Chapter Nine: A Little Help from Somebody I Hate
Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar. I do own Yoshiro and General Xokku.
Oh, and did you notice the title of the chapter? I got it from the Beatles song 'A Little Help From My Friends'! Except I made it into my own! Yes! I do like the Beatles. Better than that crap people call music (referring to some rap, mostly) Okay, now on with Chapter Nine!
"Prince Zuko? Are you in there?" Xokku couldn't believe he was about to do this.
"What? Are we already there? Is it you, Zhao?" Zuko growled.
"No."
"Then don't bother me!"
"It's General Xokku. I need…for you to do something for me," Xokku rolled his eyes.
Zuko opened his door.
"What?"
"I need your help for something," Xokku said.
"…What do I get in return?" Zuko said, raising an eyebrow.
Shoot! I hadn't thought that out!
"…I'll let you go," Xokku immediately thought of a reward.
"You're lying."
"No. Do this favor for me, and I'll let you go. I won't tell anyone where you went," Xokku bargained.
Why should I trust this man? One minute he thinks he's better than me, and now he's asking me for a favor. Hm. Maybe he finally realized what I can do...
"What's your favor?" Zuko let General Xokku in his room.
"I need you to tell something to my daughter," Xokku knew Zuko would probably refuse.
"What! Can't you do it?" Zuko was about to kick him out when Xokku said,
"She won't listen to me. And I don't want Zhao to tell her," Xokku said.
"…What do you want me to tell to your daughter?" Zuko said.
Xokku sighed.
"Listen up if you want to understand," Xokku started to tell Zuko everything about Yoshiro.
It's been too quiet, maybe someone is planning to kill me, Yoshiro thought. No one had bothered her, no one called her for dinner, nothing.
They are probably conspiring against me. Wait a minute! I'm going mad! Certainly my own father couldn't kill me, wait! Is General Xokku my real father? I think he's keeping something from me…
Yoshiro lied down on her bed and stared at the ceiling.
"Maybe I am going crazy," Yoshiro told herself.
"What! How is that possible!" Zuko was alarmed at what Xokku told him.
"Her mother was an earthbender, her father was a firebender, as you know. Yoshiro's real father, Kaiko, was once in the Fire Nation army. But he wanted to quit after he found his future wife, Renaywa. But the Fire Lord- your father- wouldn't allow it. So he ran from the army, got married and had a baby girl. When Fire Lord Ozai found out, he sent me and my division of the army to get the baby girl, and kill it. I was supposed to bring back Kaiko to the Fire Lord. Instead, I ended up killing her parents, and I…couldn't kill Yoshiro. I couldn't kill her. The moment I looked into her blue eyes, I just couldn't kill her. Even if it meant hiding secrets from her," Xokku looked away.
Zuko couldn't think. He felt, well, he felt like he did the day that his father banished him. It hurt. But he snapped out of it.
"When I did tell her, I only told her she's an earthbender and a firebender. I didn't want her to know about her parents."
That explains her weirdness, and why she had that rock.. Zuko thought to himself.
"Zhao found out, and threatened me, unless I give all of the credit of the capture of you to Zhao," Xokku said.
That idiot! Zuko thought. Not that he liked General Xokku, he just hated Commander Zhao more.
"So, now you need MY help," Zuko said.
"Don't rub it in. You'll sound worse than your father," Xokku mumbled.
"What did you say about my father?" Zuko angrily said.
"Nothing, Zuko. Nothing," Xokku said.
"So…what am I supposed to tell your supposed daughter?" Zuko said.
"EXACTLY WHAT I SAID, YOU IDIOT!" Xokku hated asking people for help, let alone Prince Zuko. But he needed his daughter to know the truth before Zhao did.
"Okay, okay," Zuko winced, which was something he did not do.
"Tell her that, and I'll let you go."
"What about Zhao?"
"He's on the island, remember? We stopped again."
"I'll tell your daughter, and don't go back on your word!" Zuko said, flaring.
"I promise," Xokku said.
S.E.: I forgot to tell you that they stopped at another island...DON'T KILL MEEEE!
Chi (with an angry mob of monkeys) : Attack!
Natasha: Chi! No!
S.E.: I'm dead meat (runs like crazy)