Yes! FINALLY finished my exams.
Sorry about the slow updates - I'll try to update quicker now that I'm not so busy and my brain doesn't hurt as much. LOL. Just want to thank everybody out there who reviewed and read this story.
Disclaimer: Avatar: The Last Airbender, through an unfortunate and utterly unfair twist of fate does not and has never belonged to me. Stupid fate.
Swinging his swords casually Zuko circled Sokka, watching for an opening. It had been a while since he'd had a proper match with the blades – most benders didn't bother learning another fighting style, so there weren't a lot of opportunities for him to use the skills that he's spent years perfecting.
Unlike his firebending, the sword had come naturally to him – the sharp metal effortlessly becoming an extension of his body. Studying the watertribe boy's movements Zuko could see that he had skill, though it still lacked the polish of an experienced warrior.
"Come on then," he said, smirking at the younger boy. "Are we going to fight or do you plan on just standing there all day?"
Sokka scowled. "I didn't realise you were in such a hurry to lose," he retorted, swinging his sword at Zuko's head.
Zuko calmly stepped back, out of harm's way. "I'm too busy training the Avatar to teach sword fighting basics to a peasant," he replied, still not bothering to go on the offensive.
"Hey, I was trained by Master Piandao," Sokka objected. "And he said that I was good."
Zuko frowned, momentarily distracted. "Master Piandao? I've heard of him – he's supposed to be extremely good. I thought he lived in the Fire Nation though?"
Sokka shrugged, taking advantage of Zuko's apparent lapse in concentration to try and slip under his guard. "We were passing through on our way to meet up with the invasion and I thought it might be useful to learn how to sword fight."
Zuko parried Sokka's attempt to stab him aside with ease, and quickly shifted into an attack, forcing Sokka onto the defensive. "Well, you've certainly improved since the first time we fought," he remarked, calmly striking at the other boy's defences, his sword a blur of sharpened steel. "Though, all things considered, it'd be hard for you not to have. At least you're staying on your feet this time."
Sokka yelped as Zuko's sword flashed too close to his ear for comfort. "I'm a powerful warrior of the Watertribe," he protested. "I led the invasion on the day of the black sun, you know."
"The one that failed?" Zuko asked innocently, stepping back quickly as Sokka attacked ferociously.
"We weren't expecting them to be expecting us," Sokka replied crossly. "It's not my fault that your insane sister went and ruined the surprise."
"I don't think that it's the sort of surprise that the Fire Lord would've liked much anyway," Zuko replied thoughtfully. "He always did prefer to know everything in advance. That's why he wanted the Avatar out of the picture."
"He wasn't supposed to like it, he was supposed to lose," Sokka grumbled, pushing forward his attack.
Zuko stepped back, making sure that the cliff was still a fair way behind him. It probably wouldn't kill him if he fell over the edge, but he was willing to bet that it would hurt – a lot. "Do you really think that Aang could've won?" he asked calmly.
Sokka shrugged, and Zuko took the opportunity to strike at his unprotected side. Sokka leapt back with a yelp, stumbling slightly on the uneven ground. "He would've had to, I suppose. There isn't really any other choice."
"True, but the Fire Lord is very dangerous. The Avatar may be powerful, but without mastery of fire his abilities are limited. Perhaps things worked out this way for a reason. Now when the Avatar fights the Fire Lord he'll have the power of all four elements on his side."
Sokka sighed, circling Zuko slightly looking for an opening. "Sometimes it's hard to believe that there's so much power in such a young boy. I know that technically he's over a hundred years old, but he looks younger than my sister. Yet, he's the one destined to fight the Fire Lord and save us all."
"The Fire Lord won't have mercy on him just because he's a child," Zuko said seriously. "I know this for a fact."
Sokka looked at him questioningly, but Zuko's face remained expressionless. His eyes were haunted though, and for the first time Sokka wondered what life had really been like for the young prince. After all, it was rather unusual for a prince to be hunting someone that had vanished for a hundred years, and to be chased by his own sister as well.
Zuko took advantage of Sokka's distraction to slip under his guard and land a light blow with the flat of his sword.
Sokka leapt aside with a glare and doubled his efforts to land a blow on the fire prince.
It was at this time that Katara decided to leave Aang to his training – fireballs were only so exciting after all – and go see what her brother was up to. She hadn't seen him in a while, what with drowning Zuko and all that, and it wouldn't surprise her if he had managed to land himself in some kind of trouble in her absence.
Entering the clearing she glanced around for Sokka, and nearly had a heart attack as she watched Zuko's blade miss decapitating him by half an inch. She reflexively grabbed some water from a nearby pool before she managed to force herself to calm down and watch the fight.
Studying the two fighters closer she realised that they were just sparring, although Zuko's blades were still coming far too close to her brother for her piece of mind. Either he didn't have much control, or he was very confident in his ability. Having fought Zuko before she was inclined to believe the latter. She noted with interest that his sword fighting seemed to possess a stealthy grace that his firebending lacked.
Moving closer to get a better look, she stepped on a dry branch, causing it to break with a resounding crack. Sokka didn't even notice it, but Zuko instinctively glanced in her direction at the sound. He flinched slightly at the sight of the waterbender and the large globe of water floating calmly at her side that she had all but forgotten about.
Sokka leapt forward, making the most of Zuko's distraction and stuck at his stomach, expecting Zuko to block it with his usual panther-like speed. Still distracted by Katara's appearance, Zuko moved to block a fraction too late. Sokka's blade sliced through his flesh, creating a wide gash that oozed thick, dark almost black blood.
Even as Sokka backed away, spluttering apologies the wound began to heal itself. Within seconds, the only sign that Zuko had ever been injured was a ragged bloody tear in his shirt and a slight flickering glow to the freshly healed skin.
Sokka stopped apologising and stared at it in disbelief. "Hey, that's not fair. No using your creepy undead powers to win," he exclaimed hotly.
"You're just jealous," Katara remarked. "I bet you would've liked those sort of healing powers when you got those fishhooks in your thumb."
Sokka scowled and Zuko looked puzzled. "Fishhooks?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.
"It was a long time ago," Sokka snapped. "Are we going to spar or stand around and gossip?"
"I'll tell you later," Katara remarked with a smirk. "It's a fantastic story."
Sokka glared at her. "And I'm sure that Zuko would be fascinated to hear about some of the stuff that you got up to as a child. Like the time that you threw a tantrum and sank Dad's canoe! It'll be a good bonding experience – swap tales of our annoying younger sisters."
"Homicidal in my case," Zuko remarked wryly, readying his sword. "Are you ready?"
"Just waiting for you to recover," Sokka said with a grin, turning away from his sister, which was probably a mistake judging by the ball of water that hit him in the back of his head. He yelped and cast a glare in her direction. "Don't worry though, I've been taking it easy on you."
"Is that so?" Zuko remarked with a frown.
Sokka nodded cheerfully. "It's okay, if you practise hard enough I'm sure you'll be as good as me one day."
"Well, if that's the case I guess I should make this more challenging for you," Zuko said calmly, splitting his sword into its two halves with a deft twist of his wrist.
Sokka's jaw dropped. "Hey, you can't use two swords. That's cheating," he protested.
"Actually, they're just the two halves of the one sword," Zuko explained. "So it's not cheating."
A couple of metres away Katara could barely stand upright she was laughing so hard at the expression on Sokka's face.
The two warriors took a fighting stance, and Sokka made the first move – only to scramble backwards as Zuko's swords approached in a seamless blur of metal. Before he had a chance to even contemplate a counter-attack, Zuko had disarmed him in an effortless twist of his swords.
Sokka stared at his sword lying on the ground several feet away in disbelief. "I still say it's cheating to split your sword in two like that," he muttered, as he conceded victory to the fire prince and went to retrieve his sword.
"Don't worry," Zuko said calmly. "You're actually quite good. I'm sure if you practice you'll be as good as me someday."
Sokka scowled at him, while Katara unsuccessfully tried to stifle her laughter.