Blood and Tears
Chapter 14: Battle Plan
With emotional problems behind us, we had to focus on what our plan of action was. We had something huge in front of us and if we didn't act fast, the recovering world would go back to turmoil. Two days after our fight Zuko and I and the others sat together in the throne room planning.
"My main question is what do we do from here?" Sokka said voicing his opinion. Aang took the floor and spread his ideas out for us.
"It's only been a few days since she escaped and so far nothing has happened. But I know Azula is smarter than we are giving her credit for. She's plotting something, something big and we have to be ready when the time comes," Aang said. I nodded and stood, untangling my finger's from Zuko's.
"Aang is right, and since we are fresh from war we need to keep this as low key as possible and try to keep it contained. This has to be precise, quick and as easy as we can get it. Unfortunately, there is no peaceful way out of this one, we will have to resort to violence, and we cannot have any survivors from Azula's army," I said looking at Zuko. He nodded knowing what that meant: Azula would have to die as well. From where I left off Sokka took over again with an even more in depth plan of action. It hit me then how much training I still had to do. I almost panicked and I could tell Zuko sense that as he squeezed my hand. When the meeting was over he just held me close, assuring me that it was oaky.
"You always did like to be the top of everything," He said to me with a soft smile. I couldn't repress the shudder that passed through my body. There was no second place this time, if I got second, I would die. And Azula was a cheater and I knew full well, you didn't cheat death.
"What if I don't succeed?" I asked getting extremely worried. Zuko shook his head and stroked my hair hooking a few strands behind my ear.
"You'll succeed, I can promise you that."
"How?"
"Because it's simple, I'm training you to defeat my sister," He replied kissing my forehead.
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A week passed, and that week turned into two weeks and then three and soon a whole month had passed with no avail. During that month I made sure that Raine went through vigorous training. Then finally word from the foot soldiers arrived: there was something stirring in the east and heading our way.
"Do you feel like you're ready?" Sokka asked Raine as we sat around talking. Raine laughed a little and replied.
"This by far will be one of the easier battles I have fought in. Wars just seem to make things easy after you get out alive. It's possible Azula has more to offer, but I doubt she'll deliver."
"You haven't fought her since you were 15…"
"I know, that's why I had Zuko help train me for the past month. If anyone knows how Azula fights it's Zuko and having him train me gives me an advantage over her, because I now know her every move," Raine explained with a wide smile on her face. I had to hide my smile from Sokka because really this was a serious matter, but I had forgotten how cocky Raine could get. But she was doing well, fighting back with as much force as she could. And I did my best to mimic Azula to the dot on her fighting, so in a way, we both got some training over the course of the last month. I taught her how to redirect lighting with water, which is highly dangerous because water and lightning don't mix. But done properly it makes the lightning twice as deadly as it is in its original state.
"She'll be fine Sokka, trust me," I assured her twin. Raine suddenly got up and went over to Katara and whispered something in her ear. Then Katara leaned over to Aang and passed along the message and all three bustled out of the room. We all exchanged looks.
"Sokka, do you know what's going on?"
"Nope, but I'm just as curious as you are," He replied. We were left wondering for awhile and then the three returned with a bunch of large bowls. Sokka then jumped up to help them, suddenly knowing what was going on. Ari, Uncle, Mai, Suki, Toph and I were still in the dark about what was going on. Raine told us to sit in a circle and I noticed she had paint in a unique swirling design on her face and arms. Katara had a sun like design on her face and arms and Aang the moon.
"We want to perform an ancient ritual that the water benders do for protection," Raine explained. She and Sokka passed out the bowls of paint and then she sat down in front of me with a bowl in her hand. Suki and Sokka began to draw on each other to match and Mai and Ari did the same.
"Hold still," Raine teased as she dipped her finger into the paint and placed the cold wet substance on my face. From what I could feel, she was mimicking the patterns drawn out on her own body so that I'd match her. It was slowly starting to make sense now. It was all about pairs. Once the painting was complete and everyone was given a bowl full of water we sat in a circle with the three waterbenders in the middle.
"Ready?"
"Yeah," the other two replied. We watched as the three bowed their heads hands linked. They all stood back to back in a smaller circle facing outward, so that we could see them. The largest bowl of water in the middle of their circle at their feet, stayed slightly hidden from us. Suddenly their heads all snapped up at the same time and they raised their linked hands slowly to the ceiling. They let their hands go, and one by one the water began to rise out of the bowls in our laps. It twisted in the air like a dragon, twirling and thrashing about above everyone's head. The arms of the three were working as fluidly as the water as they made it dance above us, and slowly they began to walk around the circle. Raine stopped dancing and was now bending the water in the bowl in the middle, forming it into what looked like a water version of the sun and the moon dancing about each other in her hands. Aang and Katara danced around her as she held up the two dancing fire like orbs in her palm. Suddenly everything stopped. The water froze, along with all three of them and the orbs in Raine's hands. It was eerily quite as we waited. Raine began to move again, pooling all the water into her hands till she had it all, and it began to glow in her palms. Katara and Aang sat down on either side of Sokka and Raine went around the circle asking each person to take a sip from the orb. As she went around she said a blessing to each person.
"You are blessed by the moon, and the sun and they will give your soul protection," She said to each person. Then she added her own thoughts to the blessing. She went around the circle telling people things like she loved them and wished them happiness.
"Mai, take care of him, I can't tell you what he means to me, and if he gets hurt it would be a time of great sadness for you," Raine told Mai. When she got to me she blessed me and then kissed my forehead before finishing the rest of the water she held in her hands. Then Katara and Aang and Sokka started clapping.
"That was a great and uplifting experience Raine, thank you," Uncle told Raine as he got up and hugged her. I was left sitting there wondering why Raine didn't say anything to me.
I didn't say anything as Raine washed the paint off of herself getting ready for bed. She was humming an old lullaby my mom use to sing and smiling to the mirror. I didn't even protest when she started washing the paint off of my face when she had finished with herself.
"Zuko, what's wrong?" She asked letting her arm fall limp by her side when I didn't react.
"How come you didn't tell me anything during the ceremony? You even told Mai something but you didn't say anything beyond the blessing to me," I said taking the cloth from her and washed the rest of the paint off myself. She had gotten up and was changing into her nightgown now. She didn't answer until she was completely changed and sitting by my side again.
"I felt like I didn't have to. You already know you have my heart and the rest of me, and saying it again made it seem redundant and to 'gushy'. When it's an unspoken knowledge of love from one person to the other its far more than word can say. Just knowing that the person you love, loves you right back and doesn't even have to say it because they say it with their actions every day, that means more than a few words during a blessing ceremony," Raine told me as she waited to hear what I had to say. It made me feel a little better. I smiled and kissed her forehead as we crawled into bed. With a sigh I closed my eyes and fell into an uneasy sleep. Tomorrow wasn't going to be one I looked forward too.