Chapter VI.

Blood

Both he and Azula were bound in chains, which would have been ropes had she not threatened to burn a guard. Their cell had little floor room, but it was tall, creating the illusion of spaciousness. Sokka thought it was the result of either luck or incompetence that he and Azula had been put in the same cell together, but then he noticed the vents near the ceiling.

After the guards had left them, Azula fumed and shouted all manner of oaths and insults, that was until Sokka nudged her and gestured towards the vents. "They're listening to everything we say. They put us together so we'd talk and say incriminating stuff, so be careful," he whispered into her ear from closer than was comfortable.

Smirking, she let loose a string of particularly vile statements about the Northern Water Tribe, which even Sokka found offensive.

With little else to do he sat down and brooded over their prior meeting with Chief Arnook, the one they had after being arrested. They were brought before him in a different chamber than the one he had first received them in, a larger, more imposing hall held up by stone arches and ornamented with whale bones.

Arnook's face had sagged with disappointment and to Sokka's slight comfort, some disbelief.

"Sokka, tell me what's really going on," Arnook had said. "Who is this woman and what are you two really doing here?"

That would have been an ideal time to tell Chief Arnook everything and get the backing of an entire nation, Sokka thought, but he had held his tongue. At best, Arnook would not believe him. At worst, he would think him insane. Any story he told would be investigated, and if they learned who Mai Lee truly was, he doubted Nekka's word would help them much.

Besides, if he told their story it would get back to their enemies, and they did not need to know anymore than they likely did already.

What troubled him now was the question of who had really sent the note from Zuko. He was glad he had asked to see it, and that Arnook was kind enough to show it to both him and Azula.

Chief Arnook, of the Norther Water Tribe, greetings from Fire Lord Zuko. This is embarrassing, but my most trusted adviser has absconded with Avatar Aang's sky bison, and I believe he may seek refuge in your fair city. I would ask that you detain him and whomever he may be traveling with. Please send word if they are found so arrangements to turn them over can be made. Yours, Fire Lord Zuko.

It had come by messenger hawk was all Sokka was told. Azula had remained quiet during the interview, but Sokka had seen her smile when she read the note.

"Well, what now, Plan Boy? We can't return to the Fire Nation like this," Azula said, her breath turning to fog in the cold cell. She had calmed down and seemed satisfied that she had blistered the ears of whoever had been listening in on them.

"I don't know, Mai Lee, I haven't been able to think, because someone's been going on about what my people like to do to snowmen," he said, then added quietly, "I wish I knew who sent that letter to Arnook, though."

Azula sat down beside him and put her lips near his ear. "It wasn't Zuko, that I can tell you. Forging love notes from him to Mai was once a fond pastime of mine, so I should know his handwriting when I see it. It was a very good forgery, though."

Her warm breath tickling his ear made it hard for him to think. "Probably some frog-faced jerk. My guess is we won't make it to the Fire Nation when we leave here," he said.

"If we leave here," she said. "If our enemies can forge notes from the Fire Lord, they can send men with daggers to pay us a night visit."

"We'll sleep in shifts," Sokka said.

"Sleep? In this dingy cell? I should tell them who I really am and demand better lodging. The rules of nobility transcend borders."

"Shhh, keep it down," he said, nodding up at the ceiling.

Azula looked to the vents and grinned while casting him a conspiratorial glance. "Oh, Sokka, is there no place on earth that our love can be free?" she said loudly.

"What are you...what?" Alarmed, he looked around their small cell, then to the door.

"I said we should elope in the Earth Kingdom, but you said the Northern Water Tribe was more romantic. You romantic fool!"

A fit of good humor suddenly flooded him and he bit his lip to keep quiet. Hoping his stifled snorts were being heard as sobs, he cried out, "I'm sorry, Mai Lee. I was blinded by love, and my desire for our wedding to be beautiful drove me to folly. I will always love you, Mai Lee."

Sokka wished to laugh aloud, as something inside him felt like it had broken and the humor would purge his body and spirit of all the poison it had accumulated.

"My love allows me to forgive, my little snowman," said Azula, stifling her chuckles as well. He tried not to stare at her for her smile, now free of malice, made her look like Suzi. He wondered how his roommate was doing, if Katara was safe, and thought he would ask a question.

"When you kissed me that one time, were you planning to scratch me, too, or was that on the spur of the moment?"

Her smile froze on her face as her mind churned. "What makes you think I planned either? Don't think your little flirting game when we were in the balloon had any effect on me."

Sokka had forgotten what she was talking about, but after a moment he remembered. Their escape from the caverns had been followed by a harrowing balloon trip, one which ended in them running across a Fire Nation search party. He had needed her for his escape, and in the end she helped him. Whether it had been because of his feigned interest in her near the end, or the sum of their experiences, he did not know.

"Oh, I think it did work," he said, speaking low. "You were going to turn me over to the Fire Nation, but I figured you liked guys of a certain type, so I put on a little act and you bought it."

Her face was still a wall of ice, betraying nothing. "And what type would that be?"

"Confident. Assertive. A jerk."

"I didn't notice you acting any differently than normal. That's funny, you thought you could pretend to be someone you weren't with me." Her amber eyes turned toward him, blazing. "I know who you really are, Sokka. I've seen you in your lowest moments, when you were pushed to the very edge. Does that bother you?"

"No. I'm happy with myself," he said. "I saw the same side of you, maybe you're the one that's bothered."

She snorted. "Oh, I'm bothered alright, but you're the least of my problems."

"Maybe, but you still don't like the fact that I've seen the girl that lives underneath the scary fire princess," he said. "Something tells me even your so-called friends never got a glimpse of her. Not a good one, at least."

"There may be a girl underneath the scary fire princess, but don't forget the princess is still quite real. And in control," said Azula.

His fit of laughter before had left him feeling heady, like he had sipped too much fire wine. "Sometimes that scary princess is just the one we need," he said, wanting their small cell to return to a state of peace. "Granted, she could tone it down a little."

Azula's eyebrows rose, almost imperceptibly. "If I didn't know any better I'd say you're learning to appreciate me," she said. "You have some useful traits yourself. That Kyoshi Warrior is a lucky girl."

"Pfft. Tell that to her," Sokka said, not sure he wanted to talk about Suki. It was all he could do not to think about her or his friends and where they might be.

"Did it not work out? What happened?"

The sound of sincerity in her voice caught him off guard, sucked him in. "Time, distance, life. I don't know. What really stinks is the last time I talked to her I drank too much fire wine and acted like a complete moose pig. I don't care if she'll love me again, I just want her to be safe."

"That's pathetic," Azula said.

"I'm pathetic? Oh, boy, that's rich."

"You are. But I suppose it doesn't matter, does it? I've never been loved by anyone, but here I am stuck in a cold cell next to a man whining over a woman who dumped him. What's the point in fighting these monsters if our two options are being pathetic or being alone?"

"Those aren't our two options, for one thing," Sokka said. "And what do you mean no one ever loved you? Your mother..."

"Don't ever talk about my mother," she said curtly. "She hated me, my father saw me as a tool, and my brother locked me away. As for Mai and Ty Lee, they only pretended to be my friends."

"You've only got yourself to blame there. Like I was saying, maybe if you keep the scary fire princess to a minimum you'd find some real friends."

"You're an idiot," she said. "You're also the closest thing I think I'm ever going to have for a friend. Now that's pathetic."

His breath caught, and his back straightened. He did not know what to say, but knew it had to be something, and soon, before she noticed the silence. "Um, that's not all that pathetic. I mean, I'm a fun guy...we could hang out, someday. Maybe. If you weren't trying to kill me or my friends."

Sokka cringed, preparing for whatever sarcastic remark she was about to make.

"I'd like that," she said, the whispered sound entombing itself on the floor of the cell.

He watched the vapor that floated out of her mouth and disappeared between them. He shivered. His chains rattled.

"I'd like the company of a hippo pig if meant not going back to a cell," Azula added, scowling and turning away from him.

With nothing more to say they decided quietly that sleep was a good idea. With some reluctance, Azula said she would sleep first, leaving Sokka to remain on the alert for the assassins she was sure were on their way. She leaned against the wall, but since she was not screaming she was not asleep.

In the silence he had time to think, mostly of questions. Each answer he offered up split into two more questions, and with nothing but assumptions to make he let his mind wander. Predictably all it did while wandering was worry. The only other thing to think about was Azula, and this made him tired and tense.

A knock on the cell door jolted him; he had been half-sleeping.

The guard in the doorway was the one he had met on arriving in the Northern Water Tribe. He was older than Sokka, but young still. "You have a visitor," he said. "Uh, no one is listening in on you anymore."

Sokka gave a nod and was both relieved and disappointed to see Nekka. She entered the cramped cell and the door shut behind her.

"They told me why you were arrested," she said. "Something is very, very wrong if what you told me was the truth.

"You can say that again. How are you holding up?"

She straightened her domed cap and rubbed her eyes. Nekka had been crying, but she wore a hunted look Sokka had not seen on her before, even in her house as they told her the truth about why they had come.

"I'm fine," she said. "One of the guards came back to my house after you were arrested and we talked for a while. He's sort of a friend of mine...you met him just now. I didn't tell him everything, just enough so he would agree to help you escape. I guess he remembers you from the last time you were here, and doesn't think you're a bison thief."

Sokka's breath came out in a powerful cone of fog. "Yes! Man, I was getting' worried. So, what's the plan?"

"Just be ready to move tonight," Nekka said. "A few people actually came to ask me about you. It seems you have quite a few friends in the city that you didn't know about."

"Good to know," Sokka said. "You might want to lay low after we're gone, you've suffered enough because of us. Word of what's going on in the Fire Nation will get here eventually, and things might get pretty crazy."

"I don't blame you for what happened," Nekka said. "I don't know why Sifu Misso did what he did, it was so unlike him, but I hope he was wrong."

"Thanks for all your help, Nekka," said Sokka. She played with the ends of her brown hair for a moment, then bowed. When she was gone Sokka put his hands together, his chains clinking.

"A group of friends, did she say? My, how convenient. I shudder to think what you must have done for a group of people to commit treason for you," Azula said.

"You think it's a trap? Seems kinda clunky."

"The guard is legitimately trying to help us. He seems to have a man-crush on you, but as for the others I'm not so sure."

"I don't know, Princess Yue had a thing for me, it's entirely possible I picked up a group of adoring fans while I was here."

"All you picked up was an inflated ego and possibly a disease," she said. "I'll be preparing myself for a less than friendly welcome this evening, I advise you do the same."

He looked down at his shackles and thought it too bad the guards had not gagged her. "I just want to know how these people and things keep finding us. I mean, how powerful are they?"

"Powerful enough to haunt my dreams wherever I go. Maybe they can send messages to each other that way."

"Or read your mind," he said, mulling over new jigsaw puzzle pieces.

"Oh, so this is my fault?

"I wouldn't say it's your fault, but maybe that's how these things knew about Aang to kidnap him."

"That's nonsense," she said, her chains clattering.

Sokka shook his head and stood up. He used the wall to support himself while he did stretches. His legs ached regardless of what he did, and he stopped short of doing jumping jacks to pump blood into his limbs, for there was not enough room. "It's just a theory," he said, satisfying her.

"If we ever lay eyes on that girl's stupid Necronomicon I'm sure it will shed some light on the subject," said Azula. "And that's looking like a big if at this rate."

"Nah, we can do this. The hard part will be getting to Appa. Once we're in the air, I'm sure he'll remember where the library was and we can hire some sandbenders or something." The plan sounded terrible each time he thought it over and worse when said aloud.

"I'd rather not know that our fates hinge on the brains of a bison," said Azula.

"Well, right now they hinge on how ready we are to move when the time comes, so let's rest as much as we can."

Sleep was not something either of their bodies wanted, and they passed long hours in silence. When the door opened it was like an era had passed. Both jumped to their feet and blundered into several grasping hands, which tugged them from the cell into a hall lit by torches.

Sets of bulging eyes too far apart from each other glittered wetly in the torchlight. There were about six of them, all middle aged. Two were women and while their hair lines were not receding, they bore all the other distinctive features found in the so-called Outer-Maw look.

"Just who the heck are you people?" Sokka asked, and was punched in the stomach.

"Coulda lived longer if you'd just let nature take its course, but your bookish friend told us what was up," said the largest of the men. "We'll sort you out now, but not here."

Azula had been gagged quickly, and her heavy chains kept her from fighting effectively. She did manage to bite one of the people who gagged her, but she took two hard blows to the head in response. Sokka was gagged also and they were led roughly out of the prison and through narrow streets, becoming disoriented in the process.

One of the alleys led to a long flight of stairs that ended at a causeway. The city's ice wall was darker this night under the cloudy sky, but it still shone in contrast to the black, lapping water of the sea.

Set into the ice wall like gaping eye sockets were drainage tunnels large enough for people to walk through. They entered the third one from the stairs and followed it for a hundred yards or so before one of their captors bent a wall of ice aside to reveal a lower, narrower tunnel.

The man's bending form was crude, but Sokka was surprised to see that any of them could waterbend.

They came to a large, domed chamber filled with the smell of smoke from burning braziers. Dozens of people, all with the Outer-Maw look, stood around in threadbare clothing. The look was so pronounced on some, they barely seemed human, especially the black-robed priest who stood behind a misshapen alter of ice. His eyes were like glass bowls, pale and watery. He had wide, flabby lips and no chin to speak of. His bald head sloped backward and was scabby in places, giving way to what looked like scales.

Sokka was brought with Azula before the altar and forced to kneel. The ice was discolored and there were long gouges in its surface. When their gags were removed, Azula immediately began issuing threats.

"Silence!" bellowed the fishy-looking priest. "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!"

"Please tell me someone is going to at least tell us what's going on before they kill us?" said Sokka, desperately trying to squeeze out of his shackles. He envisioned hobbling out of the room while Azula breathed fire, but given the number bodies around them he was beginning to feel numb and heavy.

The priest bellowed another strange set of syllables and was answered by a rousing chorus if "Ia! Ia! Cthulhu fhtagn!" from the gathered people.

"Mortal fools!" said the priest, his lips doing a poor job of keeping the saliva in his mouth. "We stand at the end of an era! The Dreamer has lain dead for long cycles and finally the stars are right for the return! Dead Cthulhu stirs in his house at R'lyeh! No mortal dreamer may deny it, no sojourner among the stars or the voids between the worlds! Great Cthulhu, he who lies dead but which can never die, has bid us to end you, for you seek to blaspheme and hinder. You!" he grabbed Azula by the hair and held her head up. "Your blood will spill the last, to wash the altar clean of this one!" He slapped Sokka. "You are a dreamer, yet you do not believe. You see, yet you have no faith. You have fear, yet you have no loyalty. Mighty Cthulhu will rise when the stars are right, which will be soon."

The priest took a long, curved dagger from his robe and held it in his thick, webbed fingers.

"One question," said Sokka, his eyes flickering to Azula who had bent her head down and was breathing heavily. "Why did he take Aang? Why did the Old Ones take the Avatar? You know what I'm talking about."

The priest laughed. "It's questions that brought you here, boy. Questions without a desire for faith lead only to death, as the old fool Misso discovered. Aha, yes, we slew him! Our reach is long, fools."

"Answer me, why did you take Aang!?" Sokka shouted.

His head was forced down into the altar, and the priest cried, "Cthulhu fhtagn! You know nothing, and you will die knowing nothing save that when mighty Cthulhu devours the Avatar's spirit he will be mightier than all, even the Demon Sultan Azathoth!"

Chants of "Ia! Ia! Cthulhu fhtagn!" filled the air and Sokka waited for the priest's robed sleeve to shuffle which would signal the dropping of the curved dagger. He would then twist, and kick at the strong body that held him from behind, hoping for the best.

When the chants became cries of alarm and the sound of water slapping against bodies could be heard, Sokka yanked his head to the side only to feel a bright, wet pain shoot from his ear into his head. He screamed and threw himself backward into a body, and they both went down. Blood had soaked his coat, and he could feel his ear was not in the right place.

He saw that Azula was fighting with more success than he had been having. When the priest reached over the altar to grab her by the hair and run his bloody dagger across her throat, she spewed a puff of flame into his face. The weapon clattered on the alter amid his shrieking as his hands covered his face.

A patrol of city guards had come down the tunnel and attacked the cult members, all of which were fighting with religious fervor. Some even showed themselves to be capable waterbenders. Sokka got to his feet, and staggered to the altar where he took the dagger and turned to the man that had grabbed Azula from behind. He was too busy trying not to be burned by the fire she was spitting to stop Sokka from using the dagger on his midsection. The man fell away, and Sokka went with Azula to the altar.

"Free me and this battle is ours!" she said.

The dagger, fortunately, was made from a higher quality metal than the shackles, and he used it to pry them open and off her hands and feet. He thought he would be on his own once she was loose, but she took the dagger and used it too roughly break his bonds.

"Fools!" Shouted the priest, his thick, wet lips now dotted with blisters along with the rest of his face. "R'lyeh will rise again soon, and you two will be marked for a special doom! Ia! Ia! Cthulhuaaaahh!"

Azula's lighting bolt entered his chest and sent him hurling into the wall where he caught fire.

"Time for a fish-fry," said Azula, turning to the battle behind them. Before she could complete the hand motions she used to split her chi and create lightning, Sokka grabbed her wrist and pulled her off balance.

"You'll hit the guards!" he shouted, hoping to calm or at least divert the anger in her eyes.

"They're our enemies, too!" she hissed, pulling away from him.

All he knew was he no longer wanted to be in this room regardless of who won the fight. His entire right side was soaked in blood, and his hand told him his ear was hanging by a small cord of flesh. He was dizzy, and the pain was growing deeper into his skull. He grabbed her, and led her through the chaos, her flames and lighting causing everyone to give them a wide berth.

They were in the drainage tunnel when a familiar voice called to them above the din echoing from the ritual chamber. Sokka kept a firm hold of Azula, for she was now leading him in his dazed state.

"Go, go!" their guard ally said, as he waived them along.

The cold air of the outside made Sokka's ear burn, and he let go of Azula to hunch over and wretch. "Wow, you're bleeding pretty good, man," said the guard.

"Oh, dear! What happened?" It was Nekka. She had been standing at the entrance to the tunnel.

"Those supposed friends of ours that you were so helpful towards tried to kill us," said Azula. "Luckily the city guard showed up in the nick of time." She put emphasis on the word nick, and slapped Sokka on the back.

"Luck had nothing to do with it," said the guard, wary of her. "I was coming to help you escape like we planned when I saw I'd been beaten to it. Nekka was with me, so I had her go get more guards while I followed you and marked where their tunnel was hidden."

"Sounds like luck to me," Azula said. "We need to be going. Is the bison ready like you said it would be?"

"Yeah," said the guard, peering at Sokka's wound. "I even packed his boomerang. He's really hurt, isn't he?"

"Yes, which is why need to move," Azula said.

"Wait, he needs a healer," said Nekka.

"I'll see to his injuries when we're in the air," said Azula, hauling Sokka along. "Lead us to the bison."

They moved quickly. Sokka let Azula lead him while he wondered if the guard would get into trouble for his role in this. Mostly he thought about the healing supplies he had made a point to purchase and wondered if he would still have his ear by the end of this.

Appa was shuffling restlessly on top of a high, wide tower. The guard had gone ahead to make sure no other guards were around, and after doing something to clear the area briefly, they were all standing around the great, fury beast's many legs as he grunted with impatience and alarm at the smell of blood.

"Hey, thanks, man," Sokka said, extending his bloody hand to the guard, who reached for the other one. "I never got your name."

"Dekken," said the guard. "Sorry your wedding didn't go down like you hoped. I take it those were her in-laws?

"What?" Sokka said, then remembered his and Azula's mock conversation in their cell. "Oh, no, no..."

"A little joke," said Dekken. "I can see something weird is going on here and I'd offer to help, but I don't think it would be a good idea if I ran off with you. I might be in enough trouble as it is."

"Here," said Nekka, holding out Hoplo's journal to Sokka, who was reluctant to take it with his bloody hands.

Azula took it instead, then handed it back to Nekka while grabbing her arm. "You hold on to it. You're coming with us."

"Wha-what? N-no, I couldn't...Sifu Misso..."

"Is dead. Those fish-eyed freaks killed him, just like they'll kill you if you stay here. You think that was all of them back there? You're marked now and, besides, we need someone who can make sense of that musty old book if we ever find it. This isn't a request."

Sokka was wobbling on his feet as the ground spun. He was barely aware of what was happening, but Dekken did not seem to notice when he spoke to him. "I need you to hit me," Dekken said. "I'll say I was leading you to safety when you sucker punched me. Sokka? Sokka?"

"I don't know..." Sokka began to say, then Azula did the deed. Her fist smashed into Dekken's eye and he went down, still conscious but with a blossoming wound that would help his story immensely.

"You..." Sokka began to say, but a front of nausea hit him, and he was ushered up Appa's flat, meaty tail by Azula, who pushed and dragged Nekka alongside him.

"I've always wanted to try this," said Azula, taking Appa's reins when they were in the saddle. The bison grunted deeply and shook his head when Azula held his reins and sat on the back of his neck.

"Easy, buddy, do what she says," called Sokka as loudly and gently as he could while he laid down. His head and shoulder had become a sticky mess.

"Yip-yip," shouted Azula, and like an annoyed, fluffy flower seed pod, Appa rose into the air and drifted to the southeast.

Sokka heard Nekka muttering something about her healing skills not being so great before the airiness and nausea he felt came together to form a kind of tornado that spun him off into blackness.

To be continued...