Response(s) to anonymous review(s):
To Lazy to log in: I doubt it...I'm not sure :/
Disclaimer:...I think everyone knows it :V
Chapter 37
Aang had informed him of the war, the conspiracy with the Dai Li, and about Long Feng kidnapping Appa for ransom. The earth king hadn't believed it due to the persistence of Long Feng claiming they were lying and almost and was about to send them off to the dungeon until Sokka had tested Long Feng and, with the help of Aang, helped exposed the area on his leg where the bite mark was from when Appa bit him. Long Feng had, quoted, it was an 'extremely large birthmark', but after comparing Appa's teeth to the mark; it had been an exact match. There wasn't really a point doing that, since the earth king still didn't believe anything about the war.
Akemi was glad that the king was finally starting to suspect that Long Feng was lying, but she despised how Long Feng had covered his tracks back when they had tried to show the Dai Li headquarters, but found to have been non-existent now. No traces were left of the quarters, meaning the Dai Li had gone to work with Long Feng when they least expected it. She wanted to set Long Feng on fire. She wanted to, find him, and burn him to a crisp right here and now.
Thankfully, just as the earth king had just about given up, he was swayed with Aang's offer give him a ride on Appa if he listened one more time; which he took up in less than a heartbeat. Akemi didn't blame him, however; as scary as it was to ride bareback a while back, flying in the sky continues to excite her, Ironic enough considering she has a great fear of really high heights.
The king wouldn't stop yelling for joy, though. He was loud and Akemi found her head start to implode from the headache was starting to form. She groaned in distress and rubbed her temples from where she sat cross-legged next to Aang on Appa's head. Even if he was a king, she had to resist the urge to tell him to shut up and stop yelling.
"You okay?" Aang asked when he noticed Akemi rubbing her temple and her eyelids fluttering.
Akemi slowly nodded and responded, "Fine…just a small headache." She flinched when the earth kingdom once again whooped in joy and leaned back. "Scratch that, I'm far from fine!" She whined to Aang and he looked amused.
He reached over and patted her knee comfortingly. "Just grin and bear with it." She groaned again at his words, and he chuckled in amusement.
Making an attempt to distract herself from the never-ending sound of the king losing his wits over flying, she glanced out to the side and overlooked the kingdom. She let out a small gasp of wonder at the vastness of the city. She thought that seeing it coming from in the city on that train was amazing, but…this takes the cake. A stupid grin crossed her face as she beheld the large city that was indeed Ba Sing Se.
She glanced in a random direction and then became aware of a familiar-looking area of the city; her eyes widened as she found an all-too-familiar building and road even from as high up as here.
The teashop Zuko and Iroh she assumed were still at! It was here…it was right here! She was so close to them.
If she turned to Aang and asked him to land here there, she could see them again.
Her expression fell.
'Seeing them again…' She wistfully thought and bit her lip. Akemi opened her mouth and was about to ask Aang to drop her off, but all she heard was a croaked, dying sound escaping her throat instead of actual coherent words.
Unfortunately for her, this caught his attention. Aang looked over and blinked.
"What is it?" Aang asked curiously.
Akemi forgot that she should never go back to them. She forgot that if she were to go back now, she would destroy whatever life Zuko and Iroh had probably built up in her absence; and she already knew that she couldn't take away this chance for them. She couldn't mess things up for them here just as she messed it up for herself.
She couldn't take away Zuko's one chance to finally be happy without the need to obsess over capturing Aang.
"Nothing. I thought I saw something, but it wasn't anything…important."
Aang stared at her oddly before turning his head back to the front. He was unable to catch how Akemi's hands started to slightly tremble. Her head turned to take one last look to where the building was now disappearing behind her. But, she stopped, and forced herself to keep her eyes to the front.
Looking there at this point would only serve to make her feel awful and longing to return to the most important people in her life, which she couldn't do, considering she had royally screwed up back there, even if it was to save Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Toph at the time; she can never go back.
She had to keep them safe this way.
To do this, Akemi could never see Zuko or Iroh ever again, and her heart started to pang and she felt drained when realizing how much she desperately missed them. Leaving at some point without an opportunity to say her goodbyes them, she felt hopeless. Her face scrunched up and contorted. She hugged her arms close to herself while not under the gaze of anyone around her and shrunk back in her spot.
Akemi then regretted ever leaving to begin with. At the same time, she was glad she was able to help Aang.
Both of these points made her emotions conflict. She wasn't sure if what she had done was right, now that the consequence of her actions assured that she would never be able to see Zuko and Iroh for as long as they continued to live out their life in Ba Sing Se in secret.
As they reached the outer walls, she also wondered what everyone else had in mind when wanting to show the earth king the wall of the city. Akemi wasn't entirely sure how going to the wall was going to help prove to the earth king that the war was real, but even if there was very little to no detail about why they planned to go there, she could still make one connection:
When in the war room those many years ago, the general's plan to use new troops as live sacrifice for the invasion of Ba Sing Se was evil and she believe it still might have worked if they carried it out. But, apparently, there had been a change of plans during the 2 years since Zuko and Akemi had been banished from the fire nation, and they had encountered Zhao, he had informed her, Iroh, and Zuko about the new plan. It was well thought-out and organized, and it seemed fool-proof.
Since Zhao's demise, she wasn't sure if it had been carried out in his absence. With his death, she knew that there was no one else out in sea not fighting against the major fronts around the earth kingdom in charge to lead the attack.
Akemi hoped that no one had taken the position up and tried to go with using a giant drill to penetrate the walls of the city. 'But, if it was carried out, does this mean...' She glanced over at Aang from the corner of her eye, and she reprimanded herself.
'No! Aang wouldn't let the firenation invade Ba Sing Se! What am I thinking?!'
"I have to be honest with you..." The earth king suddenly spoke up, "A part of me really hopes that what you're telling me about this war...isn't true."
Aang looked haunted at his confession. He bowed his head. "I wish it wasn't."
'Me too.' Akemi mentally agreed with Aang, now looking as grim as the boy next to her. She curled more into herself, the cold breeze that's been hitting her while in the air suddenly feeling cold and unbearable.
Remembering previous advice from Iroh, she sucked in a long breath and exhaled, content that her firebending was doing well to warm herself up.
..
..
..
By the time sunset rolled around, they had just about reached the wall, and Akemi marveled how even on a flying bison it had taken such a long time to reach the outermost wall of the city.
As the large infrastructure grew and grew larger, and as they flew over the edge, Aang suddenly leapt in his spot next to Akemi, startling her. "A little forewarning, please!" She hissed at Aang, feeling guilty at how harsh she sounded.
Aang didn't seem to have noticed. He pointed down over the edge of Appa and yelled victoriously, "It's still there!"
Akemi, expecting and been wondering what he had planned this entire time they had set out to prove a point, quickly crawled and peer over Appa's head, quickly tugging her hair that was frustratingly billowing in front of her eyes with an annoyed grunt.
She went white at the sight below them.
"What is that?" The earth king asked in horror at the same sight Akemi was beholding in disbelief.
"A drill. A giant drill made by the fire nation to invade through your walls." Sokka stated.
'Who-' Akemi proclaimed mentally as she stared down at the oppressive insignia of the fire nation on the large machinery in dismay. 'Who led the operation?! Oh, thank Agni it's not working!' She had noticed that the drill seemed to be out of commission, with some sort of substance splattered on and around the drill inside the large earth containment unit that surrounded it.
Akemi knew that if it was like this, then Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Toph once again came out on top in stopping mayhem by stopping this drill.
This didn't answer all her questions. She slowly stood, nearly losing her wits when she stumbled in place, but found herself successfully gaining Aang's attention when placing a hand on his shoulder.
"Aang, please tell me who led this operation."
Aang looked back at the drill, a small frown gracing his features. "Azula. Azula and two other girls with her took charge."
Akemi froze.
Azula she expected, but…
'Ty Lee is here, too?! And Mai?!' She had nothing against Ty Lee, since she was the only one of Azula's friends that were actually nice to her when she was little, and wondered why Azula would drag her and Mai out this far from their homes. 'As if Azula didn't want to cause mayhem to me and Zuko, looks as though she didn't seem to find that satisfying enough and wants to do the same to everyone ELSE!' Air seethed out of her teeth and her nostrils flared. 'It's like I can't escape her!' Akemi leapt off of Appa after they landed on the wall's edge, the earth king in tow behind Sokka as he gestured him over to get a better look at the drill below.
The earth king shook his head in disbelief and bowed his head. He looked ashamed from all of this, and Akemi's previous notion of the earth king being corrupted ebbed away. His reaction was genuine, and she now felt bad that he was now being thrusted with all this unknown knowledge of a war that's been going on his entire life that's been going on all at once.
She could only imagine how overwhelmed he's starting to feel at this moment in time.
"I can't believe I never knew," The earth king murmured quietly.
Akemi stiffened when hearing the sound of rock shifting behind her. She twisted and her jaw set when seeing Long Feng accompanied by Dai Li agents appearing before them a few good yards away. 'If I act now, I can land a blow on him.' She thought to herself in determination, but she felt unable to try and ruin this chance for Aang and his friends to expose Long Feng. After all, her life was on the line. If they failed to convince the earth king to rid of Long Feng, then it was likely she would get executed.
"I can explain this, your majesty. This is nothing more than a construction project." Long Feng explained as he came up, putting on the genuine politician act in front of them all. But, Akemi knew better than that.
He was a murderer in her eyes.
Katara stepped forward and glared him down. "Really? Then, perhaps you can explain why there's a fire nation insignia on your 'construction project'?" She inquired sarcastically and pointed down back at the drill to emphasize her point.
The earth king's expression seemed to lower when Long Feng as he tried to explain with an innocent smile, "Well, it's imported, of course! You know you can't trust domestic machinery!"
Akemi gave him a sour look. 'Man, you have everything planned out, don't you?' She thought to herself dryly and crossed her arms tightly beneath her chest. As much as she wanted to make a snarky reply, and seeing as the earth king hadn't ordered anyone to apprehend her she's noticed, it seemed apparent that Long Feng hasn't told him about the fact he was standing in the presence of a firebender. She held her tongue; if she brought attention to herself, Long Feng might remember and he will try to throw her under the bus to change the topic from him and give the earth king another issue to worry about.
Long Feng's smile faltered when he saw the incredible looks everyone gave him. He frowned and inquired, "Surely you don't believe these children instead of your most loyal attendant?!"
The earth king silently glanced to her and everyone else standing around her, then back to Long Feng.
His eyes narrowed.
But before the king could say anything, and seeing as Long Feng saw how he didn't look pleased with his answer, he knew it was all over for him.
Much to Akemi's horror, Long Feng smirked and nodded his head. Suddenly, she felt her hands snapped behind her back and forced together by something metal and cool. She yelped as she was then lurched violently back a couple of feet from away from Aang and his friends, who all cried in protest at the sudden turn of events. As she struggled against what she found to be metal shackles now trapping her, she felt herself get cold feet as Long Feng sent her a knowing smirk.
Her face blanched.
The earth king was confused at Long Feng's sudden order, and he demanded, "Long Feng, what is the meaning of this? Explain yourself!"
"Your majesty, it seems that the Avatar and his friends purposely failed to mention an important fact that will be sure to upset you." Long Feng drawled and held a hand out in Akemi's direction, who was now struggling.
"The Avatar has brought someone accompanied of our enemy nation. That girl is a firebender!"
Akemi felt her knees go weak. She didn't even bother to see the reactions of the others, but the only one that seemed to matter to her was the earth king's. And, he looked horrified, too. She suddenly became desperate and started to plead, "No, please, I—"
"SILENCE!"
Akemi flinched and felt herself cower when seeing how hostile the earth king suddenly became. The Dai Li, just for fun, decided to tighten their grip on her arms and she hissed in pain.
"It's already bad enough that I've just found out that the fire nation has been waging war for over a century on the world, but now finding out they've been trying to drill a hole into my city's wall to threaten the lives of my citizens and finding out a savage firebender has infiltrated just does it!"
She held her breath, and hoped this wasn't happing, that this wasn't real,
"Dai Li! Take her to the cells! The crime for being a firebender is of high treason!" The earth king sternly glared at Akemi.
"The sentence for such treachery is death!"
Akemi felt her knees grow weak and tremble violently as she started to get hauled backwards. She couldn't even find herself able to struggle anymore, unable to try and protest, and unable to look at the others who started to protest vehemently.
"You can't do this!" Katara yelled in disbelief.
"He can, and he will." Long Feng stated matter-of-fact, looking very smug now that the attention was off of him. He waved his hand off and ordered, "Get here out of his majesty's sight. We've seen enough of such scum in our kingdom."
"No, no, no, no," Akemi whispered in a mantra and her eyes started to water. "No, no, no no—" She continued on, and the world crumbled around her as she was unable to break free from the Dai Li's grip. Now she knew how Jet felt when he had been hauled away.
Except he was only brainwashed; she, however, was going to just die.
"Akemi means no harm!" Aang reasoned from outside of her line of vision as she bowed her head low and now allowed herself to be dragged away, seeing as she could do nothing to save herself. "Please, listen to us!"
"You're making a HUGE mistake!" Toph even started to protest along with everyone else. Surprisingly, even she was starting to look anxious herself. "She's not the true enemy, here!"
"Your highness, the Avatar and his friends intend to use the girl to destroy your nation from the inside. Your nation will surely fall if she were to stay. She is a threat and has already done harm to us-" Long Feng calmly stated and rolled up his sleeve, and revealed the burn on his arm that he received from Akemi not that long ago.
Akemi flinched and cursed herself silently for being careless. 'This is going to make me look worse.' And indeed, she did start to look more like the enemy; the earth king was shocked at the burn on Long Feng's arm, and turned his glare backk to her and waved a hand for the Dai Li to haul her away.
Suddenly, Sokka stood in front of the earth king and held his arm out to his sides, looking frantic and bold now. "Your Majesty, we implore you to listen to us! Long Feng has already hid all of this from you, and whatever she did was all in an act of self-defense. We've shown you just what you've missed out on because of his lies, won't you at least consider thinking over your decision before you might regret anything?"
The earth king suddenly had a change of face; he held his hand up and silently ordered the Dai Li dragging her away to stand down. Akemi had little hope of being saved at this point, so she just accepted her fate.
Long Feng did not look happy. He took a step forward and held a hand to himself. "I only did what I believed would insure the safety of our nation. I, as your most trusted advisor, understood how much you had on your hands as it was by taking rule over this city, and I only did my job as your right hand man and handled problems you wouldn't have been able to."
The earth king now didn't look angry, but now he looked conflicted; he glanced back at the younger children, who looked desperate for him to show mercy, then to Long Feng, who looked at him expectantly.
He then spared a glance to Akemi, who had her face hidden by her hair. As he continued to observe the girl and seemed to weigh his options out, he seemed to be thinking long and hard about what he as the ruler should do; Aang and his friends and Long Feng both were presenting arguments, but given Long Feng had hidden all of this from him, and he as king should've known about a war that's been going on for 100 years right on his nose and his advisor hiding it from him until now, he didn't seem that much inclined to now listen to Long Feng.
His gaze remained on the girl, and he remained distrustful of the fact a firebender, of all people, has managed to sneak into his kingdom. However, when she raised her head and made eye contact with her, the defeated and hopeless look she wore made his expression soften ever-so slightly.
With that, he glanced to Aang with a questioning look. Catching the king's eyes on him, Aang immediately nodded and responded quickly, "I promise you that she doesn't means harm to your nation. As our ally, she wants for peace for Ba Sing Se as much as we do, but your kingdom cannot have peace if the truth remains hidden."
"Your highness," Long Feng implored. "Do you intend to favor advice from children rather than your most trusted attendant?"
The earth king remained silent.
"Dai Li! Release the girl and arrest Long Feng!" The king ordered sternly, "I want him to stand trial for crimes against the earth kingdom!"
Long Feng looked shocked; even everyone else did. Akemi snapped her head up and reveled at how disgruntled the man looked. She spotted the Dai Li behind him shoot metal cuffs from beneath their arm sleeves and cuffed Long Feng's wrists together, pulling him towards them. As they dragged him off, Long Feng yelled, glaring at everyone, "You can't arrest me! YOU ALL NEED ME MORE THAN YOU KNOW!" As he glanced in Akemi's direction, he glowered at her just as she sneered at him, who was quick to recover from her terror from nearly being dragged off to be executed just moments before.
"LOOKS LIKE LONG FENG IS LONG GONE!" Sokka yelled, catching Akemi's attention and she snickered to herself.
Eventually she felt the Dai Li agents behind her finally release her from her shackles, though she was shoved forwards non-too-gently moments after she was released. Stumbling on her feet, Akemi felt no need to turn and face them; they already terrified her enough for one day just by nearly hauling her off to her death.
The realization that a death sentence had nearly been carried out on her made her stomach tie up in knots and she felt wanting to throw up all the pent up fear that had been bubbling up within her. She wanted to be cleansed of her terror, cleansed of the anxiety that made her arms continue to tremble even long after the agents left and being freed.
She let out a shaky breath and her teeth chattered.
'Why am I acting this way?! It's all said and done, I shouldn't be this afraid!' She reprimanded herself mentally, and relaxed when she felt the familiar feeling of Katara's hands on her shoulders and not the Dai Li's.
"Akemi, we take full responsibility for this. We never intended for things to go this far!" Katara apologized and looked relieved in contrast to when she had been trying to defend Akemi from an unjust punishment; again, Akemi felt flattered today.
She placed a shaky hand on top of one of Katara's and chuckled, noticing that everyone else was crowding around in concern.
"If anything, it's my own stupid fault for firebending in front of Long Feng to begin with, but it's not my fault that Sokka manages to come up with terrible puns."
Everyone but Sokka, who gave her a dry look, laughed at her quip.
How Akemi wished Jet had been here to see this victory; he would've been so proud of them as the proud freedom fighter he is—
…was.
..
..
..
Akemi sighed.
'That had been too close. Way, way, way too close.' She continued to think to herself long after the earth king guided them back to the palace and welcomed them with open arms.
"I want to thank you, young heroes, for opening my eyes." The earth king spoke from where he sat on his throne, looking down at the people who had shed the light of knowledge onto him. He looked immensely grateful, yet melancholic.
"All this time, what I thought was a great metropolis was merely a city of fools…and that makes me the king fool…" The earth king morosely said and covered his face with a hand. He shook his head. "We're at war...with the fire nation..."
Akemi flinched. She drummed her fingers against her arms and fidgeted in her spot.
"That's why we came to Ba Sing Se, your highness. Because we think you can help us end the war." Sokka responded and stepped in his direction.
Aang also took a spot next to Sokka. "We don't have much time! There's a comet coming this summer; its energy will give the firebenders unbelievable strength! They'll be unstoppable!"
What she had been worrying about earlier had suddenly just been tossed in the trash.
"S…Sozin's comet?!" She marveled. "There's actually a comet coming this summer?!" She asked Katara next to her, whose attention diverted to her when she was nearly starting to run her mouth over this discovery. Katara nodded and then held a finger up to her mouth, motioning her to remain quiet as the other two talked to the earth king
'A perfect year! Oh boyyyy, I would definitely LOVE to feel that kind of power...it's once every hundred years the comet comes, after all!' Akemi thought to herself and nearly burst with excitement in front of everyone on the spot. She muffled a sound that escaped her throat when eagerly imagining the day of the comet coming along and how powerful her firebending will be.
"But there is hope! There's a window of opportunity before the comet comes!" Sokka said, snapping Akemi out of her daydream.
She looked at Sokka questionably.
'Opportunity? For what?' She glanced at Toph next to her, who tilted her head towards Sokka in indication for her to pay attention to what he had to say. If Toph was telling her to do that, then Akemi knew that whatever Sokka had to say must really be that relevant and important for them.
Akemi's eyes widened and she diverted her attention back at Sokka apprehensively. 'Is this what Toph told me she couldn't mention before?'
"A solar eclipse is coming!" Sokka suddenly mentioned. "The sun will be entirely blocked out by the moon, and the firebenders will be helpless!"
Shocked, Akemi's eyes widened. 'How…does he know about that?!' Indeed, she knew the exact day the next solar eclipse was, spending too much time worrying back in her childhood about when the next one was and jumping through hoops in finding out this information. Her eyes drooped tiredly as she thought about her firebending ability being completely taken away. 'That's sure to be long minutes of hell for me that day.'
"What are you suggesting, Sokka?" The earth king asked.
"That's the day we need to invade the firenation: The day of black sun!" Sokka declared.
Now if she wasn't moved before, Akemi was completely baffled and she wasn't sure if there was a word that existed in her mind currently that could explain how surprised she was at how well-thought out this suggestion was. Their plan...it was brilliant...fool-proof! It was better than any of the other plans the fire nation war council has ever made as far as she was concerned, especially for being planned by a couple of kids.
Akemi slammed a fist on the palm of her hand with a loud, "Sokka, that's brilliant" She praised him, and Sokka was startled by her comment; she noticed him grow humble and grin over this.
The earth king seemed intrigued by the plan, but then looked hesitant after a moment of thinking. "I don't know...that would require moving troops out of Ba Sing Se; we'd be completely vulnerable."
"You're already vulnerable. The fire nation won't stop until Ba Sing Se falls! You could either sit back and wait for that to happen...or take the offensive, and give yourself a fighting chance!"
The earth king pondered for a moment. Everyone waited for his answer eagerly, hoping it was a yes.
Finally, he smiled.
"Very well. You have my support!"
Akemi and Toph immediately high-fived each other as everyone cheered in their own way, Aang riding on his air scooter in elated joy over their success in managing to restore order back to the earth kingdom and gain more war support. Things were finally going their way, and Akemi was happy she had remained with them to see the end of it.
A tall, burly man entered in the room. "Your majesty, I apologize for the interruption." Akemi blinked as the man walked past all of them and bowed before the earth king, who seemed pleased of the sudden presence of the newcomer. "This is General Hao. He's the leader of the Council of Five: my highest ranking generals." The earth king introduced.
The man stood and spoke, "We searched Long Feng's office. I think we've found something that will interest everybody."
At that, everyone gave each other confused looks. Nevertheless, whatever happened next, Akemi was sure that nothing would be able to ruin her state of content now that Long Feng had been brought to justice and Aang was finally happy to be reunited with his dear furry companion.
But now, all that was left lingering in her mind was what was in store for her next. Things have changed drastically for her life in a split second decision to save their lives, and even now still wasn't sure if what she had done had been the right thing, now that the fact she can never return back to Zuko and Iroh continued to haunt her-Akemi's heart fluttered as she realized something. She nearly cried in joy when she remembered that Long Feng was now gone and could no longer blackmail her, and the earth king had basically accepted her into the kingdom provisionally and changed his mind about giving her the death sentence.
All this meant that there was a small chance:
A small chance she could return back to Zuko and Iroh without worrying about dragging them along with being exposed as firebenders. Even if she had to lie and sneak back, at least she knew that she didn't have to leave them behind anymore.
She could finally return back.
'Iroh, I'm coming home, soon! Just you wait!'
And it was then she hoped that Zuko had finally found happiness while in her absence and looked forward to the change he would bring to her. Akemi had high hopes for him.
So ends another chapter! Again, thank you for sticking around this far in!