Author's Notes: Two Chapters in one week. I'm in a good mood, since my semester ended. Now that I have a lot of free time, I got to work on this chapter for bit.
Well, here's the next chapter of the story. Enjoy.
Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar The Last Airbender. It is the property of its creators and Nickelodeon.
Chapter 7: Reunions Part 1
It had been two weeks when all of Zhao's staff had finished going through most of the boxes containing evidence regarding the Avatar. They had plotted the areas the Avatar had been to, including the Fire Sage's temple, on a large map in the middle of the room in an attempt to figure out possible routes for interception. Going over it, Zhao realized that the boy had gone all over the place and there was no general purpose to the destinations he went to. After the winter solstice however, things became different. The destinations became more and more focused, and he realized the boy was heading north. But why?
'Why would a boy head…?' his mind began but stopped, 'Wait, a boy… a boy who could only airbend was heading north.'
There was only one place he would go, and Zhao smirked. The admiral now considered his failure to hold the Avatar to be a minor setback, and then, perhaps, a golden opportunity. Suddenly, a crate dropped onto the ground, causing everyone's head to snap up and see a soldier.
"What was that?" Zhao demanded, irritated that his internal gloating was interrupted.
The soldier stood up straight, and faced the admiral nervously.
"Th-The evidence f-f-from the Tie Dao shipyard," stammered the soldier.
Zhao looked at the documents all over the ground.
"Why is it on the ground?" asked Zhao suddenly in a calm tone of voice as he approached the soldier.
"B-Because… I am clumsy?" he answered sheepishly.
"Ah, an honest answer… NOW PICK IT UP!" he shouted as flames coated his hands.
The soldier immediately did as he was ordered, and shuffled through the papers and organized them into a neat stack. It was then that something shiny caught the admiral's eyes.
"Stop," he ordered, and the soldier looked up, "Pick that up," he ordered, and the soldier obeyed.
Zhao beheld a necklace. It had a blue ribbon, and an ivory pendant with waves carved on it. The ribbon was worn, but the clasp and the pendant were well taken care of and glimmered as though they were brand new.
"This is evidence?" asked Zhao.
"Y-Yes sir," said the soldier, "The warden said that a Water Tribe girl who riled the earthbenders into rioting wore it."
"Water Tribe girl…" thought Zhao before remembering a girl he chained to one of the pillars in the Fire Sage's temple while the Avatar was present, "She must have dropped it before our little encounter… no matter, it's of no concern to me, get rid of it."
The soldier was about to when Colonel Shinu entered the room.
"Forgive the interruption Admiral, but you have a message," said the colonel.
"Not now, I believe we had a breakthrough in the hunt for the Avatar," said Zhao.
"Forgive me Admiral, but this is for your eyes only," said the colonel holding an unopened red scroll.
Zhao turned around in irritation, but immediately stopped as he faced the scroll.
"It came from a Hei Ying?" asked the admiral, clearly interested.
Shinu simply nodded.
In the military, red scrolls from black messenger hawks meant it was a top secret document that demanded the punishment of death be given to anyone unauthorized to read it. The scroll was made from a very thin film of paper that required a special pen and ink for it's messages, and when it was rolled up into a scroll, the knot of the delicate ribbon that held it together was waxed and stamped with a special seal, whose maker lived directly in the royal palace to ensure its authority, authenticity, and to make sure it was never duplicated..
"Everyone is dismissed!" he barked, and the soldiers scrambled as they got out of the room.
As they did, Zhao snatched the missive from the colonel who promptly left as well. Zhao read it. It was an incident that occurred somewhere along the western coast of the Earth Kingdom that resulted in injured sailors and soldiers under the vice-admiral's command. It was nothing special until he read the description of the perpetrator. His eyes widened greatly, and his heart rate sped up.
"One of the tiger-wolf's allies is still alive?" he said to himself.
xXxXx
Aang and the others were walking on the road, letting Appa take a break from flying for the day. As they did, Aang was thinking about Zuko. When they were in Aunt Wu's village, and the volcano went off, Aang was thinking about how close a call it was when they saved the village from the rolling molten hill of magma. He had begun to wonder how much easier it would have been if they had a firebender with them, but didn't have the heart to voice the opinion to the others. Sokka and Katara were upset about the subject of Zuko, but after the volcano eruption, they never mentioned it.
It had been a week since they were at Aunt Wu's and Aang, thinking it was a good time to bring it up, opened his mouth. However, before he could, he saw something off to the side down a hill. Aang immediately ran toward it, catching both Sokka and Katara's attention.
"Aang!" shouted Sokka as he went after him, followed by Katara.
Sokka, in his attempt to catch up to Aang, saw what looked like a Water Tribe weapon stuck in the ground. Aang was the first one to get there, and got a good look at it.
"Hey look a sword made out of a whale's tooth," said Aang after picking it up.
"Let me see that," said Sokka grabbing the sword after he caught up.
Sokka remembered the older men of his tribe preparing to leave for war, and he himself deciding to go with them. Seeing a chance that his father may be nearby, his heart sped up in excitement.
"This is a Water Tribe weapon," he said still staring at the weapon before looking at Aang, "See if you can find anything else."
Sokka and Aang split up looking through the bushes, when Katara caught up with them. She was wondering why they were searching through the bushes, and cleared her throat slightly.
"Did someone lose something?" she asked while still observing the sight.
"No, we found something," replied Aang excitedly.
Sokka found something further down the hill, and discovered it was an arrow. He looked at the arrow head, and saw it was made of bone and burnt by a jet of fire. He then looked to a tree and saw scorch marks all over it.
"There was battle," he voiced as he stroked the burnt wood, "Water Tribe warriors ambushed a group of firebenders. The firebenders fought back, but the warriors drove them down this hill.
Sokka ran down after the trail, looking at the faint imprints of boots, and burn marks across the scorched earth and forest. His ran past the rocks at the beach, and saw similar signs of battle. The sand was burnt, and there were dried patches of blood somewhat cooked. It was then that Aang and Katara caught up, but Sokka just stared off into the sea.
"So then what happened?" asked Aang.
"I don't know the trail ends here," said Sokka disappointed and disheartened.
Katara was about to console her brother when she looked off to the side, and saw something she hadn't seen in two years.
"Wait! Look!" she shouted while pointing.
The two boys saw a Water Tribe ship beached, and the three kids ran toward it with much enthusiasm.
"It's one of our boats!" shouted Sokka as the approached the vessel. It was empty, but still serviceable, and it looked as though it wasn't beached for very long.
"Is this dad's boat?" asked Katara with a voice that was laced with hope.
"No," said Sokka, "but it's from his fleet; dad was here."
The two smiled at one another while Aang still looked at the boat.
"This is great," began Katara, "If dad was here, then we can't be too far behind him right?"
"Yeah," agreed Sokka before looking sad, "Maybe."
"Let's set up camp here," suggested Katara, sensing Sokka's disappointment.
The thought of staying near something that reminded them both of home helped to lift up Sokka's spirits, and he smiled.
"Ok," said Sokka.
"Are you sure?" asked Aang, "I mean we usually camp near the woods, you know for protection."
"No, we're camping here," snapped Sokka.
Aang was taken aback. Weeks of traveling with Sokka made Aang a little bit more aware of his surroundings while camping, and this decision was unlike Sokka. Even if it was for the purpose of being near something that reminded him of home, Sokka was never one to jeopardize the group, and camping in such an open space was very risky. Still he began to go along with the Water Tribe sibling's suggestion, and the three set up camp.
xXxXx
Bato finished his morning meal when he heard the recognizable sounds of a young man in training. He left the room the two were sharing, and saw his roommate going through various firebending forms, none of which were familiar to Bato. The forms were aggressive like all firebending he had seen, but they were not the brutalized military versions used by common soldiers. His was graceful and fluid, but sharp and fast.
"Zuko!" shouted Bato.
Zuko froze midway in a form, and turned his head to see Bato standing with an amused look on his face.
"I see you've recovered well," said Bato seeing Zuko maintaining his balance; something that would have been impossible if he was still injured.
It had been a week and a half since Hakoda left the two injured men, and they had bonded considerably. Zuko was no longer referring to Bato as "sir" and Bato began to treat Zuko as though he were Sokka or any of the younger warriors of the tribe. All formalities were tossed out of the way, which was hard at first for Zuko, being trained to be polite constantly both as a prince then a soldier. However, Zuko eventually welcomed the change and the chance to be looser around people.
"How about you?" asked Zuko as he relaxed, and stood at ease.
"Well I can walk fine, and I think I use a club now," said Bato while exercising his arm.
Both men's injuries were recovered well enough to the point where they could do things on their own now. Zuko, being younger, recovered faster than Bato, and was free to leave anytime he wanted. Bato on the other hand was not entirely up to speed, but believed he was strong enough to fight if he had to. He however couldn't leave until he got the message from Hakoda. With this in mind, Zuko never left. He promised Hakoda he would look after Bato, and would not leave until Bato got the word on where to go.
"Well that's good," said Zuko.
The wind began to pick up somewhat, and Bato shivered a little.
"I think being away from the South Pole's weakened my tolerance for the cold," said Bato.
Zuko felt the wind too. It was too strong for him to practice, unless he was willing to burn down the abbey.
"I think I'll walk around outside today," said Zuko.
"Alright, well be careful; there may be more of those boarcupines out there," said Bato, "Tonight's the usual meal. I'll keep it as hot as I can."
Zuko nodded with a smile and left the abbey to go somewhere else. Bato looked on as the boy left, and felt the Superior creep up on him.
"Not bad for someone from the Fire Nation," she thought out loud.
"I agree," said Bato, "He has a noble air about him. It makes you wonder if his people were like that before the war. And if that's the case, what happened?"
"Mmm…" mumbled the Superior, not really having an answer to that question, "Now then, you get some rest. We don't want your newly recovered strength to die away so soon now do we?"
Bato did as the Superior ordered him to do, and went back inside to rest. Bato decided it would be a good opportunity to see what things he needed to pack for when Hakoda told him where to go and when. He went over his things, and realized he couldn't bring everything he had with him. He would miss some of the items in the guestroom since it reminded him of home. Oddly enough, Zuko didn't mind the Water Tribe decorations when he first moved in with Bato saying that it looked comfortable considering he slept on dirt, wet or hard depending on the seasons, and the only decorations he had seen were trees. Maybe Zuko would like a few things…
It had been several hours since Zuko left to train, and Bato had finished eating his share of stewed sea prunes. Zuko hadn't come back yet, but it wasn't uncommon for the young man to be out in the late hours of the night, so he wasn't too concerned. He looked out of the window, and noticed it was a really nice evening.
'Maybe I should get out too,' thought Bato.
He opened the door, and the nuns working on the perfumes. He told the Superior that he would walk outside for a while, and come back in a moment. The elderly nun nodded in agreement, and Bato left the abbey, unaware of who he was going to meet that night.
xXxXx
It was nightfall and both Aang and Katara were asleep by the boat from Hakoda's fleet of ships. The only one who was still awake was Sokka. The young warrior sat by the fire as memories from his past rose up. He yearned to be with his dad, and was frustrated that they had probably just missed him by a week. He stared into the fire as he remembered the day they left for the war…
A thirteen year old Sokka was holding a bundle of supplies and a sleeping bag as he tried to catch up to the men. Hakoda saw his son trudging through the snow after he gave some supplies to one of his comrades. He sighed inwardly, and approached his son. Sokka sped up in hopes of the getting to the boat before his father told him not to come. Before he could though, his father stopped him.
"Sokka…" he began, softly but with a hint of sternness.
"I'm coming with you," said Sokka as though it would seal the deal instantly.
"You're not old enough to go to war Sokka, you know that," said Hakoda.
I'm strong, I'm brave, I can fight," reasoned Sokka desperately, "Please dad?"
Hakoda took a deep breathe.
"Being a man is knowing where you're needed the most, and for you right now, that's here protecting your sister," he explained to his son as tears welled up in his eyes.
"I don't understand," answered Sokka in confusion.
"Some day you will," said Hakoda. Sokka took it as a no, and dropped his things and jumped to his father to hug him, "I'm going to miss you so much."
Sokka sighed at the memory when he heard the sand on the beach crumbling. He immediately got into a stance and drew out his boomerang.
"Who's there?" he demanded.
The figure emerged from the shadows, "Sokka?"
The clothes were Water Tribe, the hair was Water Tribe, the face and eyes and voice were… "Bato?"
Aang instantly woke up at the sound of Sokka's voice going up and cracking.
"Who the what now?" he blurted.
Katara got on her hands, and rubbed her eyes before looking at the man Sokka was staring at.
"Bato!" she said in a mix of joy and relief.
The two siblings ran up to Bato, to give him a hug.
"Sokka, Katara, it is so good to see you," he said as he took the two teens in his arms. He chuckled as he remembered Zuko's stories, "You have grown so much."
The two did not hear how he emphasized the word "have," instead they looked up to him with loads of questions in their eyes and minds.
"Hi I'm Aang," introduced the young Avatar, but he was brushed aside by Sokka's question.
"Where's dad?" asked Sokka eagerly.
"Is he here?" asked Katara in equal excitement.
"No, he and the other warriors should be in the eastern Earth Kingdom by now," said Bato calmly.
The two Water Tribe siblings were disappointed by Bato's answer. They looked to each other when a cold breeze blew through the area. They scrunched up their arms to hold the warmth still in their bodies, and Bato did the same.
"This is no place for a reunion," said the older man as he shivered, "Let's get inside."
Bato took the two kids who he treated as his niece and nephew in his arms, and motioned for Aang to follow him, acknowledging his presence. As they went to the abbey, Bato debated whether or not to mention Zuko's presence. He wanted to mention him, but he decided to catch up with the kids of his best friend first and to hear their take on the their adventures.
"Bato, you're injured!" exclaimed Katara as she saw the bandages.
The older man looked at the young girl, before going to his wounds.
"Yes, well we fought some Fire Nation soldiers almost two weeks ago. They were infiltrators trying to take over the province," explained Bato, "We only encountered one group, but we informed the nearest garrison. Over the days we realized that there was a whole army of them. They got in real deep too, but we stopped them before they could execute their plan."
"Wow, so you guys were the ones who fought in the forest?" asked Sokka.
"I take it you saw the signs of the battle," said Bato who got an enthusiastic nod from Sokka, "You're tracking skills have improved considerably since the last time I saw them."
Sokka grinned with pride.
"So, who's been taking care of you," asked Katara.
"Well," said Bato, as the reached the steps that led up to the abbey, "The people in that building.
Bato pointed up to the abbey, and they all continued onward. When they arrived, Bato introduced the kids to his caretakers, and Sokka tried to crack a joke regarding Appa when he learned the nuns made perfume. For a moment Bato thought that Hakoda should have made the joke, but then realized there wouldn't be much of a difference. He showed them to the room he had been staying in, and the Sokka and Katara immediately felt at home, though Aang and Momo were uncomfortable with all the dead animal pelts. Bato let Sokka and Katara have their fill of the sea prunes, and Sokka and Katara began to catch up. Again, Aang was feeling left out, and took a quick nap to wake up and hear…
"There's something I should tell you kids, I'm expecting a message from your father," mentioned Bato.
"Really?" asked Sokka.
"When?" asked Katara.
"Any day now," replied Bato, "Your father said he'd send a message when they found the rendezvous point. If you wait here until the message arrives, you can come with me and see your father again."
"It's been over two years since we've seen dad, that would be so incredible," said Sokka excitedly before turning to his sister, "Katara."
"I do really miss him, it would be great to see dad," she replied.
"It's been far too long hasn't it…?" muttered Hakoda
Aang left, distraught at the change of events and again, no one noticed him.
xXxXx
Zuko dashed back to the abbey. The walk he was taking turned into a training session when he found a big enough space to practice. He did not apply fire to the forms; it wasn't that he couldn't, but rather he wanted his body and his mind to remember the forms before he applied fire to it. That and the wind was still pretty strong. After hours of training, he chose to take a break, but the quick break he decided to take while catching his breath turned into a five hour nap.
Zuko kept running, and when he saw the abbey in the distance, he picked up speed.
…
"Hey everyone, sorry I was gone so long," said Aang as he reentered the guest wing of the abbey.
Katara turned around to see her friend.
"Hey Aang, I didn't notice you left," said Katara.
"Yup, but now I'm back," he said as he approached the circle, and he began to stroke his chin, "Sure could go for some… delicious sea prunes."
Aang took a bite, and coughed up some before snapping his mouth shut and made yummy sounds. It was blatantly obvious to Bato, and Katara that something bothered Aang. Even Sokka was not that dense, and he eyed Aang weirdly.
…
Zuko entered the abbey gates breathing hard.
"Ah, Zuko glad to see you've arrived," said the Superior with a bucket of water.
It was the same for three days. Zuko trained, went off for a day, and came back tired and thirsty. Zuko gently grabbed the bucket from the superior before drinking the refreshing liquid like a camel.
"Bato is expecting you," said the Superior with a sneaky smile on her face.
Zuko was too tired to notice, and he thanked the Superior for letting him know. He went off, not hearing the chuckles from Haixiu and the other women. He was tired and hungry and he didn't care if he was eating sea prunes again. He liked them, but he was not sure he could eat them everyday.
He opened the door quickly.
"You wanted to see me Ba-" Zuko froze.
Any fatigue he felt was gone. Any appetite he had was lost.
Aang's group looked shocked, scared, and well… surprised.
"YOU!" they yelled at each other.
"Ah… Zuko, glad you could join us," said Bato, stifling his laughter.
xXxXx
In a shady tavern in the Earth Kingdom, a man in a black cloak appeared. He walked up to the door and opened it. Immediately a wave of cheers, jeers, and unknown profanities sang throughout the establishment.
"Drinks on me!" shouted a woman in a black dress.
Cheers and shouts of approval roared throughout the building, and the barmaids began pouring the booze from the taps. The golden drinks poured like cascades, and the deceptively disgusting smell of alcohol thickened the air to provide a soothing atmosphere.
The man walked up to the woman, as she sat down. Before she could drink, the man in the cloak stopped the cup from reaching her black-painted lips.
"Hey, what's your prob-" she began before a glimmer of fear shone in her eyes.
"You've been a very naughty girl lately, haven't you," stated Zhao with a suave sneer.
"I knew I shouldn't have gone on that ship," the woman cursed.
"Well, that's water under the bridge," said Zhao before turning serious, "I have a business proposal for you June… Former Lieutenant of the Auxiliary Divisions."
A short chapter and a cliffhanger. Some of you are probably thinking "Er… WHAT? Lieutenant… of the WHAT?"
It plays a part later in the story.
Author's Notes:
Hei Ying: Chinese for "black hawk"
I worked on this chapter for a bit, but I haven't been able to finish it because of Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (Awesome Game) and Finals (BOO!). As a result part of the dialogue after Bato tells Sokka and Katara about the rendezvous point might be a little off when I finished. Sorry about that.
Thank you for reading and please review. But more importantly, have a nice holiday everyone.
