A/N: I did it! I actually wrote another chapter! It's all thanks to Brenne for her loyalty to this fic, hope you like it! :)
Disclaimer: Avatar the Last Airbender doesn't belong to me, I only wish it did!
The voice was softer than he had ever heard it; "thank you." The tree person paused for what seemed like too long, but he simply waited patiently. "I am so sorry that I brought you here without even realizing what an insurmountable task I was requiring of you." The voice finally continued' "in all the time I have had to contemplate my existence and freedom never once did I consider the logistics of reality." Zuko shook his head, this time he reached out and gently grasped the rough bark of a limb and hoped that his sincerity would be felt through the connection. He steeled himself against the explosion of strong emotions and despair that flowed into him from the contact. "There is nothing to apologize for, I would come out here again if it meant there was even a slight chance of helping the one who helped me more than I can ever repay." Right then Zuko made a decision; this would be one for the history books, although no one would ever even see it. "I will do this, and you will survive!" He almost shouted emphatically, and then his voiced became very quiet. "I won't let you down." "I just need time to think…" He released his light grasp on the limb he had been touching and slowly moved back a bit to sit down on a nearby boulder and dropped his rabbit-skin pack on the ground next to him, deep in thought.
Back at their makeshift camp that had somehow become home in the months following the tragedy of the ship, Iroh was busy meticulously reinforcing the shelter. He wanted it to be sturdy and ready for Prince Zuko when he came back. Because he was coming back, the old general would accept nothing less; he told himself. As much as he tried not to let them, his thoughts began to stray as he worked, taking him back to his son, the loss he had experienced, and the loss he believed to have experienced the day that accursed ship was blown apart. No, he corrected himself; there was loss, great loss… He sighed and realized he had momentarily stopped working. "This is ridiculous!" He blurted aloud, "get a hold of yourself old man!" Iroh slapped his cheeks with his hands, and suddenly burst into the signature bending that had earned him such an auspicious title as "Dragon of the West" and breathed fire away from the shelter he had been trying to mend; making sure to put extra potency in it, making the flame shoot further than he had in many a year. Satisfied, or at least, his frustration slightly mollified, he breathed deeply and turned back around, taking back up his repair of the shelter in relative silence.
Looking for all the world to be simply resting on a boulder, Zuko still sat, trying to puzzle a way to help this tree person who had given him his uncle back. He knew he could never dig enough to expose the entire root system; nothing he had ever learned could have prepared him to deal with such a situation. Finally he heaved a sigh of frustration and hoisted himself back into a standing position and began to pace back and forth restlessly. He was wishing he had his uncles' wisdom, the old man always seemed to have a sixth sense, and could always be relied on to know what to do. He was considering making the trek back to the camp and fetching his uncle to the tree when the ground began to shift under his feet. Fighting to keep his balance the thoughts of his uncle and the tree fled his mind as he lost the battle and fell hard headlong on the ground, his crutches falling away from his body as he landed with a 'whump!'' his head receiving a glancing blow from the rock he had been using as a seat not long before.
Zuko lay for a moment, winded and stunned, then, as he started to rise, reaching for the closest crutch, he felt the ground move again; this time it seemed to be sloping. In his still-dazed state, it took him a moment to realize what was happening; his eyes widened in panic as he realized the sink-hole was growing and threatening to swallow him whole. "Zuko!" came the clearly frightened and panicked cry from the unknown person in the great tree as he began to slowly feel the pull of gravity as the ground crumbled beneath them both. "Grab the rock, or use your crutch to pull yourself forward!" Head pounding, the boy did as the voice had shouted and used the crutch to drag himself forwards, using one knee and using his body to propel him faster, trying to escape certain death.
"Hurry Zuko, keep going!" The voice urged and encouraged him as he continued to desperately throw his entire being into forward motion. After what seemed like hours, though in actuality was less than a minute, the trembling ceased and the voice from the tree was forced to yell to get his attention. "Zuko…ZUKO!" The boy gave a start, and ended his forward momentum. One hand on his remaining crutch and the other on the fractured ground, he raised himself up on his side and turned around to look back in the direction of the voice. He gasped when he saw the tree. It was considerably further into the hole, and was now sitting at somewhat of an angle. Zuko pulled himself into a sitting position and groaned as he began to feel the scrapes he had gotten from his frantic rush over the forest floor. "Are you.." he hesitated for a split second before continuing "ok?" There were a few moments of silence. "I…I will be fine." He could hear the pain in the voice. He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. "You lie" he said without preamble.
The voice was gentle "Zuko, I only try to spare you my agony. I am sorry." The tree person somehow gave a sigh and continued. "I do not know if I will survive another one of those. If my..the tree's roots are severed I will die." There was a pause. "This has become too dangerous Zuko, you should leave now while you still can. I could never bear to think that I might be the cause of your demise simply because you tried to help me." Before the voice from the tree had even finished speaking the boy was already shaking his head in disagreement. "No!" he almost shouted emphatically, "I will not leave you to be swallowed alive by this treacherous sink-hole! There must be a way to bend the right fire or the right way so that I can get you out of there!" He nearly glared at the tree, "you wouldn't let me give up, now you don't either!" There were several moments of silence before the tree person spoke again; the voice was soft, quiet. "Zuko…please, go. Thank you so much, but I'd have you live. You have so…" the voice was interrupted by the ground once again beginning to shake. "No, not again, so soon..! Zuko, move, away from the hole, hurry!" the voice nearly screamed in urgency, and he was already up and moving as quickly as he could.
His other crutch was at the bottom of who knows where, his head throbbed and his body was achy from his previous desperate struggle. "This might be it…" his mind told him, he knew there was a good chance neither of them would survive this. He gasped for air as he hobbled as fast as his body would allow him. As if history were determined to repeat herself, once again he lost his balance; once again he fell to the ground. Only slightly winded this time he prepared to drag himself upright and keep going when he felt the ground underneath his foot simply disappear and his body became heavy with gravity as the hole gave a last ditch effort to swallow its victim.
He heard a scream in his head and he wasn't sure if it was his, or the tree person's voice. In that moment he was reminded that he had someone who needed saving and uncle was waiting for him to come back. Suddenly, filled with a fierce determination that he had never felt, even when he started to walk again, Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation called on the heritage of his people, the fire in his soul.
As his body began to fall into the darkness, he straightened his arms rigid at his sides and released simultaneous jets of flame from his palms. The propulsion from the twin bursts slowed his downward movement, but it wasn't enough, and he was in danger of being hit by falling clods of dirt and rocks. In that moment he called forth even more of that heritage and enclosed himself once again in a fiery, swirling orb of protection and pushed as hard as he had ever pushed himself, extending those jets of flame from his palms. Suddenly his descent became ascent and he was moving upwards, bits and pieces of debris simply disappearing as they touched the ball of flame that protected him. Quickly gaining speed, the fiery ball that was Zuko rocketed out of the dark cavern of death that had tried to claim him and zig-zagged erratically as he desperately tried to control his direction.
"ZUKO!" He heard the voice from the tree screaming his name. "HELP ME!" He looked down, below him, through the flames of his protection; he saw that the tree was leaning dangerously. He somehow righted himself and released the ball of protection. The ground was crumbling at an alarming rate, and soon the tree would be swallowed up, and its occupant forever silent. His mind was blank, how could he help the tree person; he was barely staying out of harm's way with a maneuver he had never even known was possible, and he didn't know how long he could keep it up. The tree creaked, and a few more feet disappeared into the hole.
Zuko suddenly switched directions and propelled himself to the opposite side of the tree where the ground hadn't begun to crumble yet and with no clear idea in mind his bending began to fail and his body simply hit the ground unceremoniously; no longer able to stand without his crutches or the support of any object. After his triumphant and incredible escape from the widening sink-hole he had felt like he could do anything, but laying there on the ground, the sheer helplessness he had felt after he was damaged hit him full force; he closed his eyes, trying to shut out the great dying tree, and wished he could shut his ears to quiet the groans of the tree and the voice that screamed out to him, nearly incoherent, pleading, painful, terror-filled cries. "I'm sorry…" he thought to himself, to the tree, the person who was dying with that great tree. "I'm so sorry…"
Through the haze of his despair he felt everything go black, and then suddenly once more he was in a familiar place, beside a familiar stream with a familiar peace overtaking him, calming his churning heart and lifting the haze of despair.
"Zuko, your time is not yet up" came that comforting, gentle voice that was everywhere, yet nowhere. "You have someone you need to save, and despair will only doom you both to a dark grave." The boy sat up and dropped his head into his hands. "It's impossible spirit, I have already given it my all, and it was hardly enough to save me. Never mind that I can't even work out how to save the tree person." His voice caught and he swallowed hard. "Do not give up young one, you CAN save that which you wish to save, all you must do is believe. Believe in yourself, you are the person who just created a move you have never even seen before as you were falling to an almost certain demise. You, who managed to protect yourself in a fiery ball of your own power. YOU are as powerful as you want to be Zuko, never forget that." Zuko looked up slowly, taking in what the spirit had said to him. It was all true; he had done all of those things, and more. No, he couldn't give up, not now. He felt so warm suddenly, as if he knew the spirit was pleased with his decision. Suddenly it was getting black again and he waited for the jolt of reality to hit him. This time, though, he would fight. He would fight and he would WIN!
A/N: *Gasp* A cliff-hanger! Ooh I'm so mean..!