Hopefully you have liked the story so far. Warning, there is a few curse words in the later part of this chapter. I was in a bad mood when I wrote the end part. There is a bit more interaction with Jelisa and her brothers later. I haven't mentioned this in awhile. I do not own Avatar, but I do own Harper, Rahab, Jelisa and Arawn. Hey, if any of you can tell me where I got the name for Jelisa's second brother, I will write you something special. Oh, one more thing, I have a new song posted on my other fanfic going on, Another Group of Songs. Please check it out and let me know what you think.
Toph paced the length of the throne room. It had been four days since Zuko and Katara took off for the North Pole. In the message Azula had sent, she said that the children and Arawn were fine, and Jelisa and Haru were being forced to go to the North. That's great. Send the crazed Waterbending assassin and the pansy Earthbender to the Northern Water Tribe with no supervision. The leaders of this resistance are not the most intelligent.
She turned around and walked the other direction. "Any word yet?" She turned her head in the general direction of Iroh and Aang.
"Not yet, Toph. I told you I would let you know." Aang looked at his wife. "You need to calm down. Zuko and Katara are probably talking to Jelisa and Haru now. They will send word when they find out more."
Toph crossed her arms in in front of her chest. "I know, I know, but I am just worried about the children." she dropped her head. "Aang, I want my son back."
She felt him walk over to her and wrap his arms around her. "I miss him too, but until we know where they are hiding them, there is nothing we can do. Arawn is with them, and he would never let anything happen to them. Plus, Azula has his back. They are safe and sound, and untouched. Have faith in our friends. They will not let us down."
She felt a tear slide down her cheek. Her son, her little airbender, taken prisoner by the resistance. "I'm trying, Twinkle Toes, I'm really trying."
He ran his hand through her hair.. "I know, that is all I'm asking from you, Toph. They will come back, then you can go and crush the resistance the way you want to." He kissed the top of her head. "We will make them pay for messing with our family."
She smiled slightly. He knew just how to make her feel better. Promises of crushing the enemy was a way to make her happy. "Sounds good to me."
"Aang, Toph, Iroh!" Sokka came tearing into the throne room with Suki and Ty Lee hot on his heels. Hawky, judging from the sound of the wing beats, was flying right next to his master. "Katara just sent a message!"
Toph pulled out of her husband's embrace. "Well, don't just stand there. Read it, Snoozles before I bury you under the palace."
Sokka unrolled the parchment.
Everyone,
Jelisa showed up yesterday. The children are fine. Arawn and Azula are watching them. No harm will come to them, so can stop worrying, Toph. Anyway, there is a few things we have learned from Haru and Jelisa. One, the resistance plans on attacking in three months, on the anniversary of the fall of Ozai. Right now, they have numbers on their side. The Fire Nation Army is not big enough to take them down. Toph, would you go to the Earth King and try to get as many troops as you can? You have the man's ear. He will listen to you. Aang, we need you to go to the Air Nomads. See if they will help. Sokka, you need to go home and tell Dad what is going on. Suki and Ty Lee, head back to Kyoshi and gather the warriors. We need all the help we can get. We have the men and women from the Northern tribe helping. Jelisa is going to rally the assassin's guild and try to get them to join. We are trying to get as many as we can. We are leaving here in a few days time. Meet back up in two weeks at Ba Sing Sei. We will then see where we stand.
Katara and Zuko
P.S. You guys will not believe this, but Jelisa is not just any waterbender from the North. She is now the crowned princess, and her real name is Jennasa. Crazy huh?
Everyone just looked at each other. Ty Lee was the one to break the silence. "Jelisa, our gloomy, gray aura'd assassin, is really a princess? Didn't see that one coming."
Toph shook her head. She turned her head in the general direction of Iroh. "What is up with royalty walking around the world with different names and trying to be normal?"
Iroh chuckled. "It's fun to mess with people."
She rolled her unseeing eyes. "Why did I ask you? You are the Dragon of the West. One of the most powerful people in the Fire Nation, and you own a tea shop in Ba Sing Sei."
"Even powerful people need to be normal at times, Toph. They need to escape every now and again. You of all people should understand that, General Bei Fong." The Dragon of the West smiled at her.
Toph just shrugged her shoulders. "Anyway, we are all suppose to split up and get more troops. I have no clue how many the Earth King will give me, if he gives me any."
Aang put his arm around her and hugged her shoulder. "We all have to try. That is all we can do."
--
Arawn looked around the small room for what felt like the millionth time. It was the same. A decent sized bed, a sink, a few books and a small writing desk. It was the room Jelisa had spent the last two months in, and it was now his and the children's cell.
They were all asleep at that time. He had told them stories of the Air Nomads before the war, and any other he could remember from his travels. It had been nearly a week since their capture at the hands of the Resistance. Most of the time, Marcus, Malaya, and Matthias were well behaved, but there were other times they cried for their parents. It was in those moments that he would gather them up and let them cry on his lap.
It was the hardest on Malaya. She had never been far from her mother and father. The boys had spent the night with each other, and had no problems being away from their parents, but Malaya was distraught a lot of the time. She took a liking to Azula when she came to visit. He had not told Malaya and Matthias that she was their aunt. It was not his place. Azula could tell the Fire Prince and Princess when she was really.
The door creaked open and Azula slipped in the room. She closed the door quietly and nodded to him. "I brought you something. It took me awhile to get the guards away long enough to get it in here." She pulled a bow and a full quiver of arrows out from behind her cloak. "Will it due?"
Arawn smiled at the ex Fire Princess. He pulled the string back experimentally. He smiled bigger. "Oh, this is perfect. Where did you get this?"
She grinned. "One of the men that joined from the Fire Nation is an ex-Yu Yan. I bought it from him for a rather good bargain. I told him I would not kill him if he gave it to me." She looked at her nails. "I wonder how he made it through their training. He about pissed himself when I threw fire at his feet."
Arawn laughed. "Most likely a wash out. They think they are hot shit because they had a shot to be a Yu Yan archer, but most of the recruits don't make it through the first few weeks of training." He put the quiver on his back and placed the bow in the quiver. "This will come in handy when I make our escape."
She looked at him. "When do you plan to do this? The general is getting really pissed off because Jelisa is not back yet. He wants to take his frustrations out on you. He knows if he touches the children, he will have to deal with everyone, but you are a different story. You have to make your move soon."
He nodded and looked at the children as they slept peacefully. "I hate to have them see me kill people. They are still too young to see death."
Azula shook her head. "If you do not go soon, they are going to see your death. Then they will see a lot more than what you would inflict when Jelisa comes back and finds out. She would bring the place around everyone's ears. You know what she can do when she is pissed off."
He stood up and paced the length of the small sitting room. "I know, I know, but still. I have to plan this out to the second. I have never tried an escape with three children in tow."
Azula just stood there. "I know you are worried, but I have given you all the information I have. You have to go tonight. The ball is about to roll, and you do not want to be in it's way. Take them and get out of here. They are about to march, and they will leave you here to die."
He stopped and hung his head. "Fine, I will get them out of here tonight. I will meet you in Ba Sing Sei. I have to get to the palace. I have friends that are there that can get the children home." He smiled at her. "I will see you there, right?"
She nodded and smiled. "Yeah, I will be there. The Earth King will not be happy to see me, but that is something I will have to deal with when the times comes." She walked over to him and pulled a map out of her pocket. "This is the plans to this place. I think part of this place is under Lake Laogui. There is ways out if you are not an Earthbender. I have marked them. Good luck to you."
Arawn pulled her into a hug. "Thank you Azula. You truly have changed, and I really like the new you."
The Princess blushed as he let her go. "Just get going before they find out what is going on."
--
Harper looked across the table at his sister. She was the same in appearances as he remembered, but she was colder, harder than he could ever recall. She would not answer to Jennasa, but would answer to Jelisa. She was not like he remembered. All traces of his sweet sister was gone, replaced by the hardened assassin she had become.
"We have to be precise when we strike. One minor flaw and they will have us. Our forces are small, but all of our men are trained to kill. Many of their people are no more than disgruntled farmers and noblemen. They were not trained in the ways of combat." Jelisa looked at everyone at the table. Her gaze stayed on him the longest. She was letting him know silently, she was not Jennasa, but Jelisa.
Fire Lord Zuko was the first to speak. "J, you spent time with them. How many people are we looking at here?"
"20,000 at the most. They are strong in numbers like I have said before. I still have my men among them, watching and gathering information that will be useful. From their reports, the general plans on attacking in the next four months. The battle will take place in the area that Aang fought your father, Ozai." She smiled at him. "They think that if they win there, it will bring them luck. They are idiots, all of them."
"I think we should just send our men in there and wipe them out before this battle. If what you are saying is true, they will not pose a problem against our strongest benders." Harper looked at Jelisa.
She laughed, a cold and unnerving laugh. "You would think that, wouldn't you, Harper, but if you take your men in there, they will be massacred before they could get to the main army. You forget, they are recruiting Yu Yan archers and they have the Rough Rhinos." She turned to Zuko. "Sorry, they have turned on you. They were loyal to your father only. He paid they for their services. When you cut that out of your budget, they got pissed when the money quit coming in. They want your head on a platter, Zuko. You are their first target, I am next."
Rahab finally joined the conversation. "Whoa wait! Why do they want to kill you?"
Jelisa turned to her other brother. "I turned them down, then shoved an ice dagger in their leader's leg after he tried to get fresh with me. I am a married woman and I would never do that to Arawn." She grinned. "Besides, it was fun to see him screaming in pain and calling me everything but my name."
Katara shook her head and smiled. "You have a sick sense of humor, Jelisa, you know that?"
"Hey, I had to keep my mind while I was there." She sat back in her chair and looked at everyone again. "Anyway, back to the business at hand. They have Arawn and the children. Azula is working on getting them out of there as we speak. She has been walking the grounds and finding weak points in their defenses. There not many in their base, but there is enough to get them out undetected."
"Jennasa…" Harper began, but she glared at him. "No, I will call you by your birth name. You will always be Jennasa to me, no matter what you say. To your assassins and outside of this tribe, you maybe Jelisa, master waterbender and assassin, but here, in my court, you will be Jennasa, princess of the Northern Water Tribe."
She let out a bark of a laugh and her eyes flashed with blue fire. "To the outside world, I am a master of my element, but here, here I am just a princess? Get your head out of your ass, Harper. I will never be what you want me to be. I am a waterbender, an assassin and a guardian. I am that before your little picture of me. I have grown up, if you haven't noticed. I probably have more balls than you do, you ass."
Harper felt the ground shake as Jelisa's fury reached it's peak. "I may be an ass, but you are acting like stubborn child. You were born into this world of fancy titles. You were a princess before all of that."
The ground busted below him, shooting him straight into the air. He landed hard on his back, he felt the wind leave his lungs. Black spots swam in front of his eyes. He gulped to fill his lungs with precious air, when he felt someone sit on his chest. Jelisa looked into his eyes. "You may be my oldest brother, and you will always have a place in my heart, but if you think you can rule my life like you rule over the Northern Tribe, you have another thing coming. I will not hesitate to take you out. I will not do it, but I have over a thousand assassins at my beck and call. One of them will take you out before you can bat an eye."
He pushed her off of his chest. He glared at her. "You may be powerful, but I can find someone to take you out. Remember that."
She grinned psychotically at him. "Try it. Kill me. I will welcome it. I have been trying to do it for years, Harper, ever since you plunged the knife into my womb and killing the only child I would ever have." She stood up and walked away. She called over her shoulder. "I hope you are proud of yourself, your highness. I hope you enjoy the feel of your son in your arms. Because of you, I will never know that feeling. I will never give a child to my husband. I will never know the feel of a child growing in me." With that, she fled out of the room, black cloak billowing out from behind her.
He hung his head and felt the tears prick the back of his eyes. He felt shame for what he did, but he was ordered to do it by his father. He was mad when he found out she was pregnant by Arawn. He told Harper to destroy the child before it could be brought into the world. He listened and obeyed like a good son. He destroyed his little sister. "I'm sorry, Jennasa, I'm so sorry." Then he let the tears go.
Okay, I had to put a little more interaction in between Jelisa and Harper and give her a reason to want to kill him. The battle between Arawn and the resistance is coming up next chapter. This chapter was just setting things up. Hope you liked it. Let me know what you think about the story and I will be your best online friend for life. See ya next chapter everyone!
