Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender and I am in no way associated with the creators of the show.
Book 1: Fire
Chapter 9: The Firebending Scroll
Hope was the only thing that pushed them forward.
With a newfound mastery of firebending under his belt, Aang disposed of the Fire Nation soldiers with ease, feeling his power strengthening with the coming of the Comet. He watched as Zuko did the same with all of his enemies. Despite the Comet, the soldiers weren't fighting nearly as well as the Avatar and the Fire Prince.
Aang let his friend lead the way, as Zuko was the one who knew his way around the Palace. Aang was ready. The time had come to defeat the Fire Lord.
"He should be in the war chamber," Zuko had said.
He remembered it with astounding clarity. They had run down a corridor with elaborate murals of past Fire Lords, fighting an infinite number of soldiers... Azula was away from the Palace, leading one of the invasions on the Earth Kingdom... They could do this. Ozai was going to fall today.
Zuko abruptly turned, sliding across the marble flooring as he did so. He slashed his swords and swept the soldiers with fire as he fought through their ranks to get inside the war room. Aang was behind him, hurling all of the elements within him. When the soldiers fell back, Zuko and Aang burst into the war room.
They were met with a huge chamber of firebenders, all with their eyes on them. The scattered remains of the soldiers were in the room, ready for a last stand, while all of Ozai's Generals were up and ready. As old as they were, they were benders strengthened by the Comet. They were all standing around a map of the world, and at the head of the table was Ozai, on the other side of the room.
Aang laid his eyes on his true enemy for the first time. He looked surprisingly... human. His face was strong. His eyes were piercing right into him. He felt it throughout his body; it stabbed more than Azula's hardest glares ever could. Ozai was donned in intimidating golden armor, the shoulders twisting and writhing to form flames of pure gold.
"Kill them," he said.
Aang shot up from his sleep, his eyes wide with fear as sweat streamed down his face. His dark hair clung to his head. It was wet, and unpleasantly so. His breaths came out in long gasps.
"What's wrong?" Azula asked the boy, startling him. Apparently, he had fallen asleep under the sun on the back of Appa's saddle. His shawl was being blown by the wind, tickling his face. Aang pushed it down and rubbed his eyes, loosening his tense muscles with a sigh.
"It was just a bad dream," he said to her. He sat back against the side of Appa's saddle, letting Zuko fly the bison for a while.
"You've been having those very often lately," Azula pointed out to him, crossing her arms and staring at him inquisitively.
"What, are you worried about me? It's nothing," he said, dismissing her with a wave of his hand.
"You are worried that you'll fail the whole world and that it'll be flooded completely on the day of Seiryu's Moon, completely destroying all civilization as we know it, right?" she asked, her voice precise and calculating. Aang stared at her with wide eyes, his mouth slightly hanging open. Even Zuko halted Appa for a moment to stare at her.
"Uh-um, yeah, s-sure," Aang stuttered. The awkward moment passed and Appa continued flying.
"Still... it must be very difficult and daunting to have to learn all four elements before winter's end..." Azula said. What was she hinting at?
"Yeah, and you're not helping," Aang said, rolling his eyes.
"And you're surprisingly not very nervous about it. But I was obviously able to tell that you were from your nightmares. You're hiding your feelings. What are you keeping from us?" She was crawling toward him with every sentence, her eyes widening. She was clearly desperate for information. Aang pushed himself against the edge of Appa's saddle. "It's got to be something else besides this 'Seiryu's Moon' business."
Wow, she's really perceptive. She doesn't miss a thing! "You miscalculated. I'm fine," Aang said to her, holding up his hands in a defensive position. Her face was uncomfortably close to his.
"Well, I guess since you so desperately need it, I can teach you some of the firebending I know," she said, pulling back from him and sitting back down. She spoke with an air that she was doing him a great favor and it was a hassle to her.
"Sure, that'd be... good," Aang said, immediately taking the opportunity to get off of dangerous grounds.
"Alright, that's settled then!" she said, grinning. She clearly had some kind of ulterior motive, but Aang was too relieved to think about that at the moment. "Zuzu, land this bison. We're going to have a quick firebending lesson."
Aang didn't know why he couldn't bring himself to tell Azula that this wasn't the way things were supposed to be. He didn't think he could ever tell her, or Zuko, for that matter, that the Fire Nation ruled the world in another place, that they both once hunted for him, and that their enemy, Prince Sokka, was his best friend. Could he tell her that he kept seeing her as a truly evil being? Could he tell them that their father was a ruthless tyrant? Would they believe him? Would they shun him?
Wait, Aang stopped himself. Why did he even care about getting acceptance from Azula?
More importantly, he wondered if he was even going to be able to bend fire. Back when he first discovered he wouldn't be able to return back home easily, he tried to bend any element besides air with no luck. There seemed to be almost a sort of mental barrier that he couldn't pass no matter how hard he tried. At times, he had taken to wondering if he could even bend the other elements... but then he remembered that he was able to access the Avatar State. Would getting an informal lesson help him "relearn" the information? What would he do if he couldn't do it?
Aang looked long and hard at the spot that Zuko deemed appropriate for the quick firebending lesson. They were situated on a large patch of dry grass that was so dead and trodden on that it may as well have been dirt. Aang wasn't very worried about losing control of his fire—once he had it alive, he assumed, he'd be able to control it like he used to. Besides, if anything got out of hand, there was a small pond nearby. They were a fair distance away from any forest, which was just on the outskirts of the pond, and a rocky crag shielded them from curious eyes. Zuko suspected that there may have been waterbenders about because of the dry grass.
Aang braced himself for his first lesson with Azula. He found himself wondering how it would go. "We'll start by making a ball of fire in our hands, like this," the girl said, holding out her hand palm up. A flame danced in her palm like a lantern on a dark night. It was a very common and easy ability. Aang knew from experience, even though he had trouble when he first tried it. He held out his hand like she did, but nothing happened. He didn't expect it, anyway. He tried it a few days before, with no luck.
"You're not even going to tell me how to—"
"Make a flame!" she said curtly, interrupting him. Aang rolled his eyes.
"But how—?"
"Do it!"
Zuko, watching from the side, sniggered.
"You've got to be kidding me," Aang mumbled. She's not a good teacher at all. "I can't make fire. You need to tell me how."
"You're hopeless. Fire comes from the breath," she said, rolling her eyes. Aang immediately knew the real reason why she volunteered to teach him what she knew. She enjoyed ordering him around, for once, and being the one in charge. Aang complied anyway, taking a deep breath. He concentrated, but on what, he didn't know. There had to be something else he was forgetting!
"I can't do it. Something's wrong," Aang said after a moment.
"Zuko!" she called to her brother tersely. "Get some firewood!"
Zuko jumped abruptly. "Why me?"
"Because you're the one watching," she said to him tauntingly. "Now go get it!"
"I'll get it," Aang said, before Zuko stood.
Aang walked to the edge of the forest to receive the tinder required for the fire. He hoped that it was for Azula's lesson and not for one of her own pointless reasons to annoy him. He preferred Toph's lessons over Azula's any day. At the edge of the forest, he found some old, dry kindling, and in no time at all, he brought it back to Azula.
The wooden boat creaked as Sokka concentrated on the maps in front of him, trying to plan out the Avatar's route or the location he was at currently. So far, there had been no luck. He was the ship's navigator, and it was his job to plan their destinations.
They were currently sailing along the coast of the Fire Nation's Outer Islands. They had sailed from Avatar Kuruk's island with the utmost speed in an attempt to follow the young Avatar. His father was also going to hear about Bato. No Commander had the right to chain up their Prince.
Sokka was interrupted from the rest of his planning by a loud knock on the wooden door. The ship creaked and swayed for a moment, but he calmed himself. "Come in," he said quietly through clenched teeth.
His grandmother entered with a sad frown on her face. "Prince Sokka, we need to get to a port."
"Why's that?" Sokka asked her, marginally annoyed. "We can't go off schedule!"
"Yes, but... I ran out of my cookie ingredients, and I wanted to make some for the crew..."
"I do not want to stop my search for the Avatar for your cookies," Sokka said to her plainly.
"But it's important. Someone needs to make some good food around here!" the old woman said. "It will be my gift to the crew for working so hard."
"I said no, we can't!"
"I can't believe you talked me into this," Sokka said blankly, watching his crew lug tons of needless souvenirs onto the ship. "This is just junk!"
"No it's not! I have plenty of new ingredients for cookies now," his grandmother protested with her hands on her hips. She looked up at him, her wrinkled face frowning. "There's also my sewing materials and reading scrolls. But I was very lucky to find new, rare Pai Sho tiles! Oh, and take a look at this," she said, holding up a tiny, white whistle. "It's shaped like some kind of animal, but it seems to be broken..."
"All of it's useless old lady stuff that we don't need," Sokka grumbled, crossing his arms.
By the time he was back, Zuko had a sort of fire pit ready, so Aang threw the twigs inside. Azula lit it easily with a trail of fire from her wrists. The two siblings sat down next to the fire.
"I'm ready to try again," Aang said. He stood next to the fire and took a deep breath.
Azula copied him. "Listen, Aang..." she said. Aang's eyes widened. Was she about to apologize again for her earlier actions? Azula and apologies didn't go well together. It unnerved him to see her act so human, even now, when he was finally getting to know her. She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry for being too rough on you earlier. I wasn't really teaching you anything about firebending." As she said this, Zuko caught Aang's gaze and smiled. So, Zuko is the reason for this, Aang thought, inwardly praising him. It seemed that he had some influence on his younger sister after all.
"It's okay," Aang said. "I've had my fair share of rough teachers." He thought about his first lessons of earthbending with Toph. Now, he figured that Azula was still aggravated over the loss of her mother's headpiece, but he had a strong suspicion that Sokka was the one who somehow stole it.
"Alright," Azula said quickly, as if determined to forget about her apology, "We'll continue the lesson now. With a flame already alive for you to try and control, this should make it easier." She put her hand near the fire and the crackling flames moved closer to her, bending to her will. "You have to feel the heat of the fire outside of you and inside of you. You have to have the desire to control it. Firebending is all about control," she explained. With a slight movement of her hand, a piece of the fire went out to it, resting in her palm. "Now, you try to do that."
And then, it all made sense to him. As soon as Azula said those words and he saw the flame go into her hands, something seemed to click inside of his head. A long distant memory was resurfaced, and he suddenly remembered how to control fire and the basics of firebending. It was as if a block on his mind was removed. He found that he still didn't remember some of the more elaborate attacks, but now firebending seemed so simple. Instead of taking the flame in his palm from their campfire, Aang punched the air, letting out a small blast of the element.
Zuko fell back, surprised, and even Azula took a step away from him. "What was that?" the firebender asked.
"Wow, it turns out Azula's a good teacher after all!" Zuko exclaimed, shock written all over his face.
"How did you do it so soon?" Azula asked him. Her gaze was scrutinizing. She did not like to be surprised.
"I guess you are a great teacher," Aang said with a cheesy grin, in his opinion. "Thank you, Sifu Azula."
"You were holding back the whole time," Azula said, ignoring him. "That's the only thing that can explain it."
"The Avatar is the best bender in the world, isn't he?" Zuko asked her. "It's only reasonable that he can bend fire so easily." For once, Aang was glad that Zuko was sticking up for him.
"What else can you do, Avatar-boy?" Azula asked tauntingly. She used both hands to make the campfire into a ball, pulling her hands up into the air and thrusting her palms out, sending it at him. Pure reflex came to Aang and he thrust his fingers into it, pulling it apart in two different directions. Aang felt strengthened by the light of the sun on his back, a distantly familiar feeling.
Aang grinned. If it's a challenge you want, you'll get it, he thought roguishly.
He decided to perform his very first firebending move on her. He held a tiny flame above his head, bending his knees. He let the fire fall into his hands where he spread it out and let it grow, creating a ring of fire all around him. Instead of burning Azula's hand, however, she swiftly chopped it in half. She ran toward him with her next attack, her fist wreathed in flames. She sent the punch at him, but he blocked her arm with his forearm. For a moment, stormy grey eyes met her amber ones, but Aang ducked when she sent a punch at his face.
Fire came to life between his fingers as he used his superior speed to get behind her, ready to attack again, but she bent down, bending her leg up to kick him in the chin with the sole of her foot. Thankfully, she wasn't concentrating on firebending at that moment, and Aang was sent to the ground. He rubbed his chin as Azula turned around, faintly surprised with her luck.
"That was rather flexible of you," Aang said, sitting up with a frown. "If I used my airbending you would've been done for."
Azula smirked. "Yeah, I know, but that wasn't the point of our little training session, was it? You're just not on par with me yet in firebending. Too bad. Try again next time."
Aang's eyebrow twitched.
"You guys, stop fighting," Zuko said, chiding them like children. "I was just checking through our things, and we're out of supplies. We have to buy some more."
Aang boredly picked up his staff and walked away, a distinctive slump in his step. "Fine. Let's go."
The small port town turned out to not be as far away from them as they thought. It didn't appear to be the nicest of places around, either. The cause of many of the shady environments in the Fire Nation was the war in the Earth Kingdom. People were pouring into the island nation by the droves, and with no stable form of government or law enforcement, it was quite dangerous for a group of children to walk around alone. As always, Aang wasn't worried about that at all.
The Avatar was still disappointed with his lack of physical strength. Was he always this weak when he was younger? He guessed that living life roughly after the Comet caused them all to grow. After all, they needed to be as strong as they could be. Life was extremely dangerous for him and his friends. Now that he thought back on it, he realized how important it could have been in the past. How much could have changed? Would he have been able to save more people if he were just stronger?
Unfortunately, his body wasn't yet used to bending a large amount of flames consistently, which was why he lost miserably to Azula. He sighed as he tasted the salty air of the ocean, which the small group had come to. The wind ruffled his growing hair and clothes.
"Hey, you kids!" a street vendor yelled at the three of them, grabbing their attention. Aang turned to see a small, wiry man who looked just as suspicious as everyone else in the port city, trying to lure in customers for his shop on the boat behind him. "Come to this shop! We have all kinds of interesting, exotic things!"
"Wanna go, Aang?" Zuko asked, turning to the younger boy. The store vendor came up and put his arm around Aang, and immediately the young boy was hit with his smelly, putrid breath. These guys weren't good news.
"You guys don't happen to be pirates, do you?" Aang asked, unhappy about seeing these particular people again. He remembered his run-ins with them very well.
"We prefer to be called 'high-risk traders,'" the man said with a clever grin.
"So I've heard," Aang said boredly. "Let's get out of here, guys." Zuko started to walk away with him, but Azula didn't move.
"Well, I want to go," the firebender said, walking onto the ship while waving her hand dismissively. "See you later, boys."
Aang slapped his forehead and Zuko grumbled to himself, crossing his arms. By the time the two of them went inside their store, Azula was already searching through the numerous shelves. Resignedly, the two boys took a look around themselves. Unsurprisingly, Aang found the same, numerous, random items placed throughout the store... but something in particular caught his eye.
"Nice..." Aang said quietly to himself, snagging the scroll he spotted. "Okay guys, let's go. I've seen enough here."
"I haven't looked at everything yet," Azula muttered to him. He let her catch a glimpse of the scroll with the emblem of the Fire Nation on it, and slipped it into his clothes. Her eyes widened. "Okay, suddenly I've had enough of this place. Let's go, Zuzu."
"What? Why?"
"Just come on!" Aang ushered him quietly. He froze when the pirate captain appeared in front of him, blocking his way with crossed arms. The parrot on his shoulder cawed at him, and Sabishi, on Aang's shoulder, cowered behind his head.
"Not going to buy anything?" the pirate asked him, raising an eyebrow.
"Sorry, we don't have any money," Aang said to him with a straight face, looking him right in the eye. The pirate nodded and let him pass.
"Off you go, then," he said, gesturing for them to leave. Aang breathed a sigh of relief and quickly walked off of the boat with Azula, Zuko following determinedly behind.
"What was that about?" Zuko asked inquisitively, once they were almost out of sight of the boat.
"Just keep walking," Aang said.
"Hey, you kids! Get back here!" the pirate vendor yelled to them.
"Run!" Aang shouted to the other two. He took off at Zuko and Azula's speed, choosing not to abandon them with his airbending. He heard more pirates jumping off of the ship and drawing weapons behind them.
"Hmm... Prince Sokka's ship is docked here," Bato thought with a grin. He rubbed the red artifact of the Fire Nation between his fingers. It was truly a beautiful thing, and he knew it would make an excellent gift for the young Princess of the Southern Water Tribe. With this, he knew, he would be able to capture the Avatar. "And since Prince Sokka is here, the Avatar must not be far..."
A troop of soldiers followed him off his ship.
Sokka squeezed the bridge of his nose in annoyance as his grandmother held up the white, animal-shaped whistle admiringly.
"Can we go now?" Sokka asked her, irritated.
A moment later, an orange and yellow form ran up to the two Water Nation royals, followed by two more people in red. They ran right past them, the boy in the lead shouting out, "Thanks!"
Sokka paused for a moment and stared after them, then looked at his grandmother, eye wide.
"Now did they really have to take my whistle?" Kanna asked him, pouting.
Aang grinned childishly and pocketed the bison whistle, running right past the unrecognizable old woman that was with Sokka. He didn't care that he just ran right past his old friend—he knew Sokka would be joining the chase in a moment, if he was any bit as determined as Zuko used to be.
The pirates continued to chase after him, Zuko, and Azula as they twisted throughout the numerous streets of the town, pushing past shoppers and street vendors hurriedly. The pirates behind them bowled over all of the people. Aang's eyes widened as an old man hurried a cart full of cabbages right in their path, but Aang jumped over it with airbending as Zuko and Azula dashed around him. The old man sighed with relief, but Azula turned around quickly and released an arc of flame on the cart to bar the pirates' path, burning the load of cabbages.
"My cabbages!" the old man shouted in agony.
Sokka, Kanna, and the other pirate waterbenders put out the fire blocking their way in a hurry, but by the time the flames cleared, the Avatar was gone.
"Captain Sekun, what are you doing in this port?" Kanna asked the pirate captain.
"Why were you chasing after the Avatar?" Sokka asked furiously, turning to him. The crew of the Silver Moon was a group of independent Water Tribe soldiers that claimed villages under the name of the Water Nation.
"That little kid and his friends stole a very valuable scroll," the pirate said gruffly. "We want it back."
"That kid is the Avatar. We need him," Sokka said.
"And he stole my whistle!" Kanna interjected. The old woman was ignored.
"We can work together to get him back," the Prince said, scratching his chin. "We'll easily outnumber him." Sokka's own Water soldiers followed at his command. He smirked. The Avatar would finally be his!
"Aang, you scared me for a second there. I never thought that stupid whistle would work. It barely made a sound!" Zuko said with relief, recounting their tale as Appa landed back in their previous campsite. "I thought we were surrounded."
"Bison have very sensitive ears," Aang said with a smile, patting Appa on the head. "Good job, boy." The bison moaned in agreement.
"Let's take a look at that firebending scroll," Azula said directly, getting close to Aang as he struggled to get it from beneath his shirt. She read it over his shoulder as he unfurled it. "I don't care that you stole it from pirates, they deserved it." Aang smiled to himself. Katara would have been proud of him.
"Give me some room to breathe!" Aang complained to her, but she didn't move. Aang sighed and peered at the scroll's contents. Just like in other bending scrolls, the paper illustrated a firebender going through several movements up and down the page, moving the orange fire with an ability that wouldn't be too difficult to master. He could already control the fire inside of him—all he needed to do was learn the more complex style of firebending all over again. Considering that Azula's lesson of the basics jogged his memory, he figured that it wouldn't be too hard.
"Okay, hold it up. Let me learn it first, and then I'll let you have a go," Azula said, taking a step back from Aang. Aang rolled his eyes, but complied. He hoped it wouldn't be a repeat of last time, with Katara. He didn't particularly like when she got angry at him. Azula took a solid stance, circling her arms to rest in front of her for a moment, closing her eyes and concentrating. Zuko and Aang watched intently. She turned away from Aang and opened her eyes, a spark of gold shining through them.
The raven-haired girl slowly and steadily placed her right hand above her left, palms facing each other, and pulled them away abruptly. Fire roared to life and shot out of her hands in a steady wave, but Aang immediately knew that it wasn't the correct result. Azula knew this, too. She was livid.
"Give me that!" she snapped at him, snatching the scroll from his hands. She studied it intently, and her bottom lip trembled. "What am I doing wrong?" Lips pursed, she tried again, but it had the same result.
"The fire is supposed to spiral," Aang noted. "The fire spirals outward so that it can't be blocked easily by other benders." It was a penetrating, offensive attack. Aang found it odd that Azula couldn't perform the ability on her first try—he didn't think the girl could fail much of anything. "Let me try."
The Avatar stepped forward and adopted the correct firebending stance. His face was set and ready as he gathered the warmth inside of him, taking a deep breath. Firebending is all about the breath. He exhaled and ripped his arms apart, and the orange flames were released, spinning throughout the air in a loose spiral. They dissipated in the air moments later. Aang smirked as he felt the heat on his face. He was one step ahead of Azula.
"You'll get it sooner or later," Aang said to her.
Azula sent a narrow-eyed glare at him.
Her amber eyes flicked open, the fire from their camp reflecting off of them. The girl sat straight up and took one look over her sleeping comrades, and with silent, sure footing, she walked over to their luggage. She quietly searched through the leather bags, wrapping her long, pale fingers around the scroll. She smirked.
She moved a safe distance away from the Avatar's camp, clutching the scroll close to her body. She slowly inched away from them, and when she judged that she was safe, she turned to look in front of her to walk at a normal speed, but jumped slightly when she saw the large, round eyes of the lemur staring at her. Sabishi purred.
"Quiet," Azula hissed at her, sending her scampering away. She resumed her stealthy walking through the woods, wincing whenever she stepped on a fallen twig.
She didn't care that training by a river in the early hours of the morning was probably a bad idea, but she was so intently focused on mastering the ability that she couldn't think of anything else. Just the thought of Aang surpassing her in bending irked her, when she had been firebending her whole life and he had just started. She felt like she lost control of the situation. Azula hated things that were out of her control.
"Where would they be, sir?" Captain Sekun asked Sokka. They sailed along the river with one of Sokka's own patrol boats as the pirate ship followed close behind.
"Somewhere along here. Their bison couldn't have gone far," Sokka said, intently searching along the sides of the river.
"Do you think they'll give my whistle back?" Kanna asked him hopefully.
"Wait a minute," Sokka said, eyes squinting as he scanned the forest, "... What's that?" In the distance, right along the shoreline, a fire was seen spreading out of control.
Fire streamed from Azula's fists as she sighed with frustration. Why couldn't she get this move? She tried everything, but the fire refused to twist to her will. It was supposed to twirl into a funnel-like shape, but she couldn't get the fire to spin consistently. She moved her bangs out of her eyes with her fingers, but they fell right back into place. The numerous insects in the trees all around her were making their nightly noises, which was starting to get on her nerves, disrupting her already fragile state of mind.
She sucked in a deep breath and tried the fire funnel three times in quick succession, but the flames spun through the air and dissipated when they were out of her reach. On her fourth try, a gust of wind blew just as she let off the attack, blowing the fire in the completely wrong direction and setting one of the trees aflame. Azula cursed. She directed the fire out into the river for a reason!
The fire quickly grew, lighting the whole tree up as a beacon for the world to see. Azula grasped at the flames, attempting to pull them back under her control, but one of the other pines caught them and was quickly lighting up. She pulled some of the fire into a steady stream where she dissipated it into the air, but by that time, the smoke was soon engulfing the area. Azula coughed.
"Where's that little twerp when you need him?" she said under her breath. The heat was rolling over her, making breathing difficult. She was covered in sweat. She had to get back to the others and warn them about the fire! She tried to move forward, but a burning branch fell into her path, blocking off her escape. The only way to go was backwards, into the river. She was about to do so when a large wave of water washed over one of the trees, extinguishing the fire.
Great. Could the situation get any worse? I think I'd prefer the forest fire...
She took one of her more familiar firebending stances and turned her back on the fire as another wave of water crashed into the trees. There was a small group of Water Nation soldiers on the river's other banks, controlling the waves. They were trying to avoid hitting her. She had no time to think about that new development because strong hands enclosed around her neck. Her first reaction was to elbow the person's gut, making him let go of her with a grunt. She turned quickly to see one of the pirates from earlier. Pressurized fire came to life between her fingers and hit the man in the stomach, making him double over. She ran back towards the forest fire, which was slowly being put out, but another pirate blocked her path. She used both hands to shoot a jet of fire at him, knocking him backwards. She bit her lip. What did she get herself into this time? She had to get to Aang and Zuko! They needed to get out of here!
As she took her first step into the trees, another set of rough hands grabbed her wrists, and the next thing she knew, she was looking into the fierce, one-eyed gaze of Prince Sokka. He spoke to her, his voice rough.
"I'll save you from the pirates."
Azula glared dangerously at Sokka as he stood in front of her, flanked by a group of his soldiers and pirates. An old woman she might have seen before was also with him. They all had her tightly bound against one of the unburned trees, surrounding her.
"Now that you're here, tell me where the Avatar is," Sokka said slowly.
"Do you really think I'll give in that easily?" she asked smartly. She would not bow to him and let him take Aang.
"Listen..." he said huskily, walking towards her, peering at her with his one blue eye. He walked around behind the firebender and put his hands on her shoulders. She refused to follow him with her eyes as cold chills went up her spine at his touch. "I've lost a lot in the past few years and my pride hinges on the Avatar's capture. Now, tell me where he is."
"Putting me on a little 'guilt trip' won't work," Azula said with a smirk.
"That's too bad. The Silver Moon crew will have to take him forcefully then," Sokka said, narrowing his eye at her.
"You will never conquer Aang. I told you that last time," Azula said to him.
"Sokka, she has much faith in her friends. You would do well to take after her," the old woman said.
"Be quiet!" Sokka yelled to her. "I'll handle this. You'll ruin my image."
Azula rolled her eyes. "I didn't know you were such a loser," she said. Sokka then sent a glare at his grandmother. "You probably don't even have friends!"
Kanna giggled, but to Azula it sounded more like a cackle.
Sokka was about to retort when one of his soldiers notified him of another patrol boat approaching, this one silver as opposed to Sokka's wooden ship.
"Bato," Sokka said angrily, clenching his fists. He turned to his soldiers. "Go find the Avatar, now."
"Yes, sir," one of them said, and they all dispersed into the trees.
"Tell your men to find him," Sokka said to the pirate captain, pointing into the forest. The numerous pirates heard his order and trampled into the woods, while Captain Sekun stayed with the Prince.
Azula counted the foes before her—first, there was Sokka, who was distracted by the oncoming warship. Second, there was some old lady that Azula thought she had seen before, who she didn't think of as much of a threat. The pirate captain was the last one there. She knew she could escape undetected. It would be too easy for her—it just had to be done before the other warship and more soldiers arrived. She began to rapidly heat up her hands.
The ship was approaching fast, and it was close enough so that she could see a Water Nation man standing on the deck, smirking knowingly at Sokka. He was obviously high ranked, but Sokka looked at him with deep hatred. She forced more heat into her hands, lighting a small fire in her palm.
The other man's ship docked and he confidently strode off of it with two lines of soldiers flanking him. The object that he was casually tossing up and down in his hand made Azula's insides freeze, and all thoughts of escape left her.
"My mother's headpiece!" she shouted at him. "That's mine! Why do you have it?" She tried to lunge forward at him, but the tight rope held her in place against the tree.
"Ah, so this belongs to you," the man named Bato said, examining the girl. "It is out of place for a woman to demand things of a man she hardly knows, in the Water Tribes, at least."
"Screw the Water Tribe! Give that back," she nearly hissed, glaring daggers at him.
"No, not until it fulfills its purpose," Bato said, striding over to her. "You're already here, but the Avatar was also supposed to be lured. I guess Prince Sokka couldn't perform the task correctly." He glanced over at the Prince at the mention of his name.
"What are you doing here?" Sokka demanded with barely contained anger. "I'm going to catch the Avatar. You stay out of this!"
"Are you so sure about that?" Bato asked him with a knowing grin. "Men, go search for the Avatar."
Azula turned her amber gaze to the forest as more soldiers stormed inside, hoping that Aang and her brother would somehow escape.
Zuko opened his eyes, hearing the uneven trample of feet on the forest floor. He sat up quickly, grabbing his broadswords.
"Aang!" he called to the younger boy.
"I know," he said, sitting up from his sleep. Water from the darkness of the forest around them shot out at the Avatar, but he quickly sucked his staff into his hands and stood, making a full circle in the air and swinging his weapon, unleashing furious winds on the people in the trees.
"Azula!" Zuko shouted to his sister, looking over at her sleeping bag. He was surprised to see that she wasn't there. "Aang! She's missing!"
Aang looked fairly annoyed at Zuko's words. "I have a good feeling about where she is." Zuko's golden eyes looked over the top of the forest, where he could see the orange sun just beginning to rise, lighting up the sky. Aang quickly got up and rolled up his sleeping bag and the group's other things scattered around the camp while the enemy waterbenders were down. Zuko helped him by throwing all of it onto Appa's back. Sabishi curled around one of the bison's horns, ready to leave the area.
"Appa, get out of here!" Aang shouted to his bison, once everything from their camp was gone. "We have to find Azula." The bison groaned and reluctantly flew into the air, just as more streams of water shot out at Aang. He blocked one of them with a punch of fire but was able to duck and dodge around the rest, punching his hands together and expanding an air barrier outwards, throwing off the water. Zuko unsheathed his swords and followed Aang as he rushed off into the forest.
Zuko watched the Avatar as he skillfully dealt with the numerous amounts of Water Nation soldiers in the trees, kicking them with blasts of air and jumping agilely from branch to branch. He swung his staff at one soldier and held it behind him while he used his other hand to make a wheel formation and blast him away with torrents of wind. A pirate with bladed weapons and waterbending rushed to him, swinging his weapons expertly. Aang slammed his staff into the ground, throwing the pirate into a tree with stunning force.
Zuko, determined to not fall behind, dodged the spear point of one of the Water Nation soldiers by jumping into the trunk of a tree and pushing himself off of it with a strong kick, barreling into the soldier's side. The soldier, dazed, fell to the ground. Zuko dug his hands into the pouch on his belt and threw three of the needles Mai had given to him, pinning another soldier to a tree. He caught one of the pirates up on one of the branches, who was about to hit Aang with waterbending, by throwing a kunai knife into his gut.
The swordsman caught a bulky pirate with an odd contraption in his hands aim his weapon at Aang. It seemed to be some kind of net, but he wondered what it did. His question was answered a moment later when the net shot out at the Avatar, capturing him effortlessly on the ground. A moment later, a similar net rushed out at Zuko, knocking him to the ground with its force. Aang immediately tried blasting himself free with fire, but it didn't do any good.
"Nice try, but this is fireproof netting," the pirate said to him with a grin, dragging them off. Zuko felt hopeless. How was he going to save his sister now?
The sun was getting steadily higher in the sky, but it had been less than an hour since the pirates and soldiers had gone off into the forest to search. Now, the pirates were returning, and to Azula's chagrin, Aang and Zuko were with them, totally bound like her. Sokka looked very satisfied as Captain Sekun strode over to them with a confident smirk. Bato looked disgruntled.
"Keep the scroll," the pirate captain said, dismissing them all with a wave of his hand. "We've got the Avatar. He's much better than any piece of paper."
"What?!" Sokka yelled, infuriated. "You are disobeying direct orders!"
"I don't think the Water Emperor will mind when we turn in the Avatar to him," Sekun said. "The deal's off. We won."
Bato's soldiers returned from the forest, looking a little worse for wear. They lined up behind him. "This isn't over," Bato said. He seemed almost as angry as Sokka. "You pirate rabble. I'll get the Avatar from you myself!"
"Uh oh..." Kanna said quietly, inching away from the growing conflict. She put her hand on Sokka's shoulder. "Avoid direct conflict, grandson. Only the sneaky cat catches the mouse." He looked into her eyes, and the old woman knew that his brain was churning, coming up with another one of his brilliant plans. "I will find your soldiers in the forest. We'll need them before we can leave this place." Azula listened to them with interest. When the old woman scurried off, Azula turned her attention back to the growing situation between the pirates and Bato's soldiers. She caught Aang's eye. As always, he didn't seem concerned. He knew a way out—he was waiting for something.
The pirates hurried Aang and Zuko onto their ship before Bato ordered his soldiers to attack them. With their waterbending, the ship left the shore in seconds, going downriver. Bato's eyes thinned with anger. "Get back onto the ship, quickly, and chase them down!" he ordered, pointing at his silver vessel.
As they were all leaving, Sokka turned to Azula. It was just the two of them left at the riverside. "I'm going to propose a deal to you," he said quickly. "I know you want that flamed headpiece that Bato has. I'll help you get it. In return, you'll help me get the Avatar. Agreed?" Azula paused and stared him right in the eye, looking for any sign of deception or ulterior motives. Of course, he laid it all out on the table, but she had to make sure. She was not going to be manipulated.
She was going to do the manipulating.
"I don't have all day!" Sokka said through clenched teeth.
"Fine, I'll do it. But only if we get my headpiece first," she said. She needed to be sure on that.
"I can see that it is very important to you. Agreed," he said. He was about to go untie her when Azula spread her arms out, letting the rope fall to the ground.
"Use fireproof rope next time," she said, smirking. Sokka ignored her and stared out at the two ships in hot pursuit of each other. Waterbenders on board each were sending blocks of ice at each other, but it was doing nothing to harm the other ship.
"Follow me," Sokka said, rushing out to the water. Azula ran after him and gripped his shoulders just in time for him to jump into the river, skating along the surface of it with his waterbending. A board of ice was underneath them, mostly for Azula's benefit. They were speeding over to Bato's ship, and Azula grinned, her hair being whipped by the wind.
They gained on Bato's ship fast, and in one quick movement, Sokka shifted his arms to send them both sailing through the air, where they landed on the deck of the silver vessel. Bato, who was at the front of the ship, turned to them.
"You're working with this savage firebender to fight against me? You are quite pathetic, Prince Sokka," the man said, spreading his legs into a waterbending stance.
"You have something that I want," Azula commented, sending a blast of fire at him. Bato's ship was completely covered in water, which he used to block the attack. Sokka hit the man with a stream of water, knocking him into the balustrade.
"I'm only helping you because I want to take him down myself," Sokka said to Azula.
"That's fine with me," she said offhandedly to him, switching her target to one of Bato's soldiers, who was advancing on her. She swept her hand out, hitting him with a trail of flames. The burning man threw himself overboard as another spear wielding soldier lunged at her. She knocked away the shaft of the spear with her foot and kicked a small ball of fire at him, tumbling him backward. A group of three more soldiers decided to attack her at once.
At that moment, she thought of only one attack that could take them all down at once. She straightened her posture and took a deep breath, circling her hands in front of her to rest under her chest, holding them one above the other. Her palms faced each other. She focused on the soldiers and the flames within her and abruptly ripped her hands apart, and a rapid, spinning inferno leapt out at them from where her hands were moments before, storming right through their weak water defenses. She smirked when she noted the success of the fire funnel, as the three burning men jumped overboard.
Aang watched the disturbance on Bato's ship, spotting the fire funnel shoot off at a group of soldiers. Azula was seen fighting more soldiers, siding with Sokka against a common enemy. The Avatar knew that Bato had Azula's headpiece and that she wanted it, so Aang planned on the alliance happening the moment he saw that the three of them were captured. He also planned on Bato's men and Sekun's men fighting each other. Aang didn't think too much about seeing Bato for the first time—he realized that he was an enemy, and there was nothing else to it. Escaping safely was more important at the moment.
Aang judged that the ruckus on Bato's ship was a sufficient distraction, so he hit the pirate holding him with a blast of air, knocking him out as he flew into the balustrade. Aang jumped high enough to hit the other pirate holding Zuko with an air-powered kick to the face, making him unconscious. Aang cut the rope binding him with the knocked out pirate's sword, freeing his hands. He picked up Zuko's broadswords and cut Zuko's own binds, handing the weapons to him.
More pirates on deck noticed that the two escaped, but Aang airbended his staff over to him too quickly for the pirate to reach the two, swinging it out at him and knocking him overboard. Zuko parried the blades of another pirate and jabbed his enemy in the chest with his hilts, hammering him backward. The young swordsman sliced the chest of another pirate, cutting him deeply enough to keep him from fighting but not enough to seriously wound him.
Aang bended a funnel of air that pulled two pirates into it and flung them off the ship, hitting a third one immediately after with a fire funnel. Flames erupted from his staff as he swung it, causing havoc on the small pirate ship.
The pirate captain himself stormed up to the two, challenging them to a swordfight. Zuko was the first to meet the challenge head-on, swinging his swords recklessly at him. The captain dodged the blows easily and punched him with the hilt of his sword, sending the fighter off to the side. Aang did not want the fight to last long, so he jabbed the nose of his staff into the ground and hit the pirate with a burst of air from the back of it, sending him reeling. Aang took the chance and hit him again with an uppercut, transferring him up into the air, where Aang jumped up to meet him. Before the pirate could realize where he was, Aang slammed him into the water with airbending. He landed safely on the deck of the ship a moment later, pulling his new whistle from his pocket and calling Appa.
Streams of water from both sides of the ship rose up to Sokka's hands, and he sent them as one to attack Bato. The enemy waterbender was knocked off of the ship and into the water, where Sokka raised his hands and sent a continuous flow of water upward, holding Bato suspended in front of the moving ship. He breathed outward, freezing the water and holding the Commander in place.
Sokka smirked in triumph. He had gotten much better.
The next moment, the silver ship crashed into the ice pillar Bato was held on, jabbing a massive dent into the bow. Bato was totally unconscious. Sokka stumbled, and the firebender girl behind him did as she fought off the rest of the soldiers. She was holding up against them remarkably well, he had to admit.
The Avatar's bison flew close to the ship a moment later, with the Avatar and the clumsy swordsman on his back. The firebender looked up at him and nodded, and winds surrounded her. The Avatar used his airbending to pull her up to him, where she landed safely on the bison's back. Azula called down to Sokka.
"Sorry, the deal's off!" she shouted, smirking. Sokka stared after her coldly as the Avatar flew away. He looked down at his feet once the Avatar's bison was out of his sight. It was then that a glint of red caught his eyes. Bato must have dropped it.
Sokka picked up the firebender's flamed headpiece and clutched it in his grip, staring out at the horizon. The Avatar would yet be his.
Azula sighed with relief as she stretched on Appa's back. "Well, that was a long and eventful day," she mused.
"Yeah, all because of that firebending scroll," Aang said, sitting with them. "That was a cruel trick you played on Sokka, you know."
"Yeah, but it didn't matter," she said.
"You wanted your headpiece, didn't you? Where is it?" Aang asked.
"I didn't get it. But it's fine, I didn't hold out on my part of the deal, either," she said, picking at her nails.
Zuko crossed his arms. "That was really dangerous, little sister."
"Yeah, I know. We're all fine, right?" she asked, looking at the two of them.
"Great," Aang said. He wished he could have been the one to fight alongside Sokka... but would his old friend ever want to? "Too bad we don't have that firebending scroll, though."
"Who says we don't have it?" Azula asked, waving it tauntingly at him.
"How'd you get it?" Zuko asked her, interested.
"I snagged it from Sokka before I left," she said. "Now we can both learn more firebending together." She locked eyes with Aang. "Let's see who can learn everything on the scroll first."
"You're on," Aang said with a grin.
Author's Notes: Whoo, that was the longest chapter I've ever written. That's the biggest reason why this one took a few days longer than intended to come out.
I'll keep my note short this time. Sorry, I had to do the "I'll save you from the pirates," scene, because as one reviewer mentioned, it would be a riot. It was fun to do my own little Sokka/Azula twist on the situation.
Next chapter—"The Academy," a new version of a different episode. Please review!