Probably the worst wakeup call ever was the one where Azula swing by with a couple of missiles which she launched at us whilst we slept. The entire temple shook and I woke up with a scream, kicking and flailing in my rush to get up as everybody else yelled in fear. Momo was scampering around like a lunatic so I grabbed him by the tail in order to keep him from being crushed by falling rocks as missiles continued to be thrown at us, making it difficult to even maintain our balance from all the quaking.
"Everyone move!" I yelled, stuffing Momo into my satchel of belongings and looped it over my head, keeping him close to me as he shivered fearfully inside. Three airships rose up from beneath the clouds, huge and daunting like black balloon nightmares as I yelped and dodged another rock. "Aw come on! This is so not fair!" Whilst Toph and Haru opened up a tunnel so that everyone could escape, Aang quickly got the saddle up onto Appa as I grabbed all of our belongings that had been left in order to secure them down quickly, covering my head as some debris fell overhead but continued working quickly to pack up as much of our supplies as possible.
"What are you doing?" Looking up at Aang's question to see that Zuko wasn't evacuating with the others, he was instead looking towards the airships.
"Go ahead, I'll hold them off. I think this is a family visit." Without pausing Zuko then broke into a run, heading directly for the airships as Aang and I both yelled out for him to stop. I leaped down, intending to rush after him and help but Aang shouted for me in warning and I looked up as a rock half the size of Appa came tumbling towards me. Crying out in fear I lifted my arms to shield my head, much good it would have done me before I felt a powerful gust of air slam against me, pulling at my waist to drag me out of the way before an earth dome then shot up around me, protecting me from the smaller rocks as I breathed.
"Thanks Aang!" My voice shook as the earth dome dropped and I ran back towards him, deciding that maybe Zuko could handle his sister on his own for now. I grabbed hold of the reins and tried to help pull Appa into the cave which Toph was beginning to struggle to hold as the earth kept on rumbling and shifting around her, threatening to collapse due to the bombardment of missiles but Appa refused to go, even when Katara and Sokka join in, refusing to enter that cave.
"I can't get him to go in there. Appa hates tunnels." Aang finally gave in, all of us straining our arms against Appa who stubbornly refused to go into the dark tunnel.
"Aang, there's no way we can fly out of here."
"We'll have to find a way." Letting go of the tunnel we all looked to one another, ducking each time another tremor shook the ground underneath our feet.
"We need to split up." Seeing no other choice, Sokka turned back to the others who hadn't left us behind yet, lingering at the cave as they'd waited for us. "Take the tunnel and get to the stolen airship." Katara immediately refused, going over to her father with a shake of her head.
"No, the Fire Nation can't separate our family again."
"It'll be okay, it's not forever." Reassuring Katara the two hugged each other, holding on tight before unwillingly letting go. I held out my hand as Katara ran back towards us, sniffling and wiping her tears away before grabbing my hand in order to let me pull her up into the saddle as Sokka hugged his dad goodbye then brought Suki along with him, who we helped up as well whilst Toph felt one of the walls to see where it lead.
"I can clear that away and we can fly out through there." With a powerful jump assisted by earth bending, Toph landed on Appa beside us as we all took firm grips of the edge of the saddle in order to hold on tight, preparing for what was coming next. I craned my neck to try and look for Zuko but couldn't see a thing, my arm wrapped tightly around Katara as the other hung onto the edge of the saddle.
"Umm, there's an awful lot of fire in that general direction." Suki reminded us as everything continued to rattle and quake around us, threatening to take the entire temple down.
"We'll get through, let's go." Aang said confidently, taking up the reins as I shouted out.
"Don't forget Zuko!" With everyone ready, Toph earth bended our way through the wall as Appa flew, using the stone to create a shield in front of his face which Azula launched a fire attack at, trying to pin us down. Pulling water from my pouch as Momo continued to hide in my satchel between Katara and I, my fingers wiggled as I formed a spiked wheel before I threw it into the air, making it arc around before releasing my hold so that it would fly on its own at an angle.
It flew right at Azula as we soared over her head, forcing her to block it as I searched desperately for Zuko before I saw him rising out of the clouds, standing on another airship. The crazy prince ran and launched himself from his own airship to the one Azula was standing on, blocking her fire attack before and countering. The royal siblings fought as Katara and I used water bending to keep any fire attacks from burning Appa as he soared around, getting ready to come back for Zuko.
When the final collision between Azula and Zuko resulted in a fiery explosion, I lost my concentration as I saw both of them being thrown off the airship, my immediate reaction being to shout fearfully as Zuko began to fall. With a flick of the reins Aang guided Appa down, diving towards Zuko in order to catch him. I reached out to him as he held out his hand and I grabbed on, pulling him with a forceful tug to bring him onto the saddle and the moment he was safely on board, Appa rose back up. I touched Zuko's face, wordlessly checking to make sure he was okay as he nodded to me before we then all looked at the falling Azula.
"She's not going to make it." Watching as she descended, Azula pulled the fire emblem from her hair and released a jet of flames from her feet to launch herself towards the cliff whereby she used the hairpiece to dig into the rocks and slow her fall, gradually coming to a halt. Zuko's face contorted with mixed emotions. "Of course she did." Placing my hand on the back of his neck, he tiredly rested his head against my shoulder as Appa carried us away to safety, not stopping until we were far away from the temple and found a secluded hilltop where we could rest for the night and set up camp.
"It's a good thing we were always prepared for a quick escape and kept the supplies secured with Appa's saddle." I said as we brought out all the tents from the supplies. "Otherwise we'd all be sleeping in earth tents tonight."
"You're welcome people." Sokka announced, since it had been his idea to keep ourselves prepared for a quick escape by keeping the tents, supplies and food all packed up in the saddle just in case. Dropping the firewood he'd collected Sokka started on building up the fire which Zuko then lit, Suki and I putting up the tents whilst Katara collected water with Toph and Aang unpacked all of our sleeping bags and floor mats ready to go into the tents as Suki and I laid them out. Once that was done, Aang used air bending to inflate them from the inside, allowing Suki and I to secure them down quickly to get the job done in just a few seconds.
"Great team effort guys. So, what's for dinner?" He asked hopefully, looking at me so I rubbed his head affectionately.
"You'll have to wait for food, Appa comes first today since he did such a great job flying away from danger." I told him, going over to the supplies in order to fish out three watermelons which I brought over to Appa and fed them to him, rubbing his face as he growled contentedly. "There we go you beautiful fluffy beauty, that's all for you. Who's the best flier in the whole wide world?" Opening my arms to snuggle against his head, Appa nuzzled me before he slathered me with his tongue, making me giggle before he yawned then turned over onto his side and curled up to hug his tail, going to sleep since he was so exhausted.
After patting him softly to wish him goodnight, I quickly put together some food with Katara so that we could all eat, sharing around some biscuits for people to nibble on whilst they waited as we all gathered around the campfire. "Wow, camping. It really seems like old times again, doesn't it?" Aang said as he stretched out his legs and looked upwards at the sky which was completely filled with stars.
"If you really want to feel like old times, I could, uhh...chase you around a while and try to capture you." Zuko offered humorously to which everybody laughed. Guess his sense of humour is improving, I'm impressed. Who'd have thought that stoic Prince Zuko would one day be cracking jokes around a campfire whilst eating cookies? Only Katara didn't seem impressed, rolling her eyes and giving a dry, sarcastic laugh. Ignoring his sister, Sokka raised his drink in order to toast Zuko for his bravery today.
"To Zuko. Who knew after all those times he tried to snuff us out, today, he'd be our hero." Everyone copied Sokka, raising their cups and cheering for Zuko whilst Toph and Aang nudged him as he smiled with warmth and appreciation.
"I'm touched. I don't deserve this." He was being humble, but Katara glared at him sharply.
"Yeah, no kidding." She left without eating anything, the food still not quite being ready yet as Sokka arched an eyebrow curiously at his sister, baffled by her attitude.
"What's with her?"
"I wish I knew." Getting up to go after her and try to find out, everybody shared puzzled glances with each other.
"What's with him?" They all looked at me as I twirled my spoon at Momo, making him chase it in circles before I looked up.
"Hey don't look at me. I don't know the answer to everything." Not strictly true since I sort of knew what was going on with Katara, but I kept my mouth shut about it all the same. Instead I just shared around more cookies then passed out food once it was done. Neither Zuko nor Katara came back, so I took food to them separately, Katara first and then Zuko who was sulking by himself. "It's not attractive to pout like that Zuko. Cheer up." I nudged him to signal I had food so he took it from my hands before I sat down. "Still struggling with Katara?"
"She hates my guts, she said that I betrayed her in Ba Sing Se." Unable to deny that this was true, I gave Zuko a look which he eventually saw, glancing my way before he turned his head. "I know it's true, I did betray everyone. You, my uncle, Katara…I'm the worst."
"You were pretty terrible." I agreed, making his head sink lower before I reached out and started to stroke at his hair gently, comforting him as softness warmed my tone. "But that's not you anymore. If you keep on thinking about what happened, you're just going to pull yourself back into a dark place. Keep moving forward, Zuko, and find a way to make it right. You're doing great so far, I'm really proud of you." Looking at me with a hopeful spark in his eye, Zuko smiled at me.
"Really? Does this mean I'm forgiven?" I thought for a moment, still not entirely sure whether I was ready to forgive him completely for what happened. From that point of view I could understand Katara's feelings entirely.
"I'm getting there, and you're helping push me in the right direction with how well you've been doing. I'm proud and happy to see you finally coming into your own, Zuko. I like you better this way, that old obsessiveness of yours got a little tiring sometimes."
"Yeah, I guess I was pretty bad." He leaned against me, nuzzling his forehead into my hair as he breathed in a heavy sigh. "I'm glad you're happy, and I'm glad that I'm making you proud." I hummed softly as I smiled to myself, placing my hand over his as he held his untouched bowl of dinner.
"We sure have come a long way since your men fished me out of the sea, haven't we?"
"I'm grateful we found you. Uncle was right, it was destiny that made us cross paths. You make me want to be a better person than I am, Kayo." Blushing at his words I knocked my head against his to bring us back to our senses before we could get too carried away, feeling a pressure beginning to build in my chest so I shakily let out a breath to ease it.
"It was a storm that brought us together, and you couldn't stand me at first."
"Yeah, you were pretty annoying." Pulling at his cheek in punishment for being mean, we squabbled a little before I told him to eat his food before it went cold, getting up to leave him to it. "Kayo?" I looked back to see Zuko watching me, golden eyes glinting in the moonlight which caused my pulse to leap suddenly against my will. "Thank you." Not knowing what he was thanking me for, I simply smiled then turned away, wanting to take a walk in the fresh air to clear my head for a while before I could even hope to get some sleep.
