Chapter 17: I wanna hear you scream,but not like this.

34 hours later, Northern Earth Kingdom coast

"For spirits' sake Zuzu, why this route? Actually hold up, I'm gonna-"

"Not on my dashboard 'Zula! Just hang on, we're almost there!" cried Zuko, who in addition to ensuring they reached the pickup point in time, also had to fight the rough seas typical of the area during this time of the year. And to round it all up, his sister was hit by an unusually vicious bout of seasickness that confined her to her quarters for most of the trip up. The only saving grace was that he was welcome to keep the vessel after the job and that Aang had managed to return in time to join them, although the usually cheerful airbender was likewise confined to his cabin, laid low with the same bout of seasickness that struck down the haughty firebender.

At first, Zuko had taken the opportunity to relentlessly tease her without fear of repercussions, befitting his status as the eldest. However, even he wasn't completely heartless when he saw her only alternate between shades of green and alabaster. Feeling some level of sympathy, he gave her some sleeping pills, which allowed her to get past the worst of the seas. Almost. Right now she was up in the cockpit giving her brother a stern talking to when a stray wave careened into the ship, making her lose her balance and trigger her nausea. Bile rose in her throat but she managed to cling on to a handle and steady herself, forcing the vile liquid back down.

With all haste, she made her way to the lavatory, only to find it was occupied. Having little choice, she retched into the sink in the mess, just as soon as Sokka came out of the washroom, looking very much at home despite the weather. When he caught sight of the firebender puking her guts out, he responded with a loud "EW!", earning a death glare from her. Keeping her eyes locked onto him like a shark on a hapless seal, she threatened "One more word and I will castrate you before I burn you alive, understand?" At this, Sokka could only raise his hands in surrender in an attempt to appease her temper, which was as stormy as the outside.

Rinsing away the offending mess in the sink, he then placed her left arm over his shoulder and supported her back to her cabin. If she was grateful, she made no obvious sign. After setting her down on the bunk, he turned to leave when he heard a whisper so faint, he could have sworn it was the howling of the wind and waves. "Will you stay?" Not having the heart to tease her about it, he simply grabbed the nearest stool, placed it next to the bed and sat beside her. When she grabbed his hand and squeezed, he didn't complain. Soon enough, the mercurial firebender was fast asleep. Noting to himself how peaceful she looked as the waves rocked her to sleep, he moved to brush away a strand of stray hair from her face as the perpetual hum of engines slowed to nothingness.

Putting on his headset, he whispered to Zuko "We here already?" "Yeah, we're at the rendezvous point. Don't worry about the mission, I'm giving them time to recover a bit from that were some rough seas lemme tell ya."

Minutes later, the sounds of boots on corrugated metal reached Sokka's ear. Seeing a crack in Azula's quarters, he eased it open with a creak, only to be greeted with a sign from Sokka to be quiet. If he noticed his sister gripping Sokka's hand, he made no mention of it. As he turned away, he heard an exaggerated "Pss!" Turning around, Sokka replied "Can you take over, my hand is cramping. Also I need to use the bathroom real bad, plus I'm super hungry." whilst doing his best impression of puppy eyes. Somewhat internally scared and disgusted by Sokka's impression of puppy eyes, of which he was sure would haunt him for life, he agreed to swap hands with him, relieving Sokka of babysitting duties.

28 hours later

Engaging in a running street battle with Earth Kingdom security forces while trying to escort a woman with a gunshot wound to the shoulder and a wheelchair bound kid was definitely not how any of them envisioned this extraction mission would go. But then again, life has a way of turning the best laid plans pear shaped, which resulted in two fire siblings, a Water Tribesman with his mouth running a mile a minute, a scientist with a bleeding gunshot wound and a wheelchair bound girl zigzagging their way through the snowy alleys of the town, pursued by green beret wearing agents who shot flying shards of granite from their gloves and could also apparently bend metal. All things considered, it was shaping up to be a regional incident,if not an outright international one should the 'green berets', as Sokka called them, captured any of them.

The mission had gone smoothly at first when the trio entered the safehouse under the cover of darkness. What greeted them on the other hand was a woman bound, blood seeping from a wound in the left shoulder staining the front of her shirt, a rock glove in the shape of a finger gun pressing against a wheelchair bound teen and a dozen men in green coats and berets staring them down. "Leave now, or else the kid gets it. You don't want to see what a granite shard at high speed will do to human tissue now, will you?"

"You wouldn't dare."

"Oh really? Bring him up here."

A roughed up man in a suit was dragged from a cellar room and unceremoniously forced to his knees. In a flash, a small jagged hole appeared in his chest and a red stone fragment came clattering on the floor, its noise soft yet loud in its message. The man slumped over, dead before his body even made contact with the ground as his brain stem was instantly severed by the high speed shard. "I believe I made my point clear. I know what you all are here for. This rat here. That man on the floor, that was the station chief of this region. Clearly you Fire Nation people did not learn your lesson of underestimating your opponents. I will only repeat myself once, leave now or else. If not, well it'll be a shame to see such young faces be strung from the walls of the Earth King's palace."

Having been backed into a proverbial corner, the trio had no choice but to acquiesce to the green men's demands. Suddenly, Azula exchanged looks with Zuko, before turning on the men and in an instant, the room was plunged into darkness as they killed the lights with their firebending and moved to retrieve the hostages. Sokka on the other hand, took cover behind the nearest solid object he could find, certain that a full on firefight would commence and he with no bending skills to speak of, would not like to be caught in the crossfire.

Using their ability to sense heat, the duo moved to escort the hostages from their captors utilizing the cover of darkness. However, the green men had a trick of their own as one of them stomped the ground, releasing seismic waves that revealed their location to him. As he took aim with his rock glove, Zuko whipped around and sent two darts into the man's throat.

Seeing shadows move in front of him, Sokka moved to join them in their escape. Their luck held for the briefest of moments, as they managed to reach the door and were just filing out when a hail of earthen shrapnel peppered the air around them. Then all hell broke loose as the lights came back on. One of them had somehow sounded the alarm as in the distance, one could hear the whine of motorbikes rushing to their position. Immediately, Zuko crouched into a firebending stance and twin streams of red into the doorway, creating distance but also setting the house on fire.

Meanwhile, Sokka had taken over the responsibility of not only managing the wheelchair bound individual, but also the woman as Azula hurriedly tried to break into and jumpstart a nearby vehicle. After some tense moments of trying to get it to start, the engine whirred to life and they were unceremoniously bundled in. Finally, Zuko turned and ran for the vehicle, tossing flame tipped steel darts at his pursuers. Unfortunately, he found out about their metalbending abilities the hard way as his darts were returned to sender, with one coming perilously close to his good eye.

Soon enough, a high speed chase erupted on the streets and alleyways, with rock shards, metal fragments and fireballs exchanged on the narrow streets through a series of turns and drifts that almost made Sokka, who was riding shotgun puke over Azula. Thankfully for him, he just about held his guts in, but only just. Whipping out his radio, Zuko screamed at Aang to start up the vessel and to expect a rocky welcoming committee, before doing his best to prevent the woman from bleeding out.

"Just hang on, we'll get you to safety!"

"There's no time, you need to close the wound now!"

Shaking his head, he immediately lit his palm, much to the horror of the kid who thought her mother was about to be killed there and then. Not that her screams brought her any comfort as he sealed her wound with his fire. It was a rough job to be sure, but there were better medical supplies on board and this would have to do. Finally reaching the docks, they all piled out and Zuko began guiding them to the vessel, the woman in the middle clutching her shoulder hobbling along, Sokka pushing the wheelchair as fast as he could and Azula bringing up the rear as more vehicles approached, each carrying a dozen men out for blood.

Immediately, Azula went into her lightning stance, mouthing a desperate but silent prayer to Agni that she could summon it before they were out of time and options. While the electrons gathered on her fingertips, much too slow for her liking, men began to take combat stances at her. Mercifully, the bolt was ready to be loosed like an arrow in a bowstring stretched to its very limits. With a brief flash and a loud clap, a large bolt raced across the empty space and hit squarely in the center of the gathering mass.

In an instant, half a dozen men were electrocuted to the death on the spot and another half dozen were hurled back into various items like playthings tossed by a petulant child. The rest were shocked and stunned into submission for a brief moment by the explosion, ears ringing and heads pounding. However, one of them who was just far enough from the epicenter loosed off a couple of granite shards, most of which flew harmlessly into the air except one which nicked her in the right arm, eliciting a scream of pain from her. Seconds later, the man who drew her blood ate a high speed blue screamer and was killed on the spot, a burn mark etched into his throat before passing out the back while severing his spinal cord

At the sound of her cry, Sokka immediately pushed away the wheelchair and ran straight for her before picking her up and running back to rejoin them. Cradling her in his arms, he muttered a prayer to the spirits that she wasn't as badly hurt as her cries implied. Meanwhile, Azula felt a strange sensation in her stomach, as she was not used to being carried, much less feel almost dainty in his arms as he sprinted to the boat, its engines humming loudly amidst the chaos. Looking up at his face, she could see the grim concentration set in, eyes resembling the deep blue icebergs of the polar regions.

Once on the boat, he immediately brought her down to the mess, where the table was cleared away to make room for the injured as Zuko cranked up the power and the vessel sped off into the inky blackness. Laying her on the table, Sokka tore off her sleeve to see if there was any substantial damage to her arm while Aang worked on the woman, doing his best to clean up the wound as well as get fluids into her.

"Can you not scare me next time, please?" said Sokka, as he cleaned off the blood to find the wound looked worse than it was. Grabbing some thread, he asked her to heat up the needle before he started to work on her.

"Here, bite on this. Wouldn't want you to lose your tongue when you start screaming." he said, before tossing her a rag to use as a makeshift gag.

"Pretty sure you of all people would like to hear me scream." she sarcastically replied.

"Well normally yes, but not like this. Also, there's kids here, don't corrupt them please?" he shot back, not in the mood for dirty jokes at this point in time.

"Fine, Mr. Goody Two Shoes." she huffed, her attempt at relieving the stress falling pathetically flat.