current. She tried to stand up but couldn't. The room felt as if it were spinning in one direction, and she felt as if she were spinning in another. She closed her eyes but the opposite spinning sensation continued.
Katara opened her eyes when the spinning finally stopped. Looking around she saw that she was no longer in Taku. She was in a room. A bedroom. A red bedroom. The walls were red. The rug on the floor was red. The curtains on the huge wooden canopy bed was red and so where the sheets. The pajamas of the little boy sitting in the bed were red too. It only took a second for Katara to recognize the little boy as Zuko.
This was his room in the palace which meant she was some how in Zuko's darkest memories. She saw a young Azula leaned up against Zuko's doorway. Even as a small child she held the posture of a poised and accomplished adult.
"Dad's going to kill you." She said in a sing song voice. She paused for a beat then said in her usual deadpan voice. "Really, he is."
Never in her life had Katara seen a child with such a predatory nature. She watched the scene play out before her the way one watches a tragic event unfold before them.
Zuko sat up in his bed. "Ha-ha, Azula. Nice try." He said back to his sister.
"Fine, don't believe me, but I heard everything." Azula drawled. "Grandfather said dad's punishment should fit his crime." She changed her voice to try and match the depth and tone of her grandfather's. "You must know the pain of losing a first born son, by sacrificing your own!" She spun around childlike on one of his bedpost. It was all a game to Azula. She was rejoicing in her brother's emotional meltdown.
"Liar!" Zuko cried out, but it was clear that he was becoming agitated. His sisters words had put him into a panicked tailspin.
Katara couldn't believe what she was seeing. Couldn't believe what she was hearing. What kind of cold and twisted family did Zuko come from? The way Azula talked so casually about her father killing her brother sent a chill down her spine. Azula acted as if her father were discussing a boar-q-pine that was sick and needed to be put down, and not her own brother. Did any member of the royal family have feelings? Did they even love themselves because it was clear they didn't love one another.
"I'm only telling you for your own good." Azula sat on the edge of her brother's bed, and said with false cheerfulness. "I know, maybe you could find a nice Earth Kingdom family to adopt you."
"Stop it, you're lying! Dad would never do that to me." Zuko clutched his blanket as tears rolled down his cheek. Zuko was afraid. He was afraid that what his sister said might be true. Somewhere in his young heart he truly believed that his father would have him killed.
Katara believed it too. She itched to slap the face of young Azula. What in the name of Tui and La was wrong with her? How could she enjoy tormenting her brother about something so awful. What kind of sick person ordered a parent to murder their own child as a punishment? What kind of parent agreed to do it?
It was too much. These were Zuko's darkest memories and not hers. She wasn't going to be trapped in his darkness. Using every fiber of her consciousness Katara pulled herself up out of the darkness. It felt like surfacing from the water after diving down deep. That first breath was like being reborn. She gasp loudly drawing in as much air in her lungs as she possibly could.
"Katara!"
Katara sat up slowly.
"For Yue's sake are you all right?" Suki asked. Her eyes seemed to have tripled in size.
"I'm fine." She said. She bent some water into her mouth and swallowed.
"What happened?" Chunhua asked.
"Zuko's in trouble."
"How do you know?" Toph asked.
"The dream or whatever it is I had. I saw My dad, Sokka, and Zuko in it. The three of them are at Boiling Rock."
"What!" Toph screamed.
"No!" Suki gasped. "What are we going to do?"
"We're going to the Boiling Rock." Katara said as she rose unsteadily to her feet. "And we're bringing them home!"
