Chapter 13

Normal POV

Everywhere the elements would be used against one another not in harmony, but in complete discord and chaos as the room became completely panicked as the Water Princess was bleeding out on the floor. The young Fire Lord was holding her tightly against him, ignoring the entire world as it completely crumbled under the tip in the balance. He watched as her eyes closed, feeling a sudden coldness about his heart as he knew that he would never be able to see her beautiful blue eyes open ever again…

Zuko's POV

Reaching out with my right hand, I gently touched her face with my palm, rubbing my thumb lightly against her still rosy cheeks. I could feel the tears threatening to fall down my face, but I forced them back, remembering that she is still alive for now, maybe not for long, but for now. A hand touched my shoulder, and forming a rather large flame that heated up quickly in my free hand, I turned around quickly to see Uncle standing there with a solemn look on his face.

"Zuko…"

I pleaded him to stop and not say anything, that she was still here with me, but he continued on, "Zuko… You must stop this at once, and find the one who caused all of this to happen. I will take care of her. I believe I remember a few things about the waterbenders from my time spent with them that can save her, but I need you to trust me and stop all of this."

Glancing down at her, I kissed her chaste on the lips before handing her over gently to Uncle, who looked at me with somber eyes. Undoing the clasp on my cloak, I draped it across her to keep her body warm, then reaching up to my hair, I took out the crown and pressed it into Uncle's hand, almost as if I was promising him I would be back. Giving him a quick nod and a 'thank you,' I ripped my eyes away from the both of them as he hurriedly ran them both away from the chaos. I could feel that the amount of stress was building, and pretty soon I would not be able to carry that weight anymore. Looking around at all of the people fighting, I ran from the center, trying to find Aang and the others…

Iroh's POV

I could feel my heartbeat pounding quite heavily against my chest, as I ran with Princess Katara in my arms. The blood that was pouring from her wounds wouldn't stop as I ran.

Twisting and turning through the corners of the corridor, I had seen many people who were running from the ballroom, trying to avoid the merciless battle. Looking down at the girl in my arms, I began to think of all the many reasons as to why someone would want to kill her:

Her father is the Chief of the Southern Watertribe. She is the only Princess of the Watertribes. She is the Waterbending Master as well as a friend of the Avatar. She saved the entire world along with her friends.

All of the reasons were worthy enough to kill her, but why do it today here in the Fire Nation where nations from all around can see… Unless… Of course!

Everyone could see it from where they when they were dancing…

Sokka's POV

Having already brandished out my sword, I pushed Suki out of the room. She wouldn't budge though and continued to argue that she could help us out. I didn't have the energy to fight with her, but rather opted to grab her arms and made her look at me. Her face gave off a look of fierce determination, but it faded to a wild fear when she saw the distraught on my face.

Barely able to hold myself together, I asked, "Suki, please I can't afford to have you be in danger! You are holding our child right now! If anything were to happen to either of you, I wouldn't know what to do with myself! I can't lose you! I need you… I need you to stay safe…"

She looked down at her belly, where our little boy or girl was, becoming a bit misty in the eyes, but she nodded and kissed me. Pulling away, I moved down to her large stomach and kissed it softly. Then I watched as she walked away from me and out the doorway, closing it slowly behind her.

Looking around, I tried to see if I could spot Zuko anywhere, but every single person who was shooting fire was wearing red, so it was kind of impossible at the moment. Aang and Toph happened to be the easiest to spot, thankfully, because they were up in the air on top of a pillar of Earth. He looked sick to his stomach and Toph just looked pissed off.

Shoving my way over to them, I saw that everyone was becoming more frantic over something, but shrugged it off, wanting to get to Aang and Toph as quickly as possible. Thankfully, they saw me (or felt me in Toph's case) and came down from their tower.

"What is going on? Why did everyone start fighting?"

Aang, still looking upset, didn't look me in the eye, so Toph, a little shaken by this point, asked, "Did you not see or hear what happened?"

I shook my head, beginning to get worried, "No…"

She sighed, but answered, "Sokka…The fighting started because someone tried to kill Katara…Iroh is taking care of her right now, but we don't know what is going to happen to her…They might have been trying to go for Zuko, but we won't know for sure until we find who did this…"

My heart felt like it had plummeted straight to the floor as she continued to explain the situation.

Katara was hurt? Where was I when this happened? Trying to go for Zuko? Was he there with her? I need to find her…

Trembling, I asked albeit a little harsh, "Where did Iroh go? I need to find her."

They both shrugged, "We don't know. We have to trust that he is going to save her. Right now we need to help Zuko."

I wanted to scream at them that we should be worrying about Katara since she is our friend and my baby sister, but when I was about to explode, I felt a hand on my shoulder. Whipping around to yell at the person interrupting our discussion, I saw that it was my dad. Tears were falling down his face, and he looked so broken, but he managed to say, "Sokka…As much as I want to go after them and make sure that my little girl is fine, we need to stop this nonsense before more anyone else gets hurt. We need to trust that General Iroh can keep her alive. Okay?"

I knew that they were right, but it hurt to nod my head and go with what they were saying…

Zuko's POV

Weaving in and out of the rather large crowd, I continued to try and dodge the onslaughts of water, earth, and fire that were thrown about. I kept the mask on my face to hide my identity from everyone. In order to find this bastard, I was going to have to keep a low profile for a while. Looking about, it was difficult trying to find Aang and the others.

"My, my, my… Well isn't it the traitorous bastard… How is your little whore?"

I froze in place, as if time didn't exist anymore. Everything ran about me in a blur as I was stuck standing there…

That voice…

"Long time, no see… Right Prince Zuko?"

Turning around, my eyes widened to see him standing there back from the dead.

"Zhao…"

A burst of fire came hurtling at me, and before I could block the flames, I was thrown back a couple of feet onto my back, the air knocked right out of me…

AN: Okay I have to say that I am eternally sorry for holding out so long on you guys without a word… to tell you the truth I got into a bit of a depression and I stopped writing for quite a while. I became stressed out with school work, club activities, and not to mention shuffling in between my parents that I just gave up… I know that these are just excuses but honestly I was no longer inspired with the story until recently. A couple of days ago I was talking with my boyfriend and he really… he inspired me. He sparked up this passion in me, the same one that I had about a year ago when I was writing this story, and I began to feel the thrill of the words gliding through my fingertips as I began to type. Bookworm I just wanted to say thank you … You gave me hope…