To make up for all the slow updates I've had recently, here's two chapters in one week! Enjoy... or something...
Content warning: there's some semi-graphic violence in this chapter.
More Than Blood Can Stand
Chapter 26: Hinata
Sokka pounded his fist against the sides of his metal cage. For not the first time, he kicked himself for allowing the two of them to get captured. He was better than that. He should have seen them coming.
But how could he have known that the Fire Nation had crazy archer troops who dropped from the sky and shot nets from their bows? Shoot fireballs from their fists, yes. He had been expecting that. But arrow nets?
It was a cool invention, actually, if he thought about it. Could he get the same effect with a modified boomerang?
No, no, he had to focus on escape. The longer he and Aang remained prisoners, the less likely it was that they could meet up with the rest of the group.
He sat down on the floor and thought. They had probably tied up Aang's arms and legs, or he could have used bending to get out of his cage. And he was probably better guarded than Sokka was, too. That could play to his advantage. If he could figure out how to get out of his own cage, he might have a chance.
Toph wouldn't come for them. She stood no chance against archers. She would have gone back to tell the rest of the group what happened. And if they all showed up… well, that would probably be his best shot, so long as he was ready with a plan of escape.
He stood up again and made a thorough inspection of his cage. Any weak points, any cracks in the armor, and he would find them. He was in the middle of inspecting a hinge on the door when he heard the voices of guards walking past.
"...fits the description of the blind girl that's been traveling with Prince Zuko. She's been following us for the last quarter mile. Should we engage?" the first voice asked.
Toph! Sokka felt his heart sink. What was she doing here? Didn't she realize she was a sitting turtle duck to these guys?
"No," the second replied. "Not unless she attempts to rescue the prisoners. But more likely than not she's collecting information to bring back to the Prince. As soon as she leaves, send a scouting crew to follow her back to her camp. If we're lucky, we'll have both the Avatar and Prince Zuko by the time the Princess arrives."
Sokka peered out of the small barred window at the top of his cage, hoping for a glimpse of Toph. So that he could - what? Catch her eye? Send her a message to get out of there and not go back to the camp? No, none of that would work. Even if he could see her, which he couldn't.
"Is that really wise, sir? Perhaps we should focus on the Avatar for now."
"What are you saying, Julong?" There was a tightness in the second voice that made Sokka's ears perk up.
"I'm saying that the Avatar is the greatest threat to the Fire Nation. We should focus on delivering him to the fortress instead of splitting our force in a wild goose chase to find Prince Zuko."
Sokka smirked. If there was one thing he knew, it was smooth talk, and this soldier was trying to smooth talk his commanding officer out of looking for Zuko. But why?
"Our orders from Princess Azula herself were to make the capture of Prince Zuko our priority. Are you suggesting we disobey those orders?"
"The Princess told us to capture the Blue Spirit, too," Julong returned, "And our orders from Fire Lord Ozai were to capture the Avatar. Why don't we take out the girl here and make sure the Avatar doesn't escape?"
"Because," said the second voice, obviously irritated, "if we move on from here without the Prince, we lose his trail and have to start searching for him all over again."
"I think it's a fool's errand, sir. We already have the Avatar in our custody. A sparrowkeet in the hand is worth two in the bush. Besides, the Blue Spirit is a more immediate threat than the Prince. If we should be splitting our forces to search for anyone, it ought to be him."
Sokka had to clap a hand over his mouth to keep from laughing. Unless he was very much mistaken, this Julong guy was trying to protect Zuko. How about that… Scarface had some loyal followers, after all!
But the other man was not so amused. "You are not the one giving orders, and you would do well to remember that. I am sending a scout to tail the blind girl, and that is final. But if you're so intent on capturing the Blue Spirit, far be it from me to stop you. You and your archers can leave right now. Do you think you're up for the task?"
"But sir, there are only four of us! The Blue Spirit is-"
"That is an order. I want you and your men gone in the next hour, and I don't want to see you again until the Blue Spirit is in custody."
There was a pause before Julong said, "Yes, sir."
The other man walked away, and before Sokka could stop himself he had opened his mouth, "Psst! Julong! Over here!"
The archer turned his grotesquely tattooed face to the cage and frowned. "What do you want?"
"On the off chance that you find the Blue Spirit before your friend there finds Prince Zuko, would you mind giving him a message from me?"
"And why would I do that?" he sneered.
"Because I think you'll want to once you've seen his face."
Julong was quiet for a long time, his face serious and thoughtful. Finally he nodded his head. "All right, Water Tribesman. I won't promise I'll pass the message along, but I'll at least hear what you have to say."
Sokka nodded. The man might not understand everything right now, but he understood enough.
"Tell him that Sokka says, 'the only way to make an enemy into an ally is to treat them like one.'"
"If you could be someone else for a day, who would it be?"
Zuko ran his fingers through Mai's hair as he thought of an answer. Whatever Water Tribe peasant had thought up this game must have been going mad from the winter darkness. What sort of people sat around a fire and asked personal questions of others for fun? But Katara had insisted that it was a great game, and there was nothing else to do until Aang, Toph, and Sokka returned, so here they were.
"That's easy," said Hinata. "I would be a top general. I want to know what it's like to be a leader, to have that responsibility. Maybe my dad, maybe General Takeda."
"That answer is shocking to literally no one," Mai yawned. She was running her fingers along Zuko's robe, tracing the intricate patterns on the edges of the fabric.
"Fine. Who would you be?"
Her fingers paused. "I suppose I would be a firebender. Doesn't matter which one. I'd like to know what bending feels like."
"Really?" Zuko was surprised. "There's nothing all that special about bending. At its core it's not that different from using a weapon. The feeling of connection with your weapon, how it's a natural extension of yourself, that's what bending feels like. Except it's internal instead of external."
Mai shrugged. "Even if it's no different, I could still start my own fires for a day. That would be interesting."
Katara cleared her throat. "I'd be my mother. So I could give my Gran-Gran and my father one last day with her. So they could each have one last hug, one last memory."
"Wouldn't that be weird, though, to pretend to be your father's wife? And do dead people even count?" Mai asked.
Katara scowled, but didn't reply. "And you, Zuko?"
"Nobody."
"What do you mean, nobody?" Katara asked. "Nobody, nobody? You want to not exist?"
He shook his head. "I don't want to be anyone else. I want to be me." And it was true. His life had more than its share of misery, but it was a life with purpose. It was an honorable life, a life that allowed him to potentially do a lot of good things for a large number of people.
"But that's boring! Surely there's someone else out there you would want to be."
"The Fire Lord never gets a day off. If I stopped being me for a day, it would be a day lost on my mission to retake the throne."
Katara sighed dramatically. "Fine. Mai, it's your turn to ask a question."
Mai went back to tracing patterns on Zuko's robe. "You keep asking the questions. We're no good at this."
He had to bite back a smile at the rising frustration on Katara's face. He knew Mai well enough to know that she was perfectly capable of asking deep questions, and he also recognized that slight teasing tone hiding behind her bored drawl. She was messing with Katara, enjoying getting her riled up.
"Fine," Katara said through gritted teeth. "What value or virtue is the most important to you in your life?"
Finally, an easy question.
"Honor." He, Mai, and Hinata had all blurted it out at the same time.
Katara was taken aback. "Don't you want to take time to think about it? It's a hard question!"
"How is that hard?" Hinata asked, genuinely surprised. "Without honor, you are nothing. Just a shell of a person, a reject. An outcast. Each citizen maintaining their personal honor is what holds society together. A sense of national honor is what makes a nation great."
She shook her head.
"What about you, then?" he asked. "What do you value more than honor?"
"I don't know, it's a hard question! Loyalty, courage, adaptability, empathy - there are so many!"
"But all of those are wrapped up in honor," Mai said. "That's what makes it such a perfect virtue. An honorable person is loyal, courageous, adaptable, empathetic, and, well, everything else that is good."
"That's exactly what makes it a bad answer to this question. If your most important virtue is all of them, it doesn't have any meaning. You have to choose one."
"Why would the answer not be all of them?" Hinata asked. "What is the point of valuing, for example, loyalty over courage? If you have one and not the other, you are an incomplete person. You-"
He broke off suddenly and stood up, squinting at the edge of the camp. Zuko turned around to follow his gaze, and saw Toph trudging into camp, alone, and with such an uncharacteristic slump to her shoulders that it was immediately apparent something was wrong.
"Toph!" Katara ran over to her and put her hand on her shoulder. "What's wrong? Where are Sokka and Aang?"
Toph shrugged off Katara's hand and trudged to the fire. She pulled an earthen chair out of the ground and collapsed onto it.
"It was the Yuyan archers," she said at last. "They captured both of them."
"Who are the Yuyan archers?" Katara asked, rejoining the circle.
"The Fire Nation's most elite nonbending force," Zuko said grimly. "They're like cat owls: excellent vision, hyper aware of their surroundings, and deadly accurate."
"How did you escape?" Hinata asked. Zuko had been wondering the same. How had a blind girl escaped when the Avatar had not? Toph was pretty amazing, but against the Yuyan?
"I wasn't there," Toph said quietly. "I'm sure they would have captured me, too, if I'd been with them, but they left the arena before I did. By the time I figured out what was going on outside, they were already gone."
For a few moments, the only sound in the camp was the crackling of the fire. Everyone was in too much shock to speak. What could they do now? The loss of the Avatar was a huge blow to their plans. It was one thing to invade the Fire Nation on the day of the eclipse with the Avatar on your side. Without him, even if everything else went as planned, their odds of succeeding were much reduced.
Katara broke the silence. "Do you know where they took them?"
"I followed them for a little ways. They left Gaoling and were headed north."
"Probably headed to Pohuai Fortress, then," Zuko said. "That's their headquarters."
Hinata nodded. "You're probably right. And if so, I don't see why our plans need to change. Pohuai is really close to both Omashu and Jeong Jeong's camp. We should be able to keep up with the Yuyan on their way there, and if an opportunity presents itself, we free them. And if not, we are still headed in the right direction."
"That's a good plan," Katara said. "Let's pack up our stuff and leave now."
"No," Zuko shook his head. "They'll be on high alert, so close to where they were captured. There would be no chance for us to rescue them today. They're more likely to get lax the further they get from Gaoling. We can easily catch them tomorrow on Appa. I suggest we get a good night's sleep and set out first thing tomorrow."
Zuko felt like he'd only just fallen asleep when a scream from Toph pulled him unceremoniously back to consciousness.
"They're coming!" There was panic in her voice. "It's the Yuyan, they've found us!"
He and Mai vaulted out of their bed, pulling down the tent in record time and not bothering to fully disassemble it before dragging it and their belongings onto Appa. The five of them scrambled onto the bison, Toph requiring a boost, but they were all on board when the first volley of arrows began to whiz towards them.
Zuko pushed Toph to the floor - she couldn't see them coming and couldn't defend herself - before joining Hinata and Katara in trying to stop the barrage. Mai was crouched behind the saddle, blades ready to fly the moment an archer got within range. But Appa was fast, and as soon as he started to fly they would be safe again.
But he never lifted off. Zuko's sleep-fogged brain tried to process this, even as he let loose a stream of fire that burnt up more arrows headed in their direction. What was wrong?
Then it hit him: Aang and Sokka were the only ones who ever controlled the reins. He wasn't even sure Appa would listen to the rest of them.
Katara was the most obvious choice, because she and Appa got along well, but that was out of the question right now. Her ice walls were the only thing that could stop the red-hot arrowheads as they came steaming in.
That left Mai or Toph. Clear choice, there.
"Mai!" he cried. "Get Appa moving!"
Out of the corner of his eye he could see her running. She climbed up on the saddle and grabbed the reins, no longer hidden. "Appa," she said firmly, "Yip yip!"
The bison's muscles gathered for takeoff, but in the split second before he could begin flying, another volley of arrows were on their way, headed directly for Mai.
"No!" he cried, bending fire at as many of them as he could. But it wouldn't be enough. Two of the arrows were just out of the reach of his fire. The Yuyan never missed. They would be lethal hits.
He watched them descend towards her, his horror unfolding in slow motion, waiting for impact.
At the last second, Hinata jumped in front of Mai and pushed her to the ground. Then Appa was in flight, and time seemed to right itself again. They were out of range.
Zuko rushed to her, nerves on edge. He pulled Hinata off her body and recoiled at the sight of blood. "Mai! Are you okay?" His hands roamed over her chest, looking for the wound.
"I'm fine," she said, her voice small and distant. He didn't listen, redoubling his search. "Zuko." Her hands came up to grip his, stopping them. "That's not my blood."
It took him a few moments to believe her, to convince himself that she was really unharmed. But then the full impact of it hit him. If it wasn't her blood, then it was-
"Hinata!"
The word was halfway between a whisper and a scream. He turned back to see him sprawled out on the saddle, blood seeping through his clothing.
No. No. This couldn't be happening.
He fell to his knees, cradling Hinata's upper body in his arms. There were two arrows protruding from his side. One had hit his abdomen, which was where most of the blood seemed to be coming from. The other, judging from its position and from the sound of his breathing, appeared to have pierced his lung.
Both would be fatal wounds without immediate medical attention. Which they weren't likely to be able to find in time. The weight of this realization hit him hard. Hinata was going to die.
His throat tightened with suppressed sobs. No. He wouldn't accept it. There had to be something he could do. He hadn't been able to do anything about Uncle, but he hadn't been there. He couldn't bear to watch his best friend die in front of him.
"Stay with me," he managed to say. "We're going to get you help. You're going to be okay."
A faint nod was the only response he got.
As gently as he could, Zuko turned him onto his side so he had better access to the wounds. First order of business was to get the bleeding stopped on the abdominal wound. He tore a strip of fabric off the first thing his hand grabbed - tent canvas - and started pressing as hard as he could against the entry point.
"Katara, get over here and use your waterbending to heal him."
She was standing still, horrified, her fists pressed to her mouth. She shook her head frantically. "I can't. I never learned to heal. I don't know what I'm doing-"
"If you don't," he bit out harshly, "he's going to die within minutes. Do something. Maybe instinct will kick in."
She nodded wordlessly and knelt beside him. With shaking hands she bent water out of the pouch at her waist and touched it to the wound. For a few seconds nothing happened. Then she lowered her hands into the water and closed her eyes. The water began to glow and there was a faint humming noise. Did that mean it was working? He hardly dared to breathe.
After a few minutes she drew her hands back with a gasp. Her forehead was beaded with sweat. "It's so much, Zuko. Maybe if it was a minor wound... I don't know what I'm doing. The bleeding has slowed some, but I can't..."
He let out his breath in a whoosh. "Did you hear that, Hinata? The bleeding has slowed. You're going to be okay now." But he wouldn't, Zuko knew that deep down. The wound was still seeping blood, Hinata's lung was punctured, and they still had no way of removing the arrows without catastrophic blood loss and tissue damage.
Hinata smiled up at him - weakly, but a smile nonetheless. "You can't get rid of me that easily." His voice was thick and wet, and his breathing labored. Katara, hearing this, held her hands out to the second wound.
As she worked, Mai sat down close to them. "You idiot," she whispered. "Why did you have to go and do that?"
"You're the Fire Lady. It's my job to-" a coughing fit came over him - it sounded bubbly, Zuko thought in horror - and she put a hand on his lips.
"I'm not worth your life," she said harshly. "Protect him."
Zuko froze. How close he had come to facing the opposite situation, where Mai was in his arms dying while Hinata looked on. He was relieved Mai was safe, so relieved he couldn't express it. He loved her; she was precious to him. But he loved Hinata, too. His first friend, his closest companion, his protector. What would he do without him? Mai's words rang through his brain. I'm not worth your life. Was she?
No, he couldn't think about that now. He would only torture himself; it was too cruel. He couldn't choose between them.
Katara finally sat back. She caught his eye and shook her head. "I can't do any more. Not until the arrows are out." She closed her eyes and turned her head away. "I'm so sorry."
He swallowed the lump in his throat and nodded. "Fine. We need a doctor, then. Where might there be someone who could help?"
"We could go back to Gaoling, but that's where the Yuyan are stationed. The next closest place would probably be Chin Village, but I don't even know if we're flying in that direction."
"Just find it," he snapped. "As soon as possible."
She nodded and went to grab Appa's reins. He saw tears streaming down her face, and a shock of guilt ran through him. He shouldn't take it out on Katara. It wasn't her fault she didn't know healing. After all, that was his doing. If he hadn't convinced Arnook to allow her to be trained to fight, this could have played out very differently.
He heard a loud sniff, and Zuko turned to see Toph huddled in a corner of the saddle, face stricken and eyes red.
"What happened?" she said in a very small voice. She was only twelve, Zuko reminded himself, even if she often acted older. How was he going to explain this to her?
"Two arrows," Mai answered for him. "One in the lungs and one in the abdomen."
"Is it… bad?"
Mai hesitated. "Yes, it is."
Toph's lower lip began to tremble in earnest, and she buried her head in her arms.
Zuko turned back to Hinata. His eyes were glassy and his face had taken on a worrisome pallor. "We're almost there," he said, slapping his cheeks. "The doctor is close. Hang on just a bit longer." That was a lie, but maybe if Hinata believed it…
"Stop it, Zuko," he mumbled. "It's too late."
"No." His voice caught. "No, it's not too late. You can't…"
"Tell my family-"
"NO!" He clutched Hinata tighter. "Tell them yourself! That's an order!"
"Zuko," Mai said. "You should hear what he has to say."
He took a shaky breath. She was right. "Fine," he said at last. "What should I tell them?"
It was a moment before Hinata replied. "Tell them I love them. That I did my duty."
That's when he lost it. Tears he'd been holding back for the last five minutes began spilling over. "You should have cared less about your duty and not gotten hurt!"
"You need her more than you need me."
"I need you both." His voice cracked on the last word.
He took a few labored breaths. "Toph, Mai. Take care of him for me."
"Of course," Mai said immediately.
But Toph, instead of answering, began crawling across the saddle, haltingly, fumbling as she went. When she reached him, she grasped one of his hands in both of hers.
"Don't go, Hinata," she said in the too-small, too-young voice Zuko wasn't used to hearing from her.
"I'm sorry," he said in return, and Toph - tough as nails Toph - burst into tears.
Hinata closed his eyes. "Tell Katara it's not her fault."
From up near Appa's head, he heard a sob.
"Take back the throne." His words were starting to slur together now. "Have lots of children. Die an old man. Be happy."
"I will," he whispered, because it was the right thing to say.
But he was sure he'd never be happy again.
AN: If you need to, you're welcome to take out your grief on me. My ten-year-old told me she will never forgive me for this, so you wouldn't be the first.