Chapter 12
The two royals were now in bed, both bathed and changed into their pajamas. Although, they were lying much further apart than they normally did. Both were awake and thinking about what had just happened, but they were mostly thinking about what was said.
'My father is power hungry. There is no purpose to this war. But was what I did in the war chamber really honorable? I was just trying to protect my people. What is so dishonorable about that?' Prince Zuko thought to himself.
Then he thought about how Princess Zelda was never intimidated by him. He wondered why. He was much bigger than her and much physically stronger. Everyone else he knew was intimidated by his presence…but not her. He wanted to know so Zuko sat up in the bed, the blankets falling off of him to reveal his bare chest. He moved slowly closer to Zelda to see if she was awake. Zelda had her eyes close but she felt like she was being watched. So she opened her eyes and turned over to see Prince Zuko moving closer to her. Jumping a little, she sat up in her bed and used her magic to light the candle next to her side of the bed.
"Did you need something?" Zelda asked.
"I just wanted to ask you something," he replied.
"Alright. Ask away," Zelda said smiling at him and pulling her legs up close to her.
"Other people are intimidated or scared by me, but not you. Why?" he asked sheepishly.
"I don't know. I guess it's just because I know you," she replied.
"Well other people know me too, but they're still intimidated."
" I meant I know the real you. I know who you are underneath the anger. There's a lot more to you than many people see. Why do you want me to be intimidated?" she said smirking.
"I guess not."
"Good, because I don't do intimidated," she replied laughing. Prince Zuko replied with a smirk.
Then Zelda again put her hand on her leg, with the Triforce of Wisdom facing the ceiling. A light radiated from it once more and the Ocarnia of Time appeared in the light again. Prince Zuko was glad that she was going to play the song. It put him to peace and it was one of the few things that could. Princess Zelda again put the bluish-purple instrument to her lips and played the tranquil tune, "The Ballad of Hyrule." After the song was finished both of the royals moved closer together and cuddled while they drifted into a peaceful sleep.
A week later they were still traveling north and the temperature was dropping. Prince Zuko had been thinking of what Princess Zelda had said about his actions in the war chamber being honorable. He also thought about another thing Zelda had said.
"Why not help to end this war? Why not help the Avatar on his journey?"
This war was pointless. When his father was overthrown then he would be Fire Lord, helping the Avatar would be a wise decision wouldn't it?
Prince Zuko was out on the deck training. Princess Zelda and Iroh were sitting on the sidelines as usual. For the past week Zelda had been just sitting there watching Zuko training, bored. She wanted so badly to go out there and fight. Zelda loved to spar and she was very good at it too. Prince Zuko noticed the bored expression on her face. He held his hand up to the firebender he was training with, signaling that they were to stop for a bit. Prince Zuko, shirtless and wearing deep red pants, walked over to Princess Zelda. Princess Zelda looked up into his golden eyes as he stood over her, looking down at her.
"Would you like to spar with me?" Prince Zuko asked.
Princess Zelda jumped out of her chair as she exclaimed, "Yes!"
Zuko stood there for a second then asked, "Are you going to fight in your dress?"
"I could, but no. It's not very comfortable," she responded smiling. Then she lifted her hand and spun around with magical sparkles emitting from her hand. Her body began to glow golden and her appearance changed. She was wearing Sheik's tight, blue outfit with the white helmet made of thin strips of fabric. The outfit was so tight that it revealed every curve of her body. It even showed that Princess Zelda had six pack abs. Her nose and her mouth were hidden beneath the long white collar. Zelda's golden hair, that hid most of her eyes, looked much shorter only coming down to the top of the white collar. Prince Zuko thought for a moment and realized this was the disguise that she had described when she had told the story of how she fought his father.
"So this is that disguise…um, Sheik?" Prince Zuko asked staring down Princess Zelda. Princess Zelda looked up at him and took off the white helmet, as her hair fell down to its full length. Her normal golden headband was gone and so were her earrings. Zelda lifted her free hand and pulled down the collar so she could talk.
"No. This is the outfit I use for the disguise, but I am not disguised as Sheik right now. I'll show you Sheik," she said as she lifted her hand into the air and once again spun around with magic emitting from her hand. Her body glowed once more and she had turned into Sheik.
"This is Sheik," the disguised Zelda said. Prince Zuko was shocked by the voice that came out of her. It was a male voice. But then Zuko realized that her feminine features had turned masculine. She didn't have the curvy figure of a woman anymore. Sheik took of the helmet and revealed that her hair was its normal length, but her eyes were now red and her skin was much darker.
"Did you change yourself into a man!" Zuko asked shocked.
Sheik laughed, but then said with the new masculine voice, "I only changed the features you can see from feminine to masculine." This included her breasts.
"I would have never recognized you," Prince Zuko said circling Sheik and scanning her with his eyes at the same time.
"That's the entire point," Sheik said smirking. Then again she changed back into Zelda, but in Sheik's outfit. So her eyes had returned to the normal blue color and she had all of her feminine features back. She had her helmet back on so her hair looked short again.
"So what are the rules of this combat?" Zelda asked from under the white collar.
"No weapons," he said eyeing the sharp, metal encasings on her fingers.
"Oh, yes," she said lifting her hands to her eye level to show her fingers. Zelda turned to the table and lifted her hands. She sharply thrusted her finger tips into the wooden table and pulled her fingers out of the metal encasings, which now stood upright in the table. Then a chain appeared. It seemed to have come out of her sleeve, but she made it appear. She laid it on the table next to the standing metal tubes.
"What's that chain for?" Zuko asked eyeing the chain.
"I could hit people with it, but mostly for this," she said as she quickly turned around and then chain sprang to life and wrapped itself around Prince Zuko. Zuko glared at Zelda, but then noticed something that looked like lightning was dancing around the end of the chain that Zelda was holding. The lightning quickly sprang up the chain and shocked Zuko. After it shocked him the chain unwrapped itself and Princess Zelda tugged it quickly back to her. Then she sat it on the table.
She turned to see Prince Zuko glaring at her. Zelda laughed from under the long collar.
"What was that for?" he asked harshly.
"I don't know, because I wanted to," Zelda replied. "I need to warm up. I haven't fought in awhile."
Zelda then walked to the middle of the deck and she did a handstand. Then she bent her arms pushing herself up and down. Spreading her legs into a split, she pulled up one of her hands so now she was standing with one hand. She pulled her legs tightly together then pushed herself into the air and flipped landing delicately on her feet. Prince Zuko watched her with fascination. Her movements flowed and they were so quick and graceful. They didn't look powerful at all, but they moved so fast.
After, she was finished with her warm up Prince Zuko walked out in the middle of the deck to begin their battle. Uncle Iroh was to be the "referee."
"This is not a fight to the death. This is a fight until one of you pins the other," Uncle Iroh said as he lifted his hand. "Begin."
Uncle Iroh's hand fell. Zelda and Zuko were both in their fighting stances. Zelda's stance was low so her head nearly touched the ground. Zuko's was upright, but with his knees bent. Prince Zuko was the first to attack. He sent giant fireballs headed right toward Zelda. All Zelda did was walk to the side of all of the fireballs and spin out of the way. She jumped to avoid one fireball and landed gracefully bent into her fighting stance. It was her turn to attack. She did the same thing she had once done when her opponent was Ozai. Running extremely fast toward Zuko, she disappeared right in front of him.
Zuko at first thought she had used magic to disappear. His temper began to rise. Then from behind him, Uncle Iroh shouted, "Princess Zelda has not used her magic, Prince Zuko. She is so fast that you cannot see her."
Then Prince Zuko remembered what she had told him about the fight with Ozai. She really was too fast to see. He looked around trying to find some trace of her, but he couldn't.
"Prince Zuko," Zelda said. Zuko looked around to see where the voice came from, but he still couldn't see her.
"You cannot trust your eyes or your ears now," the invisible Zelda said. He tried to find the source of the voice, but he realized it was coming from all around him.
"You have to sense me, Prince Zuko. Sense the energy of my spirit. Sense the beating of my heart. You must zone out everything and everyone around you except for me. Focus on me."
Prince Zuko closed his eyes for a second. He sensed her, but where. "Found you," he said as he shot his eyes open and thrusted his fist into what seemed like air, but then Zelda had appeared. Zuko's fist had landed in her stomach and now her body curled over his fist as her eyes narrowed and shot open wide from the impact. Zelda stumbled back holding her stomach and fell into a sitting position. Then she looked up to see Zuko smirking.
"You have found my weakness, Prince Zuko. I am small and my body cannot take powerful blows, but I normally avoid that with my speed. Or by barraging my opponents with unending attacks," Zelda said breathing heavily trying to regain the air that was knocked out of her.
"Well your speed didn't work for me," he said smirking down at her.
"I normally don't tell my opponents how to find me," she said smirking beneath her collar.
Then she jumped up suddenly and thrusted her fists into his stomach and chest now. Prince Zuko was completely caught off guard. The single punches didn't hurt, but they came so rapidly and there were so many that they were very painful.
The barrage of punches ended as Zelda spun and kicked him in the chest, which sent him flying backward. He landed on his stomach and went to get up, but couldn't. Zelda was holding him down on the ground. She had his arms bound by holding both of his wrists with one hand behind his back. Her knee was in his back and she had her elbow in his neck. The only things Zuko could move were his legs. He squirmed underneath her hold, hoping to break free, but he couldn't. Uncle Iroh walked toward them and began to count.
"1.."
Zuko struggled even harder, but to no prevail.
"2.."
Zelda dug her knee deeper into Zuko's back and her elbow deeper into his neck.
"3…Princess Zelda wins."
"No! This fight is not over yet," Zelda said loudly. She bent her head beside Prince Zuko's ear.
"Prince Zuko, never give up. There is a way out of every situation, including this one. You have to be creative. Do something out of the ordinary. Think…" she whispered underneath the long, white collar into his ear.
What could he do?
'I can't do anything! What does she expect me to do! The only things I can move are my…" he thought to himself. He had finally thought of a way out. Princess Zelda saw him smirk to himself and knew that he had thought of a way out. She felt him shift underneath her hold. She looked behind her to see what he had done. One of his legs was lifted into the air with the bottom of his foot pointing directly at her. Then Zelda saw it begin to glow orange. A jet of fire shot out of it suddenly, but Zelda jumped out of the way and off of Zuko. The flame died and Zuko got to his feet, turning around and spotting Zelda in her fighting stance.
"Very good, Prince Zuko," she said from beneath the long, white collar.
"You speak as though you were my teacher, Princess Zelda," he said glaring at her.
"Well, you seem to be learning," she responded.
Prince Zuko glared at her and fired multiple blasts of fire directly at her. Instead of moving Zelda took the blasts head on, except she raised her hands, clenched into fists, right in front of the flaming projectiles. Once it was close to her hands the flames stopped. Then Zelda opened her hands and the flames turned golden. Zelda, in her tight, blue outfit, spread her arms out widely and the flames jumped onto her body, engulfing it completely. The flames then gathered at her forearms and at her feet and her lower legs, revealing that the rest of her body was completely unharmed.
Charging Prince Zuko with her fiery gauntlets and boots, she jumped out landing on her hands and flipped over with her legs tight together. She kicked Prince Zuko in the stomach with her golden, flaming feet. Prince Zuko noticed that it didn't burn, but it was much more powerful than normal. The kick sent him flying back many feet. Prince Zuko looked up trying to regain his lost breath and saw Zelda. She punched in Zuko's direction sending the golden flame toward him, followed by the rest of the flames that were on her body.
Zuko managed to dodge most of them, but one hit him in the head and knocked him backwards harshly. His head was pounding furiously. His vision became blurry for a second, but then cleared again. Zuko lifted his head slowly to see Zelda was standing over top of him with her foot on his chest and her hand, fingers pulled tightly together, at his throat.
Iroh ran over to the two and once again commenced the count, "1…"
"2…"
Zuko couldn't move. Everything hurt so badly. His stomach mostly because Zelda seemed to like attacking that area, but the blow on his head greatly added to the pain.
"3…Princess Zelda wins."
At that Zelda pulled her hand away from Zuko's throat and her foot off of his chest. She held out a helpful hand to the defeated Prince. For a second he glared at her, because he was just beaten by the little girl he's known for so long. Then he took it cracking a small smile, realizing that if he would be beaten by any "little girl," he was glad that it was Princess Zelda.
Once Zelda helped Zuko to his feet, she stepped back a step and bowed courteously.
"That was a very good duel, Prince Zuko," she said gratefully.
Prince Zuko followed her acts of courtesy and bowed back. Then he held out his hand and looked down into her partially hidden eyes and smirked. Zelda took his hand, but hadn't received what she expected. Prince Zuko pulled her close and wrapped his arm around her neck and lifted her off the ground. He pulled her into a headlock, just like when they were younger. She grabbed onto the arm that was holding her.
"Aww, come on Zuko…don't…be...such a sore loser," she said from underneath the long, white collar while trying to free herself.
Prince Zuko laughed and held on to her tightly. Zelda then swung her legs forward and grabbed Zuko's neck with her legs. Zuko let go as Zelda swung herself over top of him and had her arms wrapped tightly around his neck. Zelda was on his back and still off the ground as she held on to his neck. Zuko grabbed her arms and tried to wrench them off, but he couldn't. Zelda laughed, but she stopped because Zuko had finally wrenched her arms off of his neck. With an arm in each hand, he flung her over top of him and onto the ground. Zelda was soon off the ground and jumping on top of him and knocking him to the ground.
Uncle Iroh watched as the two royal teens wrestled each other. He smiled, because it reminded him of two young children long ago, when times where peaceful and carefree.
Sorry people if I worried you there. I decided to keep writing this fan fic. I wasn't sure if I would earlier, because I didn't know if it was that good. Except I might not be able to update so much, especially with school coming.
I hope you guys enjoyed the fight seen as much as I did. n.n
