A/N: Well hello!
How have you been? How were all of your holidays? Did you get everything you wanted?
Lets see here. So I am finally back. Work has finally slowed back down….starting next week lol. So just a heads up this chapter is kinda short. 2,600ish words. Shouldn't take you long to read it.
And I know what you are thinking, its not Friday, why are you updating? Well I thought I had made you wait long enough so I thought a short chapter would be good. So this is what I wrote this weekend, just for you guys. :-)
Now feel free to let me have it, I completely understand.
:-D
Reviews:
Gazara: Ok lets start with this. The guards were fighting, but I am assuming that most of them are not benders and the ones that are, are not that well trained as there has not been a need for them to train them well. The gaurds that do know how to bend were either retired or higher ups. If that makes sense. Also the group they were fighting were not supernatural they were just really really really skilled. Like Katara and Zuko level. They were everyone who felt they lost something because the war ended. For example a trading route or a skill they had that is no longer needed. You know, those people who think that war is better for them and than peace. One of those kind of things. Most were killers for hire and such. Maybe I will cover this in the next chapter better when they meet with Ozai. Let me know if you have any questions. And I hope you had a good Chunakkah. :-D
Angelthree117: Thanks for being new to the story and I am glad you are liking it. Sorry but I did make you wait weeks. But now that everything is done holiday wise we should be good to go for every week again.
WildCitrusSunflower: Thanks! :-D
Mlynd: Good :-P
Guest: As of this moment in time I am not going to have them die but that is a great idea.
Patty Cake Rocks: I am glad you liked it. :-D And it was kinda hard to write so I am glad everyone is thinking it came out good.
Thank you for all the wonderful reviews and the great new people who have added this story to their growing list of stories to read.
Now on with the, short, show!
Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Avatar.
"So what did we find out?" Katara asked as the others walked into Zuko's office.
Zuko took a seat behind his desk as Sokka,Toph, Ursa, and Iroh came in. "Well we found out what we needed."
"Kwan is the bridge for him to get here. What that means we don't know." Sokka said with a smile of slight defeat.
"And we found out he will be here in two hours." Toph said as she plopped down next to Katara on the couch.
"So." Katara began as she let the information sink in.
"We know when but we don't know how." Iroh began. "Just because she is the bridge doesn't tell us how he gets here. He could appear around her or she just has to be alive and he can appear anywhere."
"That answer just created more questions." Sokka spoke as he tilted his head back on the chair he was sitting in.
"Also just because we stopped this group doesn't mean he is done. For all we know there are more out there just waiting for the word to come and attack." Ursa said with composer. "If I know anything about him just because he has been defeated doesn't mean that he is thinking about quitting."
Everyone sat there for a moment thinking. It didn't seem like they had answered any questions to their problems. Their problems just became more in depth.
Katara turned her head towards the window to her right. Not too long ago she was sitting in a meeting room zoning out thinking about how boring her life had become since the war ended those five years ago. Now here she was looking out a window in the Fire Nation wishing her life would become normal again. "It is impossible to make me happy." Katara whispered to herself.
"It's not impossible. You are just hard to please." Yue said suddenly.
Everyone turned to look at the door. There stood Yue and Kyle. Both with huge smiles on their faces.
"Been awhile hasn't it." Kyle said as he looked around the room.
"No we just saw you guys a few days ago." Toph said as she looked back toward Zuko. "I feel like in the last five months I have seen more than enough of you. This all started because of something you guys did to Zuko and Katara."
"No Toph this all started because of something our court did." Yue said as she went to sit on Zuko's desk edge. "After doing some research we have discovered a few things."
"When Ozai died they just grated him visitation rights to see his daughter. They didn't look into anything about him. Apparently they had a massive amount of requests that were still backed up from the war. So when it was his turn they just said yes and moved on." Kyle said as he leaned against the wall.
"We confronted them and demanded they explain themselves. They had no answer and said they would get the problem fixed as soon as possible. But they had already done as much as they could when they gave you two the ability to share bending." Yue said as the anger in her voice began to grow.
"We finally figured out what they meant. The only way they can take the ability away is if he is in front of them again. They can't find him in the spirit world. They have been looking for 2 years now. Since they realized their mistake." Kyle said with spite in his voice. "While the spirit world is large it is not that hard to find him. We believe that someone is working with him on the court. They have thousands of spirits working for them and yet they can't find him."
"We spoke privately with Agni and he informed us that if you two defeat him he instantly appears in front of the court, as his ability has been hindered. When hindered you are taken to the court to have it fixed." Yue explained as her anger began to settle.
"That's all good and great." Toph spoke irritated. "But we have no idea how to defeat him or where he will appear. All we know is that he will come in two hours. Your little clues here and there are about as helpful as a bag of rocks. How about you just tell us straight how to stop him."
Yue glanced over her shoulder to Kyle before speaking. "We have no idea."
"What?!" Everyone said clearly shocked and upset.
"We know how he will get here but we have no idea how you are suppose to use your powers to stop him." Kyle said crossing his arms as he leaned heaver on the wall.
"He has to appear within a half of mile of Kwan." Yue said as she glanced to Katara.
"That means he can appear anywhere within the capitol or palace." Zuko said as he thought about the distance.
Iroh spoke next asking a question that had yet to cross any of the younger minds. "Does he know what happened? Or where she is?"
"He will know where she is. Before he appears he gets to see the area he can appear and choose where he would like to appear. But he has no knowledge of what has transpired. Only high level spirits can see what is happening here." Yue said with just as serious of tone. "The problem is, if he is working with someone on the court they could have informed him about what has happened."
"How many spirits have this ability?" Sokka asked trying to weigh the odds.
"The court and each nations spirits." Yue answered.
"So many 20?" Sokka answered. "Those are good odds to me."
"I do not like the odds of where he can appear." Katara spoke grabbing everyone's attention. "If he just wanted to get into the palace that would be fine. But there are hundreds of thousands of people in the capitol that could potentially be hurt. And if it was something he wanted in the palace then he could just appear right there and get it. I don't like the outcome here."
"How far can he travel once he is here?" Sokka asked trying to figure out a good strategy.
"No matter what he cannot travel more than half a mile from her. As long as she is moving he can move that far." Kyle spoke as he looked around the room. "He also can only be here for 2 hours max. After that he cannot return for 24 hours. But he has to return once every three days or the link will be broken and he will have to start over. Revisiting the court with a new person to bridge though."
"So why don't we just kill her." Toph asked seriously as everyone turned to her in shock. "If she dies the bridge is broken and he has to visit the court. Wouldn't that be the simplest answer."
"But we don't like to kill people." Katara said but not really putting the effort behind it she normally does.
"I didn't even believe that Katara." Ursa said with a slight laugh.
"While it would be the easiest, let's leave that to last." Zuko said finally speaking. "Toph I know what your issue is and why you want this to end quickly."
Toph froze. How does he know?
"But I have an idea. Let's take her into the forest. I would like to get her as far away from the city as possible but I know we won't be able to get things together that fast. So we need a plan to get as far as possible as quickly as possible." Zuko spoke as he turned to look at Sokka.
Sitting for a moment Sokka thought. "Let's put her on Appa. We will fly her as far as we can. Once we get her as far as we want then we will create a wall of people around the half mile circle. We will place everyone around it so then if he appears we will know where."
"How will we get everyone there?" Ursa asked placing a hole in his plan.
Sokka put a smile on his face. "You haven't been around very long. But when you ask these people to be somewhere at a time, it happens. No questions asked."
"No questions asked?" Ursa questioned.
"It means they won't ask why they have to be there and we won't ask how they got here." Iroh said with a smile on his face. "And sometimes you don't want to know either." Beginning to whisper to her he spoke. "All you have to do is mention Katara and they will do everything possible to get there. No matter what. Like I said before she means a lot to a lot of them."
"So we have where and how he is going to come. But we still have no idea how we are suppose to stop him." Katara spoke.
"I still think we should just kill her." Toph said as a stern glance came her way from Zuko.
"All we know is that you have to use your ability to share your bending to stop him. It is a spirit ability and will be able to stop a spirit. That's all we know." Kyle said standing from the wall. "If that is all you have left we are going to head out. We will be back if anything happens."
"Good luck. We wouldn't have picked you if we wouldn't have thought you could do it." Yue said with a smile as she stood to leave.
As the two walked out the door they slowly disappeared.
"Those two are always so much help." Toph said sarcastically. "One day I really want something helpful from a spirit."
"We are going to run Sokka's plan. Toph I would like you to stay here and protect the palace in case something goes wrong." Zuko said as he looked around the room.
"You are just like Aang. I can still fight." Toph yelled.
"I know that's why you are staying here." Zuko said looking back at her.
She felt the hesitation in his voice. He didn't think they could do it. He was scared. And he knew she would kill the woman if need be. "Ok. But only because you are asking me Zuko."
Toph wanted to give him a hug. He could do it she believed in him and Katara. They could do anything when they were together. She wanted to tell them but she knew that would give them something they didn't need, more pressure. She would just let a small smile say it for her.
"Thanks." Zuko said slightly relaxing. "Everyone knows what they are to do. Let's get this started we don't have that long."
Everyone stood from their spots in chairs or against walls to leave.
"We need to make sure this goes off without a hitch. Only tell those who need to know." Katara added as she watched everyone leave.
As Iroh left he smiled a classic smile and shut the door behind him.
"Whats wrong Zuko?" Katara said as she took a seat on the edge of his desk.
He brought his linked hands to his face, placing his chin on his hands. "I…"
"Zuko." Katara said softly. "I know what you are thinking."
"Katara a little over five months ago, we were happy." Zuko started as he stood with frustration. "You were in the South Pole listening to meetings. I was in meetings here. We saw each other now and then. But there was nothing like this happening. Do you know how many lives we have ended in this process? Is it really worth it? Why can't he just die and really die?"
Katara watched as Zuko threw his hands in the air as his frustration grew. His face began to get red his hands started to smoke. She could tell he was ready to kill someone again. A smile started to spread across her face. He was one of the easiest people to read. It could be because he let his guard down around her but that just brought a bigger smile to her face.
He continued to stomp around and whisper things to himself about how ridulous the current situation was and how much he hated it his dad. Finally screaming as loud as he possibly could placing his hands on the wall starting to char it.
As his anger continued to grow and his hands started to make deeper holes in the wall he felt small arms wrap around him from behind. His shock lasted only a second before he remembered Katara was in the room. Relaxing slightly his hands stopped burning holes in the wall.
"Zuko I understand." Katara said as she placed her head on his back. She felt his relax even more under his hug. "Think about what would not have happened if we did not go on this long journey. We would not have found your mother. We would not have been given the opportunity to share each other's bending. We would not be able to be spending all this time with our friends. And we would not have met the new friends we made."
Zuko relased his hands from the wall and stood, placing his hands over Katara's on his stomach. Listening to her talk just made him relax.
"So a few people died along the way. A man who tried to kill us. Multiple times. And almost killed you once. And we only killed 15 people during the last battle. All of which are mercenaries and robbers. I think will all the possible people that could have died along the way, 16 people is not bad." Katara said attemping to even out their wrong doings.
Zuko turned in her arms to face her. She was right. He could have lost thousands of his men if his friends had not come to help. And the new friends they made, as weird as they are, will be great assets in the future.
"Plus you got to spend a lot of time with me." Katara said with a smile. "And you even worked up the courage to ask me to marry you."
Zuko couldn't help but smile as a light blush covered her face. He loved her it was true. And this trip did make them close and him become more of a man. She was correct. He smiled down at her before pulling her into a real hug. Kiss the top of her head as they both clung to each other tightly.
As they pulled apart Zuko went to his desk to make sure he had everything covered. Katara began to speak again. "He is a bastard and we will really kill him this time. I will make sure." Hate was dripping from her voice.
Zuko looked up from his paper to her serious face. He had only seen this face a few times in his life. And he always loved to see it. She was ready to get it done.
As a short silence passed between them Katara suddenly was reminded of something. "Where is Azula?"
Zukos head shot up. "I have no idea."
Katara went sprinting towards the door. "Jee!" She yelled as she ran down the hall.
"What?" Jee yelled as he came around the corner sword in hand ready to fight.
"Where is Azula?" Katara asked as she ran past him.
Jee had a weird look on his face as she ran past him. Turning to follow her he responded with an I don't know. As they ran as fast as they could to the meeting room that she should be waiting in with the others.
As Katara flung the door open to the library meeting room he jaw dropped slightly at the sight in front of her. "Azula?"
A/N: Well there you go. All 2,600ish words. Guesses as to what is going on? You will never guess. And do you think they will really get it done in time? Oh and do you think Yue and Kyle will come through with the committee before they have to fight Oazi? So close to the end. I can taste it. :-) I hope you liked the short and sweet thing I like to call a chapter. Let me know.
