Chapter 11: Waterbending Fight

Zuko felt as if a thousand lighting bolts just hit him at that second. Kaara ran off into the throng of people, hiding in the moving shades of crimson. "Damn it!" yelled Zuko, as he began hitting his skull against the nearest wooden pole. Little children passing were cheering, as their parents ushered them off the boardwalk. Feeling another bruise on his head, Zuko stopped and tilted his head up. 'Why didn't I realize it before? Kaara was always blushing around me, and she did flirt a couple of times… I can't believe that she loves me! I wish I had someone to talk to right now… Like Uncle… Uncle always gave good advice… But I betrayed him… He won't ever talk to me again…' Hearing no shouts or any form of noise behind him, Zuko turned around. A minute ago, the town was bustling with people, but now… It was a ghost town. On the ground where Kaara had disappeared into the crowd, he saw his robe. Picking it up, Zuko smiled feebly at the fact the hole in the hood was gone. Walking back to the temporary home for the group, Zuko heard a rustle from the bushes behind. Glancing back, he glowered at the bushes, but didn't turn around. Hearing the rustle closer, Zuko whipped his body around and demanded loudly, "Who's there? Tell me who you are, now!" Instead of an answer, Zuko heard a rustle from behind him. Before he could turn around, he felt an iron grip on his shoulders.

"Uncle!" gasped Zuko, when he turned his head around. His uncle looked better than the last time Zuko had seen him, and certainly more fit. Feeling humiliation and guilt over come him, he hung his hid low, and mumbled, "Uncle… I can't believe you're here… Uncle… Are you mad at me for what I've done?" He heard no response from uncle, so Zuko continued, "Uncle, I'm sorry for everything… When I had everything I wanted, it wasn't the way I thought it would be… You taught me so much in my life… And I repaid you with deceit and hate…" He felt tears slowly falling down his face, from both of his eyes. "Uncle, I'm sorry for everything I've done! I shouldn't have even thought of betraying you!"

Zuko felt Iroh hug him tightly, and he heard, "Zuko… I'm not angry… You overcame your mistakes by joining the Avatar. I couldn't be happier." Pulling away, Zuko rubbed his face with his sleeve, and smiled feebly. "Uncle, what are you doing here on Ember Island?"

Iroh answered, "I am finding the members of the White Lotus. Not many are in the Fire Nation, but I'm planning to find some." Puzzled, Zuko asked, "Why do you need to find them uncle?"

"I'm going to get Ba Sing Sei back. If I can find the at least some of the White Lotus, we have a chance of getting it back. Now… I want to talk something other than the war. How have you been doing Zuko?" said Iroh.

"Fine, Uncle… Not the best… You seem better than the last time I saw you…" answered Zuko, grinning as Iroh laughed at his last sentence.

"I have been better. I heard news about Mai disappearing, and telling Azula something about going to join Zuko. Something tells me you two are together right now," informed Iroh.

'Should I tell Uncle about Kaara, or not? It's not like I'll see him for a while, and by then, I'll just be with Mai,' thought Zuko miserably. He always had to make choices, all the time. Every day, there was a fork in the road. One decision would have a cost, the other wouldn't; but you never knew what would happen. "Uncle… We are… But I really need to tell you something about it." Iroh looked at Zuko with a serious face. "I can't put this straight but… There's-this-girl-named-Kaara, well-she-just-told-me-that-she-loves-me. I-love-her-too-but-the-problem-is-that… Kaara doesn't know I love her, Mai loves me, and I love Kaara more than Mai… What should I do?" asked Zuko nervously his eyes glancing to his left and right, most of his explanation all rapidly said.

Staring at him for a moment, Iroh advised, "Zuko, you are in love with Kaara, yet Mai is in love with you. If you just never tell your feelings to Kaara, you will most likely live with Mai for the rest of your life. I suggest you tell Mai, that you have feelings for the girl, and probably Mai will accept that and you can go different ways. Since you know Kaara loves you, express your feelings to Kaara."

Zuko muttered, "But what if Mai doesn't… What if she doesn't accept it?" Iroh said, "She will have to, Zuko." The sun was slowly rising up, so Zuko said, "Uncle, it's morning now… I'm sorry, I have to go." Nodding, Iroh hugged Zuko, before saying, "We will meet after the war." Smiling feebly, Zuko walked off. When he turned around, Iroh was gone. Creeping into the courtyard, he saw Kaara was not in her sleeping bag. From inside the building he heard banging noises; probably metal clashing together. 'What the?' Opening the door to the source of the noise, Zuko rolled his eyes. Kaara was trying to stir dough in a bowl without scraping the metal sides. "Hello, Kaara…" said Zuko, blushing. He tried to make eye contact but he couldn't. Kaara grinned cheerily and responded, "Hi! I'm trying to see if I've gotten any better at cooking since the last time I was in a kitchen. If you want, you can have some bread if you want. And there's some tea on the table. I'm going to go and get something, so I'll be back." She ran out of the room, leaving Zuko to wonder, 'She acts like nothing happened…' He reached for a grab of tea, and instead of expecting the taste of the tea Iroh usually made, Zuko felt the urgent need to vomit. Grabbing the pot, Zuko poured it out of the nearby window, and threw up. Slamming the pot onto the table, Zuko muttered, "Kaara's going to kill everyone with her tea… Her tea is worse than mine!" Deciding to throw the dough out the window incase it killed anyone, Zuko sighed. Kaara jumped into the room, and asked, "Um… Zuko did you eat the dough… And the tea?"

"Uh… Yeah… I guess so," answered Zuko, as he thought, 'Please, please, please, please, Kaara; please don't make anything else!' "Um… It tasted brilliant!"

Beaming brightly at his words, Kaara chirped, "Thanks! I guess my cooking is better than it used to be! I was going to get a pinch of sugar for the dough, but you ate it all."

Looking out the window and out the door, Zuko made sure nobody was in earshot. "Um… Kaara, I want to ask you about last night… Is it true?"

Her body turning stiff, Kaara hissed, "Zuko, I told you not to mention it any more." Realizing his mistake, Zuko said, "Kaara, I just want to know…" "You should go to sleep now Zuko, you've been up all night," advised Kaara flatly, before leaving to the courtyard. Slapping his forehead, Zuko angrily thought, 'Why do I always mess up! I should go to sleep, though…' Yawning, Zuko looked back at the kitchen before walking out. He saw everyone was still asleep, and he snuggled into his red sleeping bag. As soon as his eyes closed, he felt somebody's foot digging into his back.

"What is it?" he asked groggily, seeing Toph above him. She said, "Come on, lazy bum. Sokka already has a plan." Rubbing his eyes, Zuko woozily stood up, and muttered, "Fine…"

Everyone was in a circle around Sokka, who had a grim expression on his face. Zuko and Toph squeezed in a space between Aang and Katara. Aang opened his mouth to say something, but he couldn't get any words out. "Aang, what's with you?" asked Zuko impatiently. Shrugging, Aang replied, "Never mind..."

Clearing his throat loudly, Sokka announced, "Um… Guys, we have a serious problem… I thought Sozin's Comet was coming… Well later… But I just found out… It's coming in a week…"

Katara said, "Sokka! That's impossible!! We'll never be able to meet Dad and the rest of the invasion in that time, never mind training them!" "That's what I thought too… The only way we can defeat the Fire Lord before Sozin's Comet, is to defeat him. By ourselves," said Sokka, trying to sound confident.

"It's possible. With a too big of an army, we could be defeated far earlier than if we just have a team. We could probably defeat the Fire Lord, too," declared Suki. Toph exclaimed boastfully, "Yeah! We could kick his butt any day with this small team!"

Mai said, a hint of annoyance in her voice, "You people believe you can just march up to the palace and everyone will let you in. Well, you can't. If I can recall the last invasion during the eclipse, it took a whole army to go into the palace. And the Fire Lord still wasn't there. The palace has even tighter security than before, and let's not forget that the Fire Nation is getting even tougher each day." Gazing straight ahead, with an emotionless voice that outmatched Mai's, Kaara muttered, "Mai, it's not your choice to choose what we all can do. If you think it's impossible, why don't youdecide how we should defeat the Fire Lord?" Mai shot a death glare at Kaara, but didn't say anything.

Aang sighed, "Guys, don't fight… We need to try and make a plan that will work. It's going to be hard, but we can do it. Mai's right on the fact that we can't just go into the palace. We have to go in some other way."

Rubbing his chin, Sokka wondered out loud, "Maybe we could go in at night, and attack the Fire Lord then… Or maybe Toph and Aang could earth bend a tunnel underneath the palace, and that's how we go in!"

"Sokka, that's a great idea! Oh wait, except for one thing… The tunnel could collapse under a whole palace," said Zuko sarcastically. "The only way we could get even close to the palace is if we were disguised as Fire Nation, and to go in… I don't really know."

Katara suggested, "We could sneak in with guard uniforms. If one of us can get at least one uniform, we could sneak in."

Suki said, "That could be possible, Katara, but I don't think they'll let us in, unless we all have uniforms." Kaara suggested, "I guess I could help make more of the uniforms, if one of us can get at least one."

Sokka exclaimed, "Yes! That's perfect! Then when we're inside, Zuko leads us to wherever the Fire Lord is most of the time. Then we beat him, and we win!"

Aang said, "Sokka, we have to train first, as much as we can. If any of us has weak spots when we battle him…" The young Airbender looked at the ground, before continuing, "Something could happen."

Zuko was the first one who stood up. "Fine. Aang, training. Now." Nodding, Aang followed him. Instead of feeling alert, Zuko felt sluggish when he started practicing the Dancing Dragon with Aang. Watching the Firebender closely, Aang inquired, "Zuko, are you okay? You seem… Not yourself."

Yawning, Zuko uttered, "I didn't have enough sleep last night… Aang, try that form again." He tried to focus on Aang, but his mind kept drifting away. 'Aang's getting better at Firebending… I wonder if he could bend lightning… Can I bend lightning? Maybe… I'll find out someday… I feel hungry… That horrible tea that Kaara made didn't help my stomach at all… Hmm… Kaara… I wonder what's she's doing right now… Wait, dum dum. Pay attention to Aang…"

Kaara sighed, "Katara, let's keep training…" Katara agreed, "Yeah, we need to practice on your defense. You're amazing at attack, but you can't defend as well." The two waterbenders walked to an empty corner of the courtyard. Katara instructed, "Kaara, we're going to have a bending fight, so I can see what else you need to work on." Bowing, Kaara bowed to her teacher, and walked backwards, farther from Katara. In one movement, Katara had retrieved water from the fountain in the courtyard, and sent it flying as a water whip towards Kaara. Kaara used water from her water bag and froze it around her. The water whip smashed into the miniature fort, and fell onto the floor. Hearing the water splash, Kaara sent ice disks towards Katara. The ice disks missed their mark by a couple of inches. Spinning water around her body, Katara had risen up in the air, a column of water spinning around her. Moving towards Kaara at a fast pace, Katara was ready to beat Kaara. Kaara jumped out of the way, and used the rest of the water in her bag to surround her body in an ice suit. Smirking, Katara moved closer to Kaara and used the water pillar to try and defeat Kaara. Kaara let the ice armor melt back to water, as she froze the water surrounding her. The ice column froze, with Kaara inside the base, and Katara at the top of the pillar. A large cracking noise came from inside, and suddenly, a fracture formed in the middle. Splitting in half, the ice slid away a few inches from each other. Kaara jumped from the ice, and sent a water whip at Katara. Blocking it with a wall of ice, Katara noticed that Kaara was in a wrong position. Her arms were too far apart and up, instead of being close and in the center. Before Kaara knew it, an ice dagger stopped a few inches from her heart.

"Dead," said Katara bleakly. The ice fell onto the cobblestones, breaking into minute pieces. Grinning half heartedly, Kaara said weakly, "Um… I'll try harder next time." She bowed to her master respectfully, while Katara praised her, "You did great, Kaara. You just need to pay attention to your stance. The only reason that I won this battle so far was that your arms were open. If I was any of our enemies, you would be dead." The Waterbender smiled gently at Kaara, who nodded.

Through out the whole fight, instead of paying attention to Aang, Zuko had watched the battle. In his mind he had rooted for Kaara, but was impressed that Kaara knew how to fight so well. 'Hmm… Wow… Kaara was good… I liked that ice armor… And when she went into the water thing that Kaara did… She's a great fighter… A really great fighter… Pretty too…' "Zuko? Um..." came Aang's voice. "What?!" asked Zuko, furiously. "Um… I just wanted to know… Was that a better form this time?" asked Aang.

Taken aback, Zuko stammered, "Oh! It was… Uh… great. You can take a break now…"

-

ZOMG. I feel happy! Why? Cause Suki, Toph, and Sokka speak at least more than one line in this chapter. They're kinda hard to put into the story, since... Well... I find it hard to write what they would say. But I do promise more Toph in the next chapter!! Oh, one more thing. I don't know if I spelled the Earth Kingdom capital's name right...

Now the bad news; ugh! I hate my writing of the Zuko and Iroh meeting... EPIC FAILZ I wish I had the brains of the script writers of ATLA... And I hate the fight scene between Katara and Kaara in this chapter. I have every fight in my head, and I can't put it on Word, for some odd reason. At least it gives you a faint idea though... grumble grumble

Now for the annoying part of the Author's note...

Comment, please. Comment!