Ziggy's Corner: This tenth chapter is going to be short, very short, mainly dialogue, although you are going to see a glimpse of the other avatar, and set up the action that is going to follow in the next couple of chapters. This is going to be the last of the chapters that I am going to update this time around. The next time I think I will update five more chapters, giving your 15, then the time after that may see 8 chapters updating, giving you 23, and finally the last time another 8, giving you 31. If all goes well, this story could end by late Spring, early to mid Summer. Please keep in mind none of this is set in stone as of yet. This tenth chapter takes place just six hours after the end of the last. Enjoy!
"I can't believe this!" Zuko roared, storming up and down the bedroom's floors. "This has got to be the stupidest thing I have ever heard of!" He looked at his uncle and flung his arms at the girl, tied in her chair. "Did you ever consider what would happen if she tired to escape? And what of our finances now, uncle?"
"You know, if you would just stop venting and thinking of yourself," Katara began.
"Not a word from you!" the prince screamed. "You put him up to this; you're trying to sabotage me!"
"Gee Zuko, paranoid much?" the girl snapped.
"Calm down," Iroh said, rising to his feet.
"If this really was your idea, you've got a lot of explaining to do," Zuko snarled, turning on him as if the girl were no longer in the room. His chest rose and fell as smoke trailed from his nostrils.
"If you want to act like your father, then fine, I personally can not stop you," Iroh shouted, pounding his fist into a large oak table. "I won't stop you." He turned away and side. "I just thought I trained you better than that."
"My father is a good man," Zuko screeched. "He just wanted me to be strong, that's all."
"So if he challenged you again, would you fight him?" Katara asked. He turned on her, fist raised to strike, quavering as he stared down at her with flame filled eyes. He blinked, opened his hand, and slammed it down onto the table, breaking it. "Congratulations," she said calmly, patiently ignoring the robes that were digging into her wrists. "You've just shown strength."
"A damaged table is not a show of strength," he hissed.
"But refusing to strike a helpless opponent is," Katara said. "Your father would have struck me, and probably would have broken my neck because of it."
"You don't know anything about my father," he growled.
"But she's right, he would have, and thought nothing about it," Iroh said, edging closer to them. "I've seen him do it numerous times. He has your grandfather's frustration and your grandmother's anger and ambition, horrible combinations for a man wielding absolute power." He touched his nephew's chin and forced him to look at him. "Can you really tell me that that is the kind of man you want to be?"
He stared at his uncle in silence, allowing water to roll down his cheeks. "No," he said, allowing himself to whimper for what seemed like years. His inner mind hated it, but somehow his body felt like he needed to do it, to go back to the simple times of his youth.
Iroh smiled pleasantly and slapped his nephew's shoulder. "Good," he said gently, "Because if you had said yes, I would have had no choice but to resign as your advisor." He walked over to the girl and cut the ropes that held her in the chair. "And I would have taken Katara with me."
He looked at the two of them and sighed, "I need some air. I think I should let the two of you talk."
"We don't have anything to talk about," Zuko said as he watched his uncle go.
"Well I guess then there's no sense in me asking you to let me go," she said, suddenly aware of how alone they were. She stared at him, never seeing him this broken and hopeless before. He doesn't care about himself. He's thinking that his country is in danger without a good leader. She frowned, and in his training his was forced to think he would be that leader. Forced, and pushed, and shoved, and kicked. Any free will or thought was drained out of him. She still did not like his actions or his plans, but it made him all the more human to her.
"You have had it so easy," he growled.
"Yeah, being hunted down by an egomaniac prince with delusions of messiahship that were forced onto him by his society is real easy," she said, without any anger in her voice.
"I don't mean that," he snapped, looking into her chocolate eyes, losing himself to the moment. "I mean," he stopped and sputtered with his words, determined not to speak Fire Nation dogma yet again. It would have meant nothing to her, and it was starting to lose its grip on him too. "Why did you choose to follow the avatar? You could have stayed in your village, safe and out of harms way."
A vision of the female avatar, Kyoshi flashed across her eyes and she stumbled for a moment. A stronger, confident voice that sounded like a mature Suki echoed in her ears, and the water bender seemed to speak them to Zuko as they entered her mind. "Fate has a way of bringing those who need to right wrongs and bring peace to where it no longer exists into the front, whether or not they want to go."
He stared at her as if she had lost her mind and then started to laugh. It started out as a chuckle, then to a laugh, and then into a riotous sound she had never heard come from his mouth before. He was laughing so hard he was nearly doubling over with pain as tears ran down his face. "And you call me egomaniacal with delusions of messiahship," he said as soon as he could catch his breathe.
She had no idea why she said what she did, and was a little embarrassed. "I suppose a little bit of you is rubbing off of me," she said with a smile.
"Let's hope not," he chuckled again. "You're far too beautiful to lose your looks right now." As soon as the words left his mouth, his flushed and put a hand to his head, his heart beating a thousand miles per second.
She stared at him, shocked and unblinking. "Well, you're pretty handsome too," she said, and then covered her lips with her hands. What the hell? What's going on? And why can't stop my heart from beating so hard? He looked at her with open mouth wide and stared. Should I excuse myself? What's going to happen? The last time she felt like this was with Jet and some how it seemed purer now than then, which was making it that much stronger.
Before either of them knew what had happened, they were wrapped in each other's arms, their lips pressed against each other, their eyes closed, their minds racing with new ideas, feelings and words. They pulled away, and both looked at their feet, both rubbing their heads as if the one was the mirror of the other.
Zuko shuddered, and looked at her with one eye. "Um. I don't know what that was, but maybe we're just tired. I think it would be a good idea to just get some rest, like my uncle says."
"You're right," she said too quickly. "We should probably just forget that happened." Her mind matched the look on his face. But I don't want to forget about it.
"I agree," he said reluctantly. The two of them turned from each other with passing glance, and lay back in their individual beds.
Outside Iroh was listening and smiling. Well, it's a start anyway. The elderly general chuckled to himself, and decided to see what other kind of shops this town had.
/
"Your Excellency," a cloaked monk said, kneeling before a man in his forties dressed in strong purple and rose colored robes. "General Jet has apologized for the delays in the tactics, and claims he has information that demands your immediate attention."
"The Fire Nation has reached our shores, and a pretender to my throne has decided to step foot on them as well," the man said, his voice cold, hard and determined. The monk nodded his head.
Electricity rushed through his body as he rose to his feet. The figure removed his hood and ran fingers through his bright red hair, his greenish brown eyes glowing in the light of the palace's magnificent crystals. "I have no interest in the Fire Nation, should they behave themselves. But this pretender can not be ignored." Water, flames, and rock joined with the electricity flying around his body. The air hissed and moaned as it wrapped around him, and the monk, terrified and frozen, collapsed to the ground; pulled there by gravity itself. "I suppose it's finally time to leave my fine home, and show the world the true power of bending, isn't it?"
Ruby lips spread across a tan face, slicing against a large scar on the right side of his cheek as he smiled. "I shall very much enjoy this."
Okay I told you this chapter would be short! So what did you think of the kiss? In my outline I have them going to kiss, but are interrupted, but as I wrote this chapter, I decided to let them. It was needed I think, and has really caused them more confusion than if they were simply to be interrupted. Zuko and Katara's relationship is going to grow in the next couple of chapters, but what do you think of this new villain? It's not the first time I've tried a Lightning Bender, but this guy is a Gravity Bender too? And what other elements does he have control of? This is going to be a very powerful foe, and things get only more hectic as Aang and Sokka try to stop him, as Zhao and his group decide to return next chapter. Okay take care! And I'll see you all later.
Okay I just wanted you all to know that I had gotten a cold earlier this month, and now my monitor is really nasty, it looks like it is going to fall right off, and the computer repair guy simply made things worse. I'll try to update as soon as possible, maybe in May, but do not hold me to that, as my time is not my own in updates. I just promise to do the best that I can.