HOWDY TEAM! Welcome to the penultimate chapter of Part two! This has a LONG time coming. In fact, this part is 100k words long. If you need to look back, Part One consisted of chapters 1-10. Part Two consists of Chapters 11-35 which is next chapter. Also, sorry this wasn't posted last week, I got really sick and couldn't write. I hope this chapter makes up for it. Thank you for all the support that has been given to this Fanfic so far. Don't forget to Follow, Favorite, and Review! See y'all next week!
I do not own ATLA
"So how much longer do you think it's going to take us to get to Boiling Rock?" Katara asked as she took down the campsite that she and Zuko had been using for the night.
"It should be another day until we get there," the Firebender replied with a groan as he sat on top of Appa's head.
The duo had been traveling non-stop for the past three days so that they could reach Boiling Rock on time. Hopefully, if all went well, they would even have an extra day to rest before all hell would break loose.
"Ugh, I hate this!" Katara complained from the saddle.
"What's wrong now?" Zuko asked as she turned to look at Katara.
"I'm just sitting here alone with nothing to do but sleep or look at the clouds," she huffed as she thumped back down onto the saddle.
Katara had gotten very lonely over the past few months. She only had Zuko to talk to and while she was happy that she could have alone time with her crush, he wasn't the greatest of people to constantly be around.
"Well I'm sorry if you're bored, but we have to get this done," Zuko stated.
Katara raised her eyebrows at him. "Oh? And why are you so eager to get this job done, huh?"
"No reason," he said quickly.
"Sure, we're only going deep into Fire Nation territory with the possibility to get ourselves killed, have a giant ten-ton flying bison under us so that we can attract more attention to ourselves, and you aren't even at full strength yet!"
"Well, I just want to do something other than be forced to sit in a bed," Zuko admitted with a slight frown on his face.
"That's not the reason and you know it!" Katara yelled from behind him.
"Oh, well if you're so sure of the reason then what is it?"
Katara stood up on the still moving bison and walked over to Zuko. She grabbed his shoulder and slapped him across the face. "What the fuck is that supposed to mean?!" she yelled at the bender.
"What do you mean what do I mean?!" Zuko retorted as he pushed her away from him.
"Ugh! Why are you always such a dick?" Katara cried as she walked heavily back down to the saddle.
"I'm the dick?!" Zuko called out as she continued to glare at him. "How am I the dick exactly?!"
"Because you just are!" Katara turned around and humphs to herself. "That's not how you treat a lady."
"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!" Zuko screamed at her. "You complain about how fast we are traveling, then proceed to make accusations about me when you have no evidence to back them up! You continue to make no goddamn sense! So please, Katara, enlighten me. How the FLYING FUCK am I being a dick?!" He turned around to face the direction that they were going on Appa.
Katara moved farther away from the Firebender on the saddle. She sat cross-legged and frowned deeply. How is he the dick, he asks? she thought to herself. I have been nice to him. All I'm asking is for him to warm up to me and ask me out. I take care of him while he's sick, make him food, ask for nothing in return, and he thinks I'm the dick. She looked over her shoulder and scoffed at the man.
After a few hours, Zuko sees a Fire Nation patrol boat in the water. Well, I think we should be fine for now, he thought to himself as he paid no attention to the boat.
Suddenly, Zuko saw a giant fireball hurling towards Appa and jolted him to the side, which accidentally woke a sleeping Katara up.
"What the fuck was that?! Can't even let me sle-"
"We're under attack from a Fire Nation ship!" Zuko alerted Katara, which made her eyes widen.
"Well, what are we going to do?" she asked as she looked over the side to see the ship shooting more fireballs at them.
"Well, we have to do something!" Zuko said as she directed Appa to dodge another volley of fire coming towards them.
"Here, get in close and I can try and take them out. I'm too high up to get the water down below!" Katara shouted, which got a nod from Zuko.
"I hope this works," Zuko said as he lowered Appa towards the ship so that Katara could hit it.
Suki was woken up by the ship when she felt a giant wave crash into it. She looked around and saw that she was still in her cell with the rest of her group.
"Guys, wake up!" she yelled, which instantly woke up Sokka and Toph.
"What's going on, Suki?" the Earthbender asked as she tried to feel for any events that were happening.
"I don't really know - all I know is that something is happening outside of the ship." Suki proceeded to explain to the group how she woke up and Sokka had an idea of what was going on.
"Zuko and Katara might have caught up to us finally," he explained, which got confused looks from the girls.
"What do you mean they finally caught up to us?" Suki asked in confusion, as she didn't remember the letter from a few weeks ago.
"Well, I sent them a letter about us being captured, and that they had I think four days to get to Boiling Rock so that on the fifth day they could rescue us," Sokka explained to the group.
"So they don't know that we are on this ship right now?" Toph asked.
Sokka nodded his head. "Yeah. They just think that we are a normal Fire Nation ship," he said with a smile.
"So they could, in theory, sink our ship and kill us all?" Suki asked her boyfriend, who at this point still didn't realize their situation.
"I mean, I guess they could do that...but why would they?" Sokka asked while scratching his head.
"Oh, well, I don't know...maybe because we are their enemy right now?" Toph yelled with obviousness, which got Sokka's attention.
"No, we aren't," he said, still confused.
"Yeah, WE aren't," Suki said, placing emphasis on that word so that maybe Sokka could understand.
"But they don't know that we are here right now." Toph said which made Sokka's eyes widen.
"Oh...shit," He mumbled.
"Zuko, we can't take them," Katara said defeatedly with a sigh.
"What do you mean we can't take them?! This was your idea in the first place!" he called out as he directed Appa to dodge another torrent of flames.
"Well I thought there wouldn't be that many soldiers on the boat!"
"And how many are on this boat exactly?" Zuko asked as he looked over his shoulder at her.
"Uh...I count at least 35," she said quietly.
Zuko shot up. "THIRTY-FIVE?!" he cried as he glared at the girl, who was starting to sink into her jacket.
"I'm sorry...I don't see you doing anything to help the situation," she replied in a direct manner.
"Well, as you can clearly see, I'm quite preoccupied at the moment!" Zuko said as he tried to dodge a fireball from the people on the ship.
"Can you do anything to actually help the situation?!" she yelled as she bent a water wall to crash into the ship.
"If you couldn't already tell, I'm kinda trying to keep us alive!" Zuko shouted as he skillfully had Appa dodge more fireballs.
"Alright, then maybe you should have me drive Appa and YOU fight since you're being such an ass about it!" Katara suggested as she moved towards Zuko.
"No, this was your idea, and you're going to see it through whether you like it or not!" Zuko yelled as he continued to shift Appa around to dodge.
"Zuko, you listen to me and you listen to me right no-"
"No, YOU listen to me!" Zuko yelled as he turned around to face Katara. "It was YOUR idea to have us fly all the way down here! So you're going to be the one to get us out of this situation!" He sat back down, but not before sending a volt of fireballs at the ship.
"Alright, well you don't have to be such a dick about it!" Katara said as she got into a bending stance. She then moved her arms to try and capsize the ship with as much water as she could get to cover the deck.
Suddenly, the soldiers sent flaming rocks towards the duo, which made Katara lose her focus. All at once, she felt like she was flying off of Appa, crying out as she plummeted into the water.
"Katara!" Zuko dove over Appa to try and grab onto her. He used his bending to propel him towards her and grabbed her by the waist. "Just hold on, okay?" he called to her as she propelled them back towards Appa, who was flying towards them.
Once they got back onto Appa, they immediately started flying away from the ship. He took them high up into the sky at an alarming rate. Zuko still had Katara in his arms and probably wasn't going to be letting her go anytime soon.
Shit, I think she got hit. I better find somewhere close to land so that we can rest for the night. There's supposed to be an island here somewhere, he thought as he kept holding her and making sure she was alright.
After three more hours of flying, Appa spotted an island that they could land on and groaned to get the passengers' attention. Zuko got up and looked over the saddle to see that they were approaching land quickly and let out a sigh of relief.
"I guess this is where we're going to be settling down for the night, Katara," he whispered to her as she slept in his arms.
He quickly lept off of Appa and lay Katara down on the grass. He started setting up the tents and getting the food ready for them to eat. After about twenty minutes, everything was ready to go.
Zuko walked over to Katara and sighed to himself. "Maybe I was too hard on her today," he thought out loud to himself, sitting down next to unconscious form and eating his food. He looked at the sleeping bender next to him and smiled lightly. "You know, if you weren't so much of a bitch all the time, you'd actually be someone cool to hang out with," he mumbled to himself. He carefully lifted her and placed her into her tent, then left to fall asleep in his own tent.
"This is gonna be a long couple of days," he mumbled to himself before falling asleep.
It was morning when the boat finally stopped moving. The guards were there to wake up all the prisoners and they were quite proud that they were able to drive away what they thought was the Avatar.
"Alright maggots, it's time to leave!" one of the soldiers yelled from the outside of Suki's cell door.
"Aww, do we at least get breakfast?" Suki cried. She was feeling extra hungry this morning.
"You'll get fed your slop with the rest of the prisoners!" the soldier barked as he grabbed Suki's arm and yanked her out of her cell.
"Hey, don't touch her like that!" Sokka called out as he ran to his cell door to get closer to Suki.
"Oh? And what are you going to do if I grab her like this?" the soldier asked, grabbing the warrior by the throat.
"Ebenezer! You know we have strict orders against harming the prisoners!" one of the other soldiers stated to the large man.
Ebenezer growled and released Suki. She was coughing harshly and tried to take in as much oxygen as she could. She glared at the man but was led away from her friends anyway.
The next one to leave was Toph, who was led by another soldier wearing all red. Sokka was last to leave and was brought to a loading dock where he went to stand close by to Suki and Toph.
"Well...we made it!" Sokka said. He only received glares from the girls.
"And where exactly is 'it'?" Toph asked.
Sokka scratched the back of his head nervously. "Well, I can only assume that this is Boiling Rock!" he said as he looked around the area, though all he could see were other prisoners that were also standing nearby and looking around. He noticed that some of them had scars or missing limbs from their body and he got curious about them. "It looks like some of these people have been in fights before."
"Oh?" Suki asked with a raised eyebrow. "What makes you say that, darling?"
"Just the fact that it looks like a lot of these people know how to fight. They're missing limbs, have scars or a combination of both of those things," he explained, which garnered nods from both Toph and Suki.
"Ah, that makes sense," Suki noted as she rubbed her stomach a little.
Toph noticed this and smirked to herself. "Something wrong?" she asked innocently, hoping that Suki would realize the situation.
"Yeah...I guess I feel a little bloated, that's all," Suki replied, which got a raised eyebrow from Toph, who was disappointed. How can she still not figure it out?! she exclaimed to herself.
"Alright, maggots, welcome to your home for eternity!"
Everyone looked up to see a very tall man wearing thigh-high black leather boots with brown pants that were tucked into them, a belt also around his waist. He was wearing a red shirt with a black slash around his torso that signified his rank as well as a black hat. He was a very pale man with broad shoulders.
"I am warden Jordan and I am in charge of this "mini-hell" that you will be calling home until you die and go to the real one!" he said in a loud booming voice that carried across the area.
"Well, he looks like a pleasant man," Sokka acknowledged, which earned a jab in the gut from Suki. "Hey what was that for?!" he yelled, which got the warden's attention.
"Well, well...look what we have here? Is that a tough guy in the crowd?" the warden mocked as he pointed to Sokka.
"No, sir," Sokka nervously replied.
"Good," he said with an evil smile on his face. "I better not expect any problems with you, either. Do I make myself clear?"
"Y-yes, sir!" Sokka said with a salute, which made the man chuckle.
"Dai said that those three were made to start trouble...I'd like to see them try," the warden said as he walked away from the group of prisoners. "Hell, I'll even put them together. No one has ever escaped this island! And the first won't be on my watch!"
"Sir," one of the messengers began as he held out a scroll from a hawk. "We have word that Princess Azula and her entourage is coming to the island per the request of Fire Lord Ozai!"
"Hmm. So he wants to start that now?" Jordan thought out loud to himself as he scanned the scroll from the Fire Lord. He looked at the messenger and smirked. "Very well. When are they due to arrive?"
The messenger unraveled another scroll. "They should be arriving late tonight or early tomorrow, sir," the messenger replied hastily.
The warden smirked. "Good." He started to walk away from the messenger and back to his office. "We'll be waiting."
Aang found himself wrapped in Azula's arms when he heard a knock coming from his door. He sighed to himself and tried to untangle himself from his girlfriend's embrace.
"Alright, I'm coming!" Aang called out. He opened the door to find Mai and Ty Lee standing there. "Guys, it's, like, the middle of the fucking night! What are you doing here?"
The girls quietly shuffled into the room. "We need to talk," Mai said with a serious tone as she walked into the kitchen area and sat down.
"Yeah, this is important," Ty Lee seconded as she also sat down.
"Well, can it wait for the morning? Or at least when Azula is awake?" Aang asked as he closed the door and locked it back up again.
"No. This needs to happen with only you, Aang," Mai said sternly as she took out a piece of parchment that was in her pocket.
"Why does it only have to do with me?" Aang asked curiously as he started to silently make tea for his guest. Once the tea was finished being made, he poured it into teacups and handed them to his guests.
"Thanks, Aang," Mai said as she took a sip of her tea. "I'm really sorry that we had to wake you up like this."
"It's fine," Aang replied. "But why did you call this meeting? And why don't you want Azula to be awake for it?"
"When we were snooping in that commander's office," said Ty Lee, "we found plans..." She handed the Avatar a piece of paper.
Aang read what was on the paper and raised an eyebrow. "You woke me up in the middle of the night for...some..." His voice trailed off as he began to read more of the letter.
Fire Lord Military Decree.
I, Fire Lord Ozai, hereby decree that Mai, Ty Lee of the Lee clan, and Princess Azula of the Fire Nation are to be known as traitors to the Crown and to the Fire Nation. These crimes are due to the three conspiring with the Avatar and smuggling him aboard Royal Fire Nation Navy Vessels. As of right now, they are currently heading towards Boiling Rock where we will capture and imprison all four of the Traitors. With Princess Azula, we shall initiate Contingency Plan: Operation Phoenix and implement the breeding process immediately. The other three shall be exterminated immediately. Once the Avatar is dead, we raid the Northern Water Tribe and destroy the reincarnation. This is our chance to rid the world of the Avatar once and for all! Once their capture has been recorded, transport Azula back to the Fire Nation where she will be permanently imprisoned.
Fire Lord Ozai
Aang looked up from the document with rage in his eyes. He looked at Mai and Ty Lee, who both felt sorry for him and Azula.
"We can't let this happen," he finally croaked out as he burned the document to ash.
"Yes, we know," Ty Lee quietly said so she wouldn't wake Azula. "But what can we do? I don't want Azula to be captured as much as you don't want her to be captured."
"I will not let this happen," Aang said with conviction. "I won't let the love of my life be turned into breeding stock. We need to have a plan to escape the Fire Nation."
"Yeah, I think we realized that. Hence why we came to you," Ty Lee whispered.
"Alright, where are we? And does anyone have a map?" Aang asked as he tried to figure out the closest Air Temple they could travel to.
"Yeah, I've got a map right here," Ty Lee said as she casually pulled a map out of her cleavage.
Mai looked at her friend with utter disdain as she unfolded the map. "Do you just keep everything in there?" she asked as a vein started to throb on her forehead.
"Yeah! They're great for storing things," the busty acrobat replied in a hushed voice.
"That is improper and disgusting," stated Mai as she looked at a smirking Ty Lee.
"Well, when you have boobs this big-"
"Ladies, can we get back to the discussion at hand? I already figured out where we can go after we escape from the Boiling Rock," Aang said as he pointed to the map.
"All I see is a bunch of land. What's so special about it?" Mai asked as she looked at the map closely.
"You guys are going to have to trust me, but this is where the Western Air Temple is," Aang said as grabbed a pen and circled the area. "It's the women's Air Temple and it is an underground city. It can only be accessed by glider or sky bison and, since you have me, you'll be fine!" Aang explained with a smile.
"Alright, that's one part of the problem solved...but what about how we actually escape the island itself?" Mai asked curiously.
"I'll have to think about that when we get to the island," said Aang. "If it's mostly made out of metal, then I can bend a boat and take us to the temple. With my Water- and Airbending, it should only take us about two days for us to get to land and then another day to get to the Temple. Though I wish I had Appa; that would make life a whole lot easier," He frowned as he looked down.
"I'm sure that Appa and your flying monkey thing are doing fine, Aang. You'll see them again. Don't worry," Ty Lee reassured Aang as she rubbed his arm.
"Yeah, I know. It's still hard," he whispered.
"Alright, we have a long day ahead of us, so we should all get some sleep," Mai concluded as she got up from the table.
"Yeah," said Aang as he went to give Mai and Ty Lee hugs. "I want you both to promise me something."
"What's up, Aang?" Mai asked the Avatar with her eyebrow raised.
"I want you both to promise me that whatever happens in the next few days, you will take good care of Azula," he said as she looked at both of the girls.
Their eyes widened upon hearing this. "Aang, what are you talking about?" Ty Lee asked with slight worry in her voice. "You're acting like you aren't going to be around much longer."
"That's not what I'm saying," Aang replied. "I'm just asking you to take care of Azula for me if something happens to me. I'll try not to let anything happen, but in case something does happen..." He trailed off, his throat getting caught with emotion.
"I promise Aang," Mai said with conviction in her voice.
"So do I," Ty Lee said with a fire in her eyes.
"Thanks, guys," Aang said as he brought them in for a hug. "I really appreciate you both."
"Don't mention it!" Ty Lee said quietly as she and Mai went to open the door after taking one last look at a sleeping Azula.
Once both of the girls were gone, Aang cleaned up the tea and went back to his spot next to Azula in bed. He looked at her form as she was on her side, facing away from him.
"I swear to you, you won't end up in that man's clutches," he promised to her sleeping form. "Even if I have to stay behind to make sure it happens, my love. I swear to you, I will not let it happen." He kissed Azula on the cheek and began to drift off slowly to sleep.
Little did he know that she was awake to hear that, along with everything else said that night.
Later that morning, Azula woke up to find that Aang was still very much asleep. She sighed to herself as she felt his arms wrapped around her waist. Man, he has a strong grip when he wants to, she thought to herself.
Finally, after getting out of his embrace and replacing her absence with a pillow, she was able to get out from the bed and walk to the bathroom where she went to go start her day. When she entered the bathroom, she closed the door and walked over to the mirror. She washed her face, brushed her teeth, and freshened her hair up.
So they really are trying to capture me? she thought to herself as she went about her morning routine, entering into the shower. And Aang's gonna try and stop them? At least we have an escape plan. I won't let him get captured for my expense! I just won't let it happen! Soon after, she stepped out of the shower and started to dry off. "You are too damn important to me for you to sacrifice yourself for my sake. I won't let you do it!" she said as she changed her clothes and started to dry her hair.
Once she stepped out of the bathroom wearing her usual Fire Nation uniform, she went to get started on the tea. She saw that Aang was doing his usual morning meditation on the floor and sighed to herself. I hate that they did that while I was asleep. I can understand why, though, she thought as she sipped her tea.
After about a half-hour, Aang finished his meditation and went to go shower and change. It was then that there was a knock on the front door. Azula walked over and answered the door.
"My Princess, we have docked the ship at the boiling rock. You have a meeting with the warden this morning and then you are free to look around the facilities," a short messenger announced as he held out a scroll for her.
"Thank you; you are dismissed," she stated as she closed the door.
When she walked back into the room, she saw Aang cooking her a large breakfast and smiled at him. "Good morning," she said as she kissed him on the lips.
"Good morning," Aang said in a cheerful but slightly forced manner.
"What's wrong, Aang?" Azula said as she sipped her tea and took a bite of her food.
"Nothing is wrong, Zu," Aang said as he looked at her and smiled.
"Bullshit," Azula smirked at him as his face fell. "I can always tell when you lie to me, Avatar."
"You really want to know, huh?" Aang said as he lowered his gaze.
"Yes. Tell me what's wrong," Azula stated from her side of the table.
"Well, I'm scared...I'm scared that I could lose you," Aang muttered as he tried to wipe a tear from his eye.
"Oh, Aangy, you're not going to lose me," Azula reassured him as she got up and went to give him a hug. "I'll always be there for you." She placed her forehead against his and kissed him on the lips.
"Promise?" Aang whispered as he took her face in his hands.
"Forever and always," Azula whispered back.
Sango and Haki were walking down a dark corridor towards the warden's office in the middle of the night. They had snuck off and swam to the shore and were now walking to meet with Warden Jordan.
"Stupid fucking mission," Sango grumbled as he rang out his shirt. "I can't believe we couldn't wait for the fucking boat to dock,"
"Well, you did say you wanted a harder mission," Haki replied as he used his bending to dry his clothing. He then knocked on the door to the warden's office, stepped back, and sighed. "You know everything changes from here, right?"
"Hey, as long as I get my money and my women, I couldn't care less," Sango said as he waited for the door to open.
"Enter."
Both men walked into the torch-lit room and saluted the warden.
He glanced up at them. "Man you both look like you swam to get here," Jordan said, much to the chagrin of Sango.
"Yeah well, we made it here anyway," Sango said as he continued to attempt to dry his clothing.
"Is everything set to commence tomorrow?" Haki asked the warden.
Warden Jordan smiled evilly. "Indeed," he replied coldly. "The Fire Lord will be pleased with the results of this Operation!"
"Let's hope for your sake," Sango said as both he and Haki walked out of the room and into the dark hallway.
As the spies left the room, the warden smiled as he gazed at a painting of Princess Azula on his wall. He grabbed one of his knives and flung it at the picture, landing it dead in the middle of the Princess's forehead. He grinned wickedly at the sight.
"Long live the Phoenix King."