Disclaimer: I own NOTHING...i will, however, gladly accept Dante Basco as a gift...hehehe...
Here's 10...the fourth Chapter of Firefly should be up later this afternoon or tomorrow at the latest..i'm having really bad writer's block.
#10. Breathe Again
He's lost her. Somehow in the madness, he misplaced her. The fires around the place no longer rage quite so angrily and here and there he finds pockets of survivors.
Toph, Aang, Iroh, Hadoka are all grouped together...Zuko sees Mai and Ty Lee off on their own. But he still does not see the one he is looking so desperately for. Teo, the Duke, Longshot, Smellerbee are together and all right...no Katara.
"Nephew..." Iroh clasps his shoulder. "What is wrong?"
"Where's Katara?!" Zuko practically shouts.
"I thought she was with her brother..."
Zuko points to where Sokka and Suki are quietly talking, hands laced together. Zuko is instantly envious of them. "She's not..." Bato, Haru, Pipsqueak all trail by, still no Katara...
Suddenly Aang is beside him. "Where's Katara?" the young Avatar asks him.
"That's what I'm trying to figure out! Have you seen her?"
Aang shakes his head. "I'll look from the sky. Toph!" He calls and the blind girl looks up. "We need to find Katara!"
"I'm on it!" Toph yells back and starts feeling with her feet.
Zuko, on the other hand, dives straight into the smoke calling her name over and over until he thinks his lungs will bleed. She could be hurt or bleeding or...NO! He snarls. He won't allow himself to think like that.
He calls her name again and again, feeling it disappear into the thick smoke. But as he calls, he sees something or someone moving through the smoke. He starts to call again but then stops as he sees the bright blue of her shirt. He doesn't even think as he runs toward her.
She limps the last few steps and throws her arms around his neck. He breathes again.