Sorry for the super long update, I had a major case of writer's block. Thanks to all my readers and reviewers for being so patient with me!
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Zuko slammed Azula hard into a tree when they were far enough into the woods. Both of the boys pulled out their swords, each crossing one across their throat though neither of them realized how much teamwork they were putting into the whole ordeal. Azula's panicked golden eyes were quite a sight for Zuko to see. He had to hold back the urge to laugh at her.
"What the hell are you doing here?" he growled, getting dangerously close to her face.
Zuko watched as the panic left her eyes and they glazed over, blank and emotionless just like they usually were. "I don't have to explain myself to you, Zuzu." He's the only family you have left now, try to be nice. She hesitated before she whispered, "I need to speak with the Avatar."
"You don't need to speak with anyone here," Sokka said, tightening his grip on the hilt of his sword.
"I'm not kidding, Zuko."
His eyes lit up with confusion at the sincerity of her voice. "Why should we believe you? How do we know you won't take him and run back home to your precious father?"
"He's your father too."
"That man is not my father. I thought he was once, but he will never be. The only father I knew is dead now because of you."
"I'm glad you think that way," she whispered, lowering her eyes. "It's time I denied him too. Consider me no longer a threat. He never loved me, he was only using me to get to the Avatar as he was you."
Zuko and Sokka looked at each other, unable to comprehend this new girl that has apparently possessed Azula's body. Zuko finally snapped out of it and his grip on his sword loosened every so slightly. "What are you saying?"
Azula took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "You're the only family I have left. He was disappointed in me for not being able to bring him what he asked for and he banished me as well. I would show you the letter, but I burned it after I read it. I'm prepared to help you teach the Avatar firebending, perhaps teach you more advanced moves as well if you'll learn from me."
"Alright, who are you and what've you done with Azula?"
She pretended she didn't hear him and continued. "He said he didn't need either of us anyway because apparently we have a new little brother, Kozun, that's going to take the throne after him. He said he hopes that Kozun is less of a disappointment."
Zuko withdrew his sword and Sokka looked back at him like he was nuts, but cautiously followed his example. Azula rubbed her pale neck where the swords had been touching and looked back and forth between the boys. Zuko looked like he was concentrating hard on his feet and Sokka was watching him as if waiting for an order or something. His eyes shifted to meet hers and she was startled at just how blue they were. Sure she'd seen him before, but she'd never paid attention to his eyes because she was always too busy fighting him. They rivaled the ocean and she supposed the waterbender's did too. Maybe that's what drew Zuko to her. So exotic and foreign like nothing they'd ever seen in the Fire Nation. She hadn't really been around boys her own age other than her brother, much less decent looking ones. Maybe life in exile wouldn't bother her so much after all.
"Did he marry again?" Zuko finally asked, breaking the silence.
"He didn't say, but I don't think so," she replied, not breaking eye contact with Sokka. "I don't think he ever wanted a female heir so he found any excuse he could to banish me and have a worthy male heir with one of the whores in that stupid harem he has. So.. what do you say? I'm sure you need help training the boy.. and there's actually something I want you to teach me."
Zuko's brow furrowed and he found himself once again questioning whether this was really his sister. "And what might that be?"
"To redirect lightening?"
"No, no way, that was the one thing that Uncle taught me that you can't do and I'd like to keep it that way. As for the Avatar's training, I guess it's up to him but if he does decide you can stay, don't think for a second that you won't have every eye on you in case you decide to try something."
Azula nodded, finally looking at her brother. "That's understandable. By the way, did I see Mai and Ty Lee back there?"
"We had them saved from the dungeon," Sokka explained. "They were to be executed with Zuko tomorrow."
Zuko gave the boy a questioning look, but thought it best to ask about it later. Azula cocked her head in confusion. "You had them saved?"
"We hired two masked women to break into the dungeon and rescue them while we kept everyone busy in the ballroom."
"Ah, I see. Well, thanks for saving my friends. Had I known that was their fate, I would've stepped in myself to rescue them. So is it safe to go back now? I'm still pretty tired."
The boys looked at each other and nodded, but grabbed each of her upper arms to lead her back just in case. Azula figured they would always be suspicious of her intentions and she would have to get used to that until they got used to her. When they got back, everyone but Aang and Mai was already asleep. Azula looked at the young monk and bowed her head in respect. She really did respect him for not only his abilities and the fact that he wasn't afraid to fight her, but that he had the power to save the world and soon to stand up to her father. She hadn't really thought the man cruel, he was too much like herself and she liked that, but banishment for something that simple was just.. well, stupid.
Kind of like Zuko's banishment, she thought. I feel like I just got a small glimpse into my brother's mind. This may be easier than I thought.. maybe.
"Tell him why you're here," Sokka said, bringing her back from her thoughts. She finally lifted her head to meet the boy's large gray eyes.
"Avatar Aang, I'm here to offer my services. I deeply regret the death of my late uncle and now that I have no home and you need a master, I sought you out to help any way I can."
"Seriously, what's wrong with you?" Zuko asked her. He approached her and felt her head for signs of a fever, but she was as fine as a firebender can feel. "You just aren't acting like the same evil psycho sister that's tortured me all my life. Are you sure you're okay?"
"I guess you could call it an epiphony," she shrugged, then turned back to Aang. "Will you have me as your advanced firebending teacher, Avatar?"
Aang was just as surprised as the boys had been when she told them of her intentions. Of course, him being the all-forgiving, peace-loving monk of an Avatar, replied, "I would be honored if you joined us, Sifu Azula. After all, another enemy off our tail can't be a bad thing!" The bright and cheery smile that followed could've lit up the entire camp.
Sokka opened his mouth to argue, but thought better of it. It was, as Zuko had said, Aang's decision. Whether he liked it or not, they had the addition of more girls than he was really comfortable traveling with. The Keyoshi Warriors were different being around because they were so.. professional, and he didn't travel with them and have to spend every day arguing over stupid girl stuff like sewing and cooking. At least he was traveling with Ty Lee again. That made him a bit more comfortable, especially after the way he'd seen Azula staring at him. Something like curiousity or fascination, almost as if she'd never seen him before. Maybe she just.. Sokka's eyes widened briefly at his proposterous idea. Proposterous! Impossible! Absolutely insane, there's no way. He spent the rest of the night watching over her and convincing himself that there was no way this evil rogue firebender.. liked him.
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Zuko's golden eyes popped open and surveyed the area. Of course, Sokka had fallen asleep against the tree during guard duty. Everyone else still seemed to be asleep too. He got up as quickly and quietly as he could and snuck to where Appa was asleep. Luckily Alec had rolled off of Appa's tail and Aang had used his sleeping bag this time. Zuko snuck over and awoke the bison gently, praying to Agni that he didn't make any noise that would wake the others.
"Come on, Appa, wake up," he whispered in Appa's ear. "We have something important to do before everyone else wakes up."
The giant beast's eyes fluttered open and Zuko smiled. He'd come to really like the animal, though he doubted he would admit it to anyone. He climbed up to the reins and whispered the magic words and Appa took off. He flew the short flight to the outer wall of Ba Sing Sei and carefully made his way around it looking for what he needed. After another minute of flying, he finally spotted it with a heavy heart. He led Appa up and told him to keep steady as he released the body of his beloved uncle and placed it in the saddle.
"Okay, now we can go back," he said, trying to keep his voice from wavering. The sun was barely peaking when they got back and Toph was already awake. "Hey, can you help me with something?"
"Sure," she replied, unsure of what he would need her help with. "What's up?"
"I got his body and I want to have a proper funeral.. well, as proper as you can get in the middle of the woods."
"Oh.." she whispered under her breath, understanding all at once. "Absolutely."
She walked to the far end of the campsite and took a stance, fists facing the ground before bringing them back up towards her face. The ground in front of her lifted to about her chest. Then, she faced her palms down and pushed them towards the ground, making an indention in the raised earth for Iroh's body. Zuko had retrieved his body from Appa's saddle and now placed it in the makeshift funeral bed. A single tear slid down Zuko's pale cheek and landed on Iroh's green robe.
"I'm so sorry, Zuko," Toph whispered sadly.
He sighed. "Let's wake the others now and do this so we can get moving sooner."
Azula was waking up already, along with Alec. Such is the firebender way. Zuko softly shook Katara awake but Toph abruptly sent the other boys flying through the air and yelled at them to wake up. That right there woke up the last two girls.
"What's going on?" Sokka asked sleepily, rubbing his eyes and his neck from where he landed.
"A proper funeral," Zuko stated firmly, doing a good job with keeping the sadness from his voice. The others quickly noticed the raised earth and woke up instantly. They didn't bother with the white clothes, they were somewhat limited on supplies as of then. Zuko stood before them, having been to a funeral before, and spoke. "Iroh, the great Dragon of the West. You were the fearless general in the siege of Ba Sing Sei. You were the son of Azulon, now passed, brother of Ozai, husband of Maili, now passed, father of Lu Ten, now passed, and uncle of Azula and I. We lay you to rest."
Zuko looked over the solemn faces of the others present before he lit the body in the makeshift funeral pyre. They all watched the flames dance about and engulf the body of Iroh. After a while, there was only ashes left. Zuko nodded to Aang and the boy knew what was being asked of him. He lifted a slab of earth and placed it on top of that already raised, then let the entirety of it sink back into the earth.
Toph stood over the spot the ashes had just sunk in and stomped, bringing up a small stone to mark the spot he was buried. Aang knelt down and moved his finger around in front of it, carving out Iroh's name in the stone. The only tears shed where that of Katara and Ty Lee and they were both trying hard not to cry. Zuko figured one tear would be fine and, luckily for him, it was already shed in front of the one person who couldn't see his weakness.
"Do we go back to the city?" Aang asked after a while.
"No," Zuko replied. "We need to keep moving."
By noon that day, the large group had already started traveling. There wasn't really anyone left now to find and capture them, but they needed a safer place to teach Aang firebending. They didn't want him to be able to burn the entire forest down. Appa walked behind them all with Alec riding on top, twirling two small fireballs in one hand and a bored look on his face. The boys had placed Azula in the middle of them and Toph walked behind them while the other three girls lead the way.
Azula glanced down at the young Avatar. "Well, you obviously know some firebending already. How much have you learned?"
"Iroh took me through the basic formations, but I have yet to master them. I didn't really have a place to practice in the city because they weren't supposed to know about Zuko and Iroh being firebenders and I don't think they would've bought that a 7-year-old was teaching me. No offense, Alec."
"None taken," he called back, still twirling the small fireballs.
"Okay then, Zuzu, you've mastered the basics I presume?"
"Only the basics, but yes. And don't call me that."
"Then Zuko will continue your basic training before we move onto the advanced sets. Am I taking both of you as my students?"
"You have me," Aang chirped. "Zuko?"
"I guess.." Zuko growled over his shoulder. "But I'm still not teaching you to redirect lightening. Aang, you won't teach her either."
Azula had forgotten that the Avatar knew the trick. She had just remembered Zuko redirecting it back at her and hitting her with her own lightening. Now that she thought about it, she remembered Aang redirecting it the day she'd killed her uncle. She briefly wondered what would've happened if Iroh hadn't been killed. Would she still be banished? Would she still be betraying her country with her brother by helping the Avatar? She was suddenly jolted from her thoughts when she ran into Zuko.
"Oh, I'm.. um.. why did we stop?" she stuttered.
"Shh.." Katara turned back to the girl and put a finger to her lips. They all stood completely still at first, then Katara grabbed random arms and dragged them to the edge of the forest along the dirt road they were traveling on, everyone else following as quickly at the sudden burst of urgency. Alec jumped up and grabbed the reins to lead Appa up to hover above the trees out of sight. The moment everyone was hidden, they saw something moving around the bend in the road.
"A Fire Nation procession?" Aang whispered, only to have his mouth covered by Zuko and Katara's hands.
They saw the guards everywhere and a red palanquin being carried, then more guards behind it. Alec peered over the trees and got a peek at the procession. Azula wanted to jump out and attack them all when the wind carried one particular whisper to her ears.
'I always knew that Princess Azula was as ruthless as her father, but killing her own uncle is a new low for her.'
She looked at her brother and thought he must've heard it too because she saw him tense up and narrow his eyes in the direction of the men who'd said it. They lingered in that spot a couple minutes after the procession disappeared before stepping foot back out on the road. Alec watched from Appa's head before carefully landing the bison behind the group.
"Who was in that thing? Did anyone see?" Sokka immediately asked.
"It's called a palanquin," Azula told him. "And they're reserved for royalty or very high-ranking Fire Nation citizens."
"Like my dad," Mai said quietly.
"You don't think..?"
"I don't see what he'd be doing out this way. He should know that Ba Sing Sei is still under Earth Kingdom control."
"Oh well," Zuko sighed. "We need to keep moving. Come on."
Mai looked back over her shoulder in the direction the procession was heading before turning and following the oddly mixed group. She couldn't help but wonder how she went from helping the Fire Nation and working under Azula to betraying her own nation by staying with the Avatar's group. She could always say she was only with them until she repayed her life debt to the group, but even after she did that she wouldn't want to leave. She hadn't had any other friends other than Ty Lee and Azula growing up because she kept herself so closed-off but, although this group was quite tight-knit, she secretly envied them and wished to become as close with them as she was with her two best friends. She just wasn't sure if she could open up as easily as Ty Lee apparently had.
"We should be coming up on a town soon," Katara announced, breaking Mai from her thoughts.
"Good, we could use the supplies," said a disgruntled Sokka. "Especially since our little group has gotten so big." He glanced down at Azula to see her watching him intently. At least someone listens to me, he thought.
"Do you think it'll be under Fire Nation control since someone obviously important just left?" Ty Lee asked. Most of them stopped immediately. They hadn't even thought of that. Ty Lee nodded and grabbed Mai's hand. "We'll go check it out since we're technically still Fire Nation and they can't do anything to us. You guys stay in the woods over there and if you have to, camp there. We'll be back in a little while, depending on how far away the town is."
"Be careful," Sokka said, pulling her into his arms. She leaned up and gave him a passionate kiss before she and Mai started off down the road and around the bend. Luckily Sokka's back was turned or he would've caught the scowl on Azula's face at the sight of the kiss. Zuko noticed it though.
Aang jumped up on Appa's head with Alec. "I'll fly up on Appa and see if I can spot a clearing for us to stay until they get back." With that, they took off into the sky.
Katara sighed and hopped off the road into the forest. Sokka followed, and behind him came Toph and Azula with Zuko trailing behind to watch her. They each kept glancing up to look for Appa, except for Toph of course, to make sure they could find any clearing Aang might've spotted. After about 15 minutes of walking aimlessly around the forest, Aang landed in front of them.
"We found a clearing just ahead. It's really close to a ravine and we can see land on the other side. If we are where I think we are, we're changing direction tomorrow after we get supplies."
"And where exactly do you think we are?" Zuko asked.
"Nearing the Eastern Air Temple."
Aang snapped his glider open again before anyone could say anything else and soared off back to Appa, leaving both Zuko and Azula plagued with guilty feelings in the pits of their stomachs. It was, after all, their people that had killed off the airbenders. Azula had once been proud of that fact, but after having dealt with pain herself now, she felt bad for the boy. Rejection from her father was nothing compared to having your entire nation wiped out, but it was painful none the less.
A few minutes later, they came upon the clearing Aang had mentioned. Zuko figured then was as good a time as any to pick up Aang's training where his dear uncle had left off and Azula sat off to the side and observed. Sokka sat against a nearby tree and sharpened and cleaned his weapons, Toph laid around lazily chewing on a piece of grass, and Katara attempted to bend some of the water from the ravine. She had to concentrate extremely hard because it was a pretty long way down, but finally managed to do it.
Azula was watching her brother's methods in training the Avatar, but got bored quickly and her thoughts drifted. For some reason, the Water Tribe boy kept popping into her head. She tried to keep him on her mind though because when she tried to think of something different, she thought of the letter she'd gotten from her father very recently. She thought of how startling blue his eyes were, his cute little ponytail, his courage despite not being a bender, his knowledge of weapons, even his stupidity was cute. She was suddenly jealous of Ty Lee. She wasn't supposed to get jealous, she always got what she wanted.. and she figured this time wouldn't be any different.
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"I think she took the bait, Jet. Her camp looks to have been deserted a couple days ago."
"Good. Now we should have them all together and it'll be easier to take them out."
"I'm not sure about this. I mean, sure they're firebenders but they're not hurting anyone. They're helping the Avatar, they can't be all bad."
"All firebenders are bad, Smellerbee. It's probably just part of an elaborate scheme to capture them."
"Then why are we taking all of them?"
"Because Katara is still mine.."
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I know Azula seems a little OOC.. or alot.. or maybe it's all part of the plan.. mwahahaha! You'll have to keep reading and reviewing to find out! And apparently Jet had his own little plan go over pretty well too. Ha, that just came to me last night and I though it was great. Anyway, you all know the routine! R&R!
Jenn
P.S. New episode this Friday! Appa's Lost Days!