Red's POV:
"You know, you could at least spend a little bit of time here in the waking world." I grumbled loudly as I trudged into the room that Tikaani and I were sharing aboard the Fire Nation ship. The ship was big and there were more than enough rooms to go around even with all of the water tribe soldiers traveling with us. I just thought it was better to share a room. With Tikaani off playing with the spirits in the spirit world so often, she sometimes forgot to actually wake up and eat. I had to remind her to do it every time she came to. It was starting to get really annoying and I made a personal note to yell at her the next time she was actually in the waking world.
Then again, I couldn't really blame her. The time in between episodes when we have no idea what is going on is always the most boring. I liked it a lot better when we were in an actual episode and could actually do something fun and exciting. And Tikaani wasn't helping with the invasion plans-or helping craft personified armor and weapons for some of the soldiers like I was-so she was extra bored. I could understand why she would want to go to the spirit world so often. She could talk to Iroh and get advice about stuff. And who doesn't like talking to old men who make amazing tea and give life-saving advice? I know I was jealous.
"Aang will be waking up any day now, maybe even today." I spoke aloud even though I knew she couldn't hear me all the way from the spirit world. Another thing that really annoyed me was that I had to feed her pet because she only woke up at one time a day and it just so happened to be his nap time. Muu also needed to be played with regularly or else he'd get into trouble. I also had to hold him over the edge of the ship whenever he had to go to the bathroom, otherwise I would be stuck cleaning it up. "And I find it very annoying that you spend more than half of your waking hours in some alternate dimension splashing around in a swamp and having picnics with Iroh next to an ancient undiscovered spirit pool."
"Stop being so grumpy." Tikaani's voice responded.
"FINALLY!" I snarled. "You don't know how long I've been waiting for you to wake up. Honestly, you have no idea how annoyed I am with you right now. I've been taking care of your pet for the past I don't know how many weeks."
"Sorry." Tikaani apologized. I got the feeling from the way she said it that she wasn't sorry at all. "That was my last time in the spirit world for a while, anyway. Iroh wasn't there like he usually is. I think that he's started preparing for the Day of Black Sun. And I'm sure Muu hasn't been that much trouble."
"Oh really? Because he ate one of Sokka's hair ties and destroyed my favorite pair of those elfy Fire Nation slippers." I argued, letting anger seep slowly into my voice.
"What's gotten into you recently?" Tikaani suddenly asked. "You've been in such a bad mood ever since... Well ever since we left Ba Sing Se."
"Well you know how much I hate riding on boats!" I snapped. "Plus... Well, I guess I was kind of hoping that I could have patched things up with my mother while I was in Ba Sing Se. Maybe there was a way that I could have brought back her memory like Aang did after Long Feng took control of Jet." I looked away and sighed deeply. Even if there was a way, I wouldn't be able to do anything about it now. I would have to wait until after Sozin's Comet. And... And I had no idea what would happen after that. What if we got sent straight back to the real world after Sozin's Comet? How were we even in the Avatarverse in the first place? What if... What if it was all in my head, just a dream?
"We can go back to Ba Sing Se after Sozin's Comet." Tikaani answered confidently.
"But that's just it. We don't know what happens to us after Sozin's Comet ends. What if that's the end of us being here?" I was starting to get nervous that Sozin's Comet actually was when we would get sent back to our own world. It was inevitable, wasn't it? Wouldn't we eventually get sent back to our own world, ending everything that we've been doing here? "What if we get sent back?"
"To the real world?" I could see that Tikaani suddenly looked just as worried as I was. "I never considered it before... But we don't even know how we got here in the first place."
"Yes we do! The storm, remember? With the fire and the wind and the rain and the earth was moving... What if the comet sends us home? Or what if another storm comes after the comet?" I had no idea where I was going with this rant, but I knew that one thing was for sure: Tikaani and I were not meant to be here. And if we weren't meant to be here... What did that mean for us?
"As a friend of mine once said, 'while we're here, we might as well make the most of it.' That was you." Tikaani looked at me with a serious expression that held no doubts. "I think it's time you took your own advice."
"But you took that out of context!" I accused, narrowing my eyes at her.
"Yes, yes I did, but it still holds." Tikaani looked at me determinedly. "We don't know why we're here or how that storm transported us here, but I know that there was a reason, a good reason. And I have a feeling that we will find out why we are here and how we got here. But until we find out, we can't worry about what's going on back in our world or what will happen when we get back. We need to focus on the show."
I nodded slowly. What Tikaani said definitely made sense, and I couldn't argue with what she said. "You're right. But as soon as Sozin's Comet is over, I'm going to go looking for some answers."
"I think that's a good idea. Maybe I could talk to some of the past avatars in the spirit world! I haven't had the chance yet, but that's only because Aang's been hogging their attention." Tikaani mumbled in annoyance before deciding to change the subject. "How close are we to the first episode of season three?"
"Beats me. It's not like they have a proper calendar or-"
"You hear something?" Pipsqueak's voice sounded from somewhere outside our room. I then heard the sound of a loud gush of air. "He's awake!" Pipsqueak shouted.
"Well... I'm guessing that it's starting right now." I opened the door in time to see Pipsqueak and The Duke chasing Aang down the hallway. I followed as quickly as I could. No way was I going to miss any of the action.
We chased Aang through the halls of the Fire Nation ship until he tripped and fell going up the stairs. Hakoda, Bato and Darek looked up from where they were all gathering around Momo.
"Momo?" Aang questioned in disbelief. The little lemur scampered across the deck and started licking Aang's face.
"Twinkle toes! That's gotta be you!" Toph cheered excitedly. Her and Katara ran over to where Aang was. Pipsqueak and the Duke hurried past me up the stairs to stand next to Jet where they could see Aang from the front. Tikaani and I hung back because someone had to catch Aang when he eventually fell.
"Aang, you're awake!" Katara exclaimed.
"Yeah. He finally woke up." I stated flatly from where I was standing behind him. "Took him long enough."
"Red!" Tikaani's voice had a chastising tone, so I mocked her. She then put her hands on her hips and stared at me with a rather cross look on her face.
"Are you sure? I feel like I'm dreaming." Aang mumbled, ignoring my behavior.
"You're not dreaming!" Katara hugged Aang. "You're finally awake!"
"Aang! Good to see you back with the living, buddy!" Sokka also hugged Aang and his voice sounded echoey because he was still wearing the mask on his Fire Nation helmet.
"Sokka?" Aang asked in disbelief. He then started swaying slightly from side to side.
"Uh-oh, somebody catch him, he's gonna-!" Toph called out the warning and Tikaani and I both stretched out our arms to catch him.
"Well... Looks like sleeping beauty needs a little bit more rest."
Ryuu's POV:
The one bad thing about dating the evil Fire Nation Princess while you're trying to send the avatar and his friends secret information on the Fire Nation is that she never knocks. Honestly she just barges into the room like she owns the place. She almost walked in on me writing letters to Katara a few times. The cool thing about having my memory wiped was that it was super easy for me to learn Japanese writing when Iroh taught me back on his ship. I just never mentioned it before because I didn't realize it was important until I got my memory back. I can read and write in Japanese! That is pretty wickedly awesome.
The good thing about dating the evil Fire Nation Princess is that no one ever messes with me. Plus, she gave me a Fire Hawk so I could send letters to some of the top Fire Nation generals. According to her, if I can impress them, I could end up getting a high rank in the Fire Nation, which will make her father much more impressed with me. I actually have written to some of them, but only because that provides the perfect cover for me to send letters to the Gaang without Azula getting suspicious.
"Writing another letter, Ryuu?" As if on cue, Azula's voice sounded from the doorway. I was currently in the middle of writing to a certain Admiral Chan who was currently on leave at Ember Island, so I didn't have to hide the letter when Azula started reading over my shoulder. "I see that you tend to use flattery to win over the hearts of the Fire Nation officials." She observed, her eyes narrowing. "Has it ever occurred to you that fear would be a much more efficient form of motivation?"
"Yes, actually, it has. Unfortunately, I don't think I would be able to pull it off as well as you can." I confessed. I definitely wouldn't be able to frighten people to do anything. "Plus, I don't think it will go over to well if I write some of the top Fire Nation officials threatening letters."
"That just shows how little you know of the corrupt Fire Nation government. If you threaten them aimlessly, they will think of you a simple nuisance, with no backbone to your words. But, if you can learn to threaten them in just the right way, it will terrify them to the very core." Azula always spoke with a certain malice. Every word she said terrified me more than the last, even if she wasn't threatening me at all. It was unnerving. I hated it. But at the same time, I had to admit that it was kind of hot, in a weird way. "And if you continue to threaten them, they may start to talk about it and act strangely. When they start exhibiting such behavior, my father will notice."
"The Fire Lord?" I was confused as to what Azula was trying to say. "I could get noticed and receive special permission from the Fire Lord by threatening high-ranking individuals?" That is so... Backwards. "Well, that's corrupt."
"And that is why it is our favorite method." Azula replied, snickering.
"I can't argue with that. But... I have no idea how to make a letter sound frightening enough to do that." I really wanted her to just leave me alone, but I couldn't send her away because that might make her suspicious. Plus, if I could somehow end up gaining the trust of the Fire Lord, I would be even better off with sending secret information to the Gaang. "Perhaps you could help with this first letter?"
Azula's lips spread into a devious, almost evil smile. She pulled up a chair next to me and we slowly worked through the letter word by word. If I placed each particular word in a certain way and made sure that my hand was steady and my handwriting smooth, the letter would appear more threatening to someone who read it. I was amazing at Azula's skill with words. She knew how to inspire fear, even in her writing. I felt like she would even be able to inspire fear if she were just sending a text.
"And that..." She trailed off as I finished the letter. "Is how you can make sure that you inspire fear in your writing. Tomorrow, we shall work on your demeanor."
"I look forward to it." I lied, surprised to find out that it was actually starting to get easier to lie to Azula.
"As do I." She replied, slowly walking out of the room. As soon as she had left, I pulled out another piece of paper and started my next letter to Katara.
Tikaani's POV:
"Why are we on a Fire Nation ship?" Aang asked in bewilderment as he stared around at all of us. We were all gathering around him as he sat on the main deck. He had only reawoken a short time ago, and he was still confused and disoriented. "Why is everyone dressed this way? And why am I the only one who is completely out of it?" As Aang kept asking questions, everyone except for Katara fanned out to give him some space.
"You need to take it easy, okay?" Katara told him as worry crossed her face. "You got hurt pretty bad." Aang looked down sadly and felt his side.
"And by the way, nice fro little man." Red joked, butting in to Katara and Aang's moment. "It's impressive, at least for an 112-year-old."
"She means nice hair." I translated, since he obviously didn't know what a 'fro' was supposed to be. It wasn't really a fro, but I knew Red was just joking about it.
"I HAVE HAIR?" Aang felt his head in shock and was astounded to find out that he had grown a fluffy carpet of hair. "How long was I out?"
"A few weeks." Katara answered calmly.
"Yeah. You were in a coma." Red joined in.
"Would you mind giving us a little privacy?" Katara barked angrily at Red. "Your interruptions are kind of annoying."
"Well that was rude." Red grumbled, walking off. I followed her.
"You're still acting grumpy." I pointed it out because her bad attitude was starting to worry me. I thought we had settled the issue earlier, but maybe there was something else bothering her. Something other than her mother, and the fact that we didn't know why we were here. "Are you sure there's nothing serious bothering you?"
"Yes, I'm sure." She snapped. "Other than the fact that my father tried to kill me and my mother doesn't remember who I am and I might never get the chance to make it right, I'm hunky-dory. You got the chance to meet your dad. How come I don't get the chance to talk to my mom?"
"Red, I... I didn't know that you felt that way... I'm sorry." I looked down at the floor of the ship guiltily. I knew why she felt the way she did. "If you want, I can help you get to the spirit world. Maybe now that Aang is awake, we'll be able to find one of the past avatars and ask them why we're here."
"But how are they supposed to know?" Red questioned.
"I don't know. But we could at least ask them and see if they know anything, or maybe if they know anyone who would know something." I didn't know what else to say on the matter. "I know it's a longshot... But what other leads do we have?"
Red slowly started nodding. "Okay. I guess it's at least worth the effort to ask."
Red's POV:
"When you told me this place was a filthy mud hole, you weren't kidding." I growled. This filthy swamp was really annoying. I kept getting swamp water all over me, and even in my mouth. The worst part was that Tikaani couldn't even use her bending to get it out of our clothes because bending was impossible in the spirit world.
"Be respectful. We need to find one of the avatars, and if you talk like that, they won't want to be associated with you." Tikaani replied. "Besides, I never said that."
"Well not that exactly, but somewhere along those lines. So how far do we have to travel through this sickening ooze before we get to the spirit pool?" I once again insulted the place, ignoring Tikaani's warnings.
She sighed and rolled her eyes at me. "It's just up ahead, okay?"
"You're just saying that, aren't you?" But just as I said that, the swamp instantly gave way to a row of thick green foliage, like that of a forest. We made our way through a patch of bushes and then the two of us were standing in a grassy clearing. The only problem was that there was no spirit pool in the middle of the clearing. "Where is it?"
"I don't know." Tikaani replied, sounding genuinely confused. "It's supposed to be right here. It's always in this direction, I don't know why it isn't here."
"Great, you got us lost." I muttered, rolling my eyes. "Just great, you..." I trailed off as something caught my eye. I looked up to see a bright light shining from above us. "Hey... What's that light?"
"I don't know!" Tikaani said again as she also looked up. She put her hand up to visor her eyes the light came closer, but there was still no distinct shape in the light. "Wait... Is that... Yue?"
"No." The glowing then stopped to reveal Avatar Yangchen, the airbending avatar before Aang. "I am Avatar Yangchen." [Yes, I know Yangchen looks nothing like Yue, but she was too bright to see before.]
"Let's cut straight to the chase." I demanded as I stepped towards Avatar Yangchen. "Do you know who we are? Do you know that we aren't from here?"
"Red!" Tikaani gaped at me in dismay. "She's an avatar! You can't be disrespectful."
"It is all right, waterbender. I know that your friend is confused and that she just wants answers to her many questions. It is true that I know you are not from this world." Avatar Yangchen replied. "And that you are not the only ones who have come here from another world."
Tikaani gaped at Avatar Yangchen in surprise. "You... You know that we're from another dimension? Well, then... Do you know what happens when all of this ends."
"Yes, I do. I know why you are here and how it was possible for you to come here. And I can tell that both of you want to know these things as well. However, I can not reveal this information to you yet. You cannot be concerned about this matter now." Avatar Yangchen paused for a moment. Here eyes were full of wisdom and she looked both of us over. I glared at her angrily. Why can't she tell us now? Who does she think she is, an avatar? Oh, right... "I know you do not understand why I cannot just tell you, but you will understand eventually. As soon as the avatar defeats the Fire Lord and the celebrations are over, I, along with three other avatars, will be able to tell you everything that you want to know."
"But why can't you tell us now?" I pressed, annoyed by Yangchen's refusal to tell us.
"All will soon be revealed. After Sozin's comet. After the Fire Lord has fallen. After the celebrations have ended. Then, you may come back." In another flash of light, Yangchen disappeared and the spirit pool had returned to the clearing.
"Well that was stupid." I grunted breathily. But... I did feel better about things. Yangchen hadn't said anything about us going home after Sozin's Comet. Maybe we wouldn't have to go home at all. That would be awesome. "But I guess I'm just glad that at least we'll eventually find out why we're here. And Yengchan didn't say we would have to go home when this is over."
"It would be nice if we could stay here forever." Tikaani announced. "But that sounds a little too good to be true... Come on, we should probably go back now."
Ryuu's POV:
"Am I the only one who thinks these old ladies are absolutely annoying?" I questioned as Li and Lo started droning on about the defeat of the Earth Kingdom.
"Your Princess Azula, clever and beautiful, disguised herself as the enemy and entered the Earth Kingdom's Capital. In Ba Sing Se, she found her brother Zuko, and a new boyfriend Ryuu, and together the three of them faced the Avatar..."
"No, they're pretty much the most annoying firebending masters I've ever had." Azula grumbled from where she was standing next to me. The two of us were waiting for Li and Lo to announce us so we could go stand in front of the people.
"And the Avatar fell! And the Earth Kingdom fell!"
"Really? They are your firebending masters?" I already knew that from watching the show, but I had to act surprised. "But they aren't even firebenders."
"Azula's agents quickly overtook the entire city. They went to Ba Sing Se's great walls..."
"I know. That's how I reacted at first. But despite how annoying they are, they know a lot about firebending skills." Azula examined her claw-sharp nails. "Of course there are some techniques you can only learn from the best. I learned how to generate lightning from my father. Perhaps I can teach you."
"And brought them down!"
"I actually already know how to generate lightning. I learned from Iroh while I was traveling with him." As much as it hurt to betray Iroh, I sneered as I mentioned his name. "He's a sick traitor to the Fire Nation... I can't believe I ever traveled with him."
"The armies of the Fire Nation surged through the walls and swarmed over Ba Sing Se, securing our victory."
"I feel the same way that you do, but insulting him won't help." Azula put her hand on my shoulder, and it almost would have been comforting if her eyes weren't constantly full of malice. "The only way to erase his mistake is to remain ever loyal to the Fire Nation.
"Now the heroes have returned home!"
"I know." I smiled. "Your cue is coming up."
"Your princess, Azula!" As the two of them called Azula's name, she strode confidently forward to face the people of the Fire Nation. I wished I had her confidence. As soon as she arrived at the front, the crowd started cheering.
"After three long years, your prince has returned!"
"Zuko!" Zuko strode forward a little bit less confidently than Azula had. Though the crowd seemed to cheer even louder than they had for Zuko.
"And princess Azula's new boyfriend, who helped her defeat the avatar..."
"Ryuu!" I walked along the dark red carpet until I reached the end of the walk. There were tons of citizens gathered below. They cheered again, but this time much more weakly than they did for Azula and Zuko, probably because none of them had the slightest idea who I was.
Tikaani's POV:
"After what happened in Ba Sing Se, we had to get you to safety." Sokka explained as we all sat around him eating breakfast. It was the next day and we had decided that we needed to let Aang know about everything that had happened. Now that his head was a lot clearer, we could fully explain everything that was going on. "So we headed back to Chameleon Bay, where we found my father and the other Water Tribe men. The Earth King decided he wanted to travel the world in disguise so he set off alone... Well, not completely alone."
"He took Basco with him." Red explained unnecessarily. "Which is good because all of us were tired of cleaning up after that bear."
"And after that, the bay started getting overrun with Fire Nation ships. It was Sokka's plan to capture one of the ships and use it as a disguise." I did some explaining too, only because it wasn't fair that Sokka got to explain the whole thing.
"Hey! I want to be the explainer guy!" Sokka grumbled. "So shush! Since we got the disguise, we've been traveling west. We crossed through the serpent's pass a few days ago. We've seen a few Fire Nation ships, but none have bothered us."
"So what now?" Aang questioned.
"We've been working on a modified version of the invasion plan." Hakoda told him.
"It's Sokka's invasion plan." Katara pointed out heatedly.
"Yes... Sokka's plan..." Hakoda repeated disappointedly before continuing. "We won't be able to mount a massive invasion plan without the Earth King's armies, but the solar eclipse will still leave the Fire Nation vulnerable.
"So we're planning a smaller invasion. Just a ragtag team of our friends and allies from around the Earth Kingdom." Sokka finished, smiling proudly about his plan. "We already ran into Pipsqueak and the Duke."
"Good to see you again, Aang." Pipsqueak greeted in his deep voice.
"And I'm going to get Longshot, Smellerbee, and some other Freedom Fighters to join the invasion plan as well." Jet added, looking important.
"Plus..." I smiled a devilish smile, knowing that this was definitely going to take Aang by surprise. "We have someone on the inside giving us secret information about the Fire Nation."
"What? We do?" Aang looked completely taken by surprise. "Who is it.
"Yup!" I snickered, knowing that he would not be too happy about whose name he was just about to here. "Ryuu."
"WHAT?" Aang's eyes widened in shock. "He's on our side?"
"Yes! And he's my twin brother." I smiled and shrugged at the stunned look still plastered on Aang's face. While I was explaining to him, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye and turned my head to see a fire hawk descending. "You missed a lot while you were out. Oh, and speaking of secret information about the Fire Nation, there it is now!" I held out my arm to receive the hawk, but it kept flying and instead landed on Katara's shoulder. Yup... Always for Katara, as usual. Katara pulled out the note on the hawk's back, then read it over inside her head. I noticed her blush a little bit as she did so.
"What does it say?" Red asked, also catching Katara's blushing.
"It says 'Don't forget that Admiral Chan, who is in command of the Eastern Fleet, has been on leave for two months on Ember Island. Admiral Lee is filling in for him.' I asked him to send us that information just in case we got stopped by a Fire Nation ship." Katara then rolled up the note. She was still blushing.
"Are you sure that's all that the note said?" I questioned, exchanging a glance with Red. "It says nothing else?"
"No. Of course not." She started blushing harder, then turned away from the two of us.
"Ooo, ooo, I FORGOT THE BEST PART!" Sokka exclaimed, suddenly jumping to his feet and doing the happy dance. "The eclipse and the secret information aren't even the best parts..." When Sokka spoke again, he dropped his voice to a whisper. "We have a secret!" He then looked from side to side as if he expected an actual Fire Nation citizen might be listening. "You."
"Me?" Aang asked in confusion, tilting his head.
"Yup! The whole world thinks your dead!" Sokka declared. "Isn't that great?!"
"Way to let that bandage soak and pull it off slowly." Red said sarcastically.
Aang was staring at Sokka with a horrified look. "The world thinks I'm dead? How is that good news? That's terrible!"
"No, it's great!" Sokka protested. "It means the Fire Nation won't be hunting us anymore. And even better, they won't be expecting you on the Day of Black Sun."
"No, no, no, no, no! You have no idea..." Aang shook his head slowly, then closed his eyes in frustration. "This is so messed up!"
"Sokka's right." Jet piped up. "This gives us the advantage on the Fire Nation."
Aang was about to say something else, but was interrupted by a noise as another Fire Nation ship came into view. "I'll handle this. The avatar is back." He flicked out his glider, but then winced in pain. He tried to mount it, but Katara stopped him.
"Aang, wait. Remember, they don't know we're not Fire Nation." She pointed out. Aang put his glider away and looked down at the ground. "And with the information Ryuu sent us, we should be able to get by without a problem."
"Everyone just stay calm." Hakoda announced. Him, Bato, and my dad all put on their Fire Nation helmets as the other Fire Nation ship stopped beside us. "Bato, Darek and I will take care of this."
We quickly hid Appa and Momo under a blanket, then Aang, Katara, Toph, and I retreated below deck. Everyone else was wearing full Fire Nation armor because we hadn't found enough on board for the four of us to wear some too. "I hate not being able to do anything..." Aang growled.
"Hopefully you won't need to." Toph replied.
Thanks to Ryuu's information, we didn't need to do anything. The ship let us pass with no trouble. Thank you, Ryuu.
Ryuu's POV:
"I don't believe it." I honestly couldn't. "A personal audience with the Fire Lord?"
"Of course. Your lessons have been going great after all." Azula grinned as she informed me of the news. "After all, Admiral Chan responded to your letter just as I had predicted he would. And the other admirals and generals are equally terrified, though none of them have met you. Perhaps now you understand the power of fear?"
"Yes." I nodded slowly, though I didn't think that this talk was going to have anything to do with my threats to the high ranking Fire Nation officials. I had a feeling that this was going to be one of those 'you break my daughter's heart, I break you' conversations. And considering that Azula's father was a Fire Lord who was ruthless enough to scar his own thirteen-year old son and burn an entire continent to the ground, I was absolutely terrified. "Although I think I'll find it difficult not to be afraid of your father."
To that, Azula laughed. "You should be."
"Thanks, that's very reassuring." I replied, smiling. "Which way is the throne room again?"
"We're standing in front of it." Azula replied, smiling one of the few genuine smiles I had seen from her since we had started 'dating.' "I find you amusing, Ryuu."
"Thanks." I smiled back at her. "Best not to keep your father waiting." I took a deep breath and turned, then started walking towards the throne room. The two guard standing out front of the throne room pulled back the curtains to let me through. I walked through the room until I was standing relatively close to the fire, then I got down on my knees and dipped my head in respect to the Fire Lord.
"Ryuu." The Fire Lord said in a deep, venom-filled voice. I was instantly terrified, but I refused to let it show. "Your mother was one of my closest assistants, one of my most trusted advisors. I never could have foreseen her treachery, and after I found out, I gave the order that she should be killed. But not just her. Her two children as well. Yet you managed to escape death, and now, Azula has told me of your newly fledged loyalty for the Fire Nation. She has told me of your feats in Ba Sing Se. You and Azula fought bravely to weaken the avatar, but when you could not, Zuko stepped up to defeat him. Still, Azula holds you in high regards. She is sure that your allegiances rest entirely with the Fire Nation. I, however, am not so easily convinced." I tried to hide all traces of fear, tried to disguise that Fire Lord Ozai was making me uncomfortable. But he saw my weaknesses easily. "Good... good... Let the fear flow through you." I had to stifle a chuckle at that last line because it sounded a heck of a lot like an Emperor Palpatine quote. Luckily, Ozai didn't notice. "And let your fear listen when I tell you this. If you do anything to hurt Azula, I will personally hunt you down and make you feel the pain of a thousand tongues of fire. Is that clear?"
"Yes, Fire Lord Ozai, sir." I barely managed to squeak it out. I don't know a single person in the world who wouldn't be absolutely terrified if they were in my shoes right now.
"Then leave. And know that I will be watching you." I stood to my feet and left the room hastily, but not too hastily.
"Well that went a lot better than I thought it would." Azula announced as soon as I had left the throne room.
I didn't bother to ask her how she knew. Of course she would have been eavesdropping... "Better? What did you think would happen?"
"Well, I thought he might vaporize you right then and there, or at least make your face match Zuko's, but he didn't." Azula immediately started laughing in that super awkward way of hers. I assumed it was a joke, so I laughed along. But on the inside, I was starting to have my doubts.
Am I really going to be able to pull this off without getting myself killed?
Red's POV:
"This is outrageous!" I complained angrily as I paced back and forth on the deck of the ship. "So what if Appa has a weight limit? He can handle another person, especially when that person is a twig like Jet!"
"Im sorry, Red." Katara told me apologetically as we prepared to board Appa. We had all just decided that from now until the invasion, we would travel around the Fire Nation on Appa and meet up with the invasion force before the invasion. But apparently, Appa wouldn't be able to handle Jet's extra weight. What kind of ridiculous bologna was that? Did they have any idea how much Jet weighed? He was as skinny as a rail. The stupid thing was, I didn't even need Appa to fly. I could just use Walt. "But Appa can't-"
"This has nothing to do with Appa! You just really don't like Jet!" I ranted on as Katara continued to make me even more and more angry. "For no reason at all, you don't like him. Just because he almost did something stupid, just because he almost did something unspeakably horrible, you are going to cast him aside? He's changed a lot since then, you know!"
"Red's right." Tikaani piped up, obviously on my side of the argument. "You can't keep holding something against Jet that he almost did."
"And when Long Feng took over Jet's mind, he snapped out of it and tried to stop Long Feng." Aang piped up.
"It's not a good idea to bring him along." Sokka argued. "He could snap at any moment."
"I'm with Red." Toph declared. I knew she hadn't talked to Jet much and she didn't know him very well, but she sided with me anyway. I love that chick.
"That's four votes against two." I announced. "Which means Jet is coming with us. And if that's too heavy for Appa, Jet can just ride with me on Walt."
Sokka and Katara exchanged a hesitant look, then they both sighed.
"Okay, fine." Sokka grumbled. "He can come."
"Great. You're a fair man Sokka." I slapped him on the back hard enough to hurt and walked off to go get Jet. He was on the front deck of the ship, looking out over the ocean. "Jet?"
"Red." Jet turned towards me and smiled. "I thought you were leaving to go find Aang."
"Not without you. After we find him, we're going to travel around the Fire Nation." I explained, even though I was sure he already know that. "You're coming with, aren't you?"
"To the Fire Nation?" Jet raised an eyebrow at me and looked back out towards the ocean. "I... I don't know, Red..."
"I thought you had gotten over that!" I exclaimed in astonishment. "When we were in Ba Sing Se, you found out that there are evil people even in some of the best nations. That means that some of the worst nations can also have a little good in them, doesn't it?"
"Yes, but..." Jet continued to look away, out over the ever-changing waters of the sea. "It's kind of hard to forget watching your parents die."
I looked away as he mentioned the death of his parents. Jet... I had never told him who my father was. If he ever found out that my father was the firebender who killed his parents... All of his hatred for firebenders... It might be directed towards me instead.
"I know, Jet, terrible things have happened to me and my past. But even though the Dai Li made my mother forget about me and the Duke, I don't hate all earthbenders." I walked across the deck to stand next to Jet, then reached down and put my hand on his. "Not all firebenders are evil. Iroh helped us save Aang by distracting Azula. Tikaani told me this one guy named Jeong Jeong tried to help Aang learn firebending. And she also told me that a firebender named Shyuu risked his freedom to help Aang escape from Zhao."
"Yeah. I know. But until I actually see it... I think I'll have a hard time believing that any firebender could be good." Jet's gaze fell to where I still had my hand on his. He held it and looked into my eyes.
"Then come with me." I repeated once again. "Let me show you that there are some firebenders who are not evil."
Jet hesitated, then he slowly nodded. "Alright. I'll come."
"Yay!" I excitedly wrapped my arms around him in a hug, then dragged him over to where the others were preparing Appa.
"Took you long enough!" Sokka whined. "We need to go get Aang already!"
Tikaani's POV:
It was pretty easy to find Aang. We knew he couldn't have gone very far because he was injured, so we just flew to the nearest island that there was, which just so happened to be the crescent island with the Roku temple that Aang destroyed a while back.
"You're okay!" Katara cheered as she slid over to Aang and hugged him. The rest of us all ran up to him and gave him a big group hug, except for Jet who stood to the side looking awkward until Red grabbed him and pulled him into the hug too. Then Appa, Momo, and Walt snuggled up really close to us. Muu popped his head out of my bag.
"I have so much to do..." Aang said, looking away.
"I know, but you'll have our help." Katara reassured, smiling a warm smile. Aang returned the smile.
"You didn't think you could get out of training just by coming to the Fire Nation, did you?" Toph asked, smiling maliciously.
"What about the invasion?" Aang inquired.
"We're going to join up with the invasion force on the day of the eclipse." I explained.
"And until then, we're going to travel the Fire Nation in disguise." Red added. She then elbowed Jet so he would say something too.
"Fun." He muttered. Something in the way he said that word made me think he didn't usually say it that often.
I smiled as I looked at all of us, standing on this rocky beach in a little hugging circle with a giant bison, a lemur, a flying wolf, and a moose lion with saber teeth. It was like some sort of really weird, mixed up family made of benders and non-benders and animals alike. Yeah... We were like a family.