Blood Benders

Chapter 48,

Murky

Toph watched them walk away, unsure of what was going to happen once the door closed. Would she cry? Scream? Would she do anything, or just sit still in a daze like she had been? The time came to find out when the solemn siblings were completely cut off by the door. She looked to the bed, took the time to find his hand, and waited.

His fingers were so cold compared to her own. The girl held him close, and her eyes began to cry again. She had been holding it in. And it was past time to let it out. But she couldn't let them see her cry. Not anymore.

As she drew nearer, she couldn't help but shiver. The monk was so cold.

For a while, Zuko couldn't be sure what happened. A year had gone by in a blink. One year since he had left home. And now he was back. After conquering the Avatar. (Which he still wasn't sure how he ended up with the credit for that.) No one paid him much mind. He kept his head down and kept himself out of trouble. He had something to do, and attracting attention to himself was not the way to do it.

The prince sat in his room, rubbing his head, pouring over endless scrolls. He could barely hear himself think over the paper in his room. It rustled with every wind and they filled him with many thoughts that were unlike himself. He had never seen the dark side of his country, and now it was laid out for him to see.

The lemur surprised him.

"You!" He nearly shouted. There were scrolls in his arms where he had jumped.

It just chittered. But it was definitely the same lemur. He could only remember it being called Rings...but he knew it had a different name. Zuko couldn't fathom what it was doing here. Wasn't it supposed to be with Katara?

Was she here?

But that was ridiculous. If she could get this close, he wouldn't be inside the palace.

"What do you want?" He asked it, unsure of what else to do. The lemur didn't answer with words, but instead pointed to the papers on his desk. It ran its fingers along the script.

"Writing. You want me- Katara wants me... to write?"

The lemur picked its nose.

"Fine." He said. It felt like borderline insanity trying to converse with a lemur. Pretending to understand what it wanted. Despite how it felt, there was an intelligence behind the green eyes. The prince took out paper, and let words flow. He tried to give his best status report, but there was nothing of importance yet. When he finished, he handed it to the lemur.

The animal then proceeded to rip the letter. The pieces were much smaller. It handed them back to Zuko. The prince rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Smaller. I get it. How did they teach you any of this?" Zuko sighed and went back to fixing the letter.

Sokka held his sister's hand. They hadn't done so since they were little. At the moment, though, they felt like children. There had been all these emotions the both of them needed to purge, and Toph needed to be alone. It worked out well.

"Something wrong, Sokka?" She asked, her voice distant. She was exhausted, and Sokka could tell. He himself was not a user of magic water, but he knew what happened when water benders used too much energy. Katara was already feeling the effects of it, though she'd only been at it a few hours today.

"What happened to Aang?" Sokka got right to the point. No sense in beating about the bush.

Katara's grip tightened, "Azul did. While I was fighting the other people, he was fighting Azul. She... she got him. He was trying to slip into the Avatar state."

"How did you escape?" This was the foggiest of all of her story. He understood her hesitation however. They had left Ba Sing Se without Zuko. And then the rumors had circulated, and Suki had sent her own reports. The prince was back in the Fire Nation. Re-crowned and all. Something had clearly happened.

"Iroh... His uncle... gave us time to get out." Katara's voice was tight.

"Is this something that needs to wait?" The brother in him won out over the warrior. He needed to take care of her for now.

"If it can. There are some things I can't say yet. Too sensitive." Sensitive was a League word for 'Do not ask'. They had both used this word several times to several different operatives. But never to each other. There had been nothing secret between them.

Having her say it shocked Sokka.

"I promise I'll explain soon." Katara had pulled away from him, realizing her position. There was a rift between the two siblings that she had created. And it was going to be her job to fill it up.

Mai was annoying him. Simple as that. Even before Katara, Zuko had dreaded her company. He had realized early on that she was as literal a black hole as he was ever going to meet. The woman could suck the energy out of a rock. He could be going about his studies just fine, and then she would pop up and he would be exhausted. And bad things always happened when he was too tired to control himself.

"Why do you keep coming here!" He yelled. Fortunately, it was early in the morning and nobody was in the library yet.

Mai's expression didn't change. Her eyes still remained blank, though a bit more dull than a few moments ago. Her mouth was still set into the same grim line. Zuko wished he knew some code word to make her snap. He wanted to know how to push her over the edge. Make her do something.

"If you don't want me here, say so." Her voice was blank.

"Honestly, I don't know why you keep coming back. We aren't together. My coming back doesn't signify a new chapter for us. Alright? I'm here, and I'm trying to figure this war out. I have other things to do than sit here and-"

"Fine. Just thought you might need some company. Azula said that water tribe girl was down there. That you fought." Mai got up and left, leaving Zuko both more tired and more energized than before.

Angry, Zuko threw down the scroll. He hadn't been finding the information he needed here anyways.

When he returned to his room, the lemur was waiting for him. There were fruit pits scattered on his bed, but the prince didn't care. The paper the lemur held was easy to take.

But it was blank.

"You shouldn't cry so much, Toph. I'm alright." Aang rubbed her hair. The girl's crying had woken him up, and it had taken much effort just to move his hand. Now he could move his entire left arm. The rest of his body was numb.

"I know. I know, okay? But I can't help it." Toph was trying to sound tough, like she normally did. The tears gave the Avatar much doubt that it was so.

"Where are Katara and Sokka?" He hadn't seen his siblings, or even heard them, in the two hours he had been awake.

"Out, getting supplies I think. They had something to talk about." Toph said, wiping her eyes. It still fascinated Aang, watching her eyes cry. It sounded awful when put that way, but he had never seen someone blind cry.

"Oh. Guess we have some time. Maybe I'll be able to move." Aang's voice was hopeful. He wanted desperately to stretch. His muscles ached, and they felt like they had been sleeping for a long while. He reached up to scratch an itch on his scalp when he felt it- the undeniable proof that he had not simply been recovering.

His head was full of hair.

He tossed it over the fire. He didn't expect much, but the lemur was hard to argue with. The only thing surprising was that the paper didn't burn to a crisp immediately. After a few seconds, the paper began to glow red. Then, a word became visible. One word changed into two. The handwriting was familiar enough, though he had been fooled before.

Dragon Catacombs.


A/N: Anyone play pokemon here? I've almost beaten the game-er, the story line. I think. Fighting N and creepy guy who's name is too hard to spell. And I'm putting out a fic for NxToukou/Whitelea... they're just too cute. Well, see you all soon!