Well, looks like "The Storm" episode took my theory and tossed it into the wastebasket-of-no-return. SADNESS!
Oh well. What's done is done. Looks like this story will be slightly AU...no biggie, right?
That said, everybody get out your hankies...there's more angst in this chapter than a Greek tragedy.
Chapter 6: "A Casualty"
"It...it was...the Avatar..."
Zuko started in surprise. The Avatar had gotten involved? That didn't surprise him too much, since the waterbender was the Avatar's companion, and someone he would never abandon. However, Zuko was surprised to hear the Avatar was the one behind the explosion. What sort of insane power did he unleash on the ship...did he activate his spirit and use its tremendous force to tear apart Zhao's vessel? And why, especially when it put his waterbender friend in peril?
"There...was gunpowder...they spread it throughout the room..."
"They? Sokka was there too?" the waterbender shrieked, fear laced in her voice.
"What...?...Th...the Avatar and his friend...were trapped in the artillery room...they put gunpowder everywhere to keep the commander and us from using firebending...but some kid from the deck showed up...needed ammo for catapults...against Iroh..."
"My uncle? Tell me what happened with my uncle!" Zuko demanded.
"No!" Katara shouted to the man, desperate, "Tell me what happened to Aang and Sokka!"
The man blinked and continued, "The young soldier who entered...when the ship started shaking...the kid...he fired on the Avatar..."
Katara held her breath.
"...everything exploded...fire... destroyed the ship..." he choked.
Katara doubled over from her sitting position beside the man, her chest resting on the tops of her thighs, her body too heavy suddenly to sit up. All sensation disappeared except for the crushing weight of the revelation. Couldn't see, couldn't hear, couldn't feel... No. No. No no no! Not again. Not them. Anyone but them. Please, please, anything else, anything. No no no. Please. No. Not them. Katara's forehead touched the sand, the grains sticking to her sweated brow. Little teardrops dropped into the sand and were absorbed instantly, but she didn't see, couldn't see, could only feel a heaviness draped over her...
Zuko watched uncomfortably as the waterbender stayed clenched in a little ball on the ground. It was difficult watching her grief, and he quickly tried to move his mind elsewhere. Thinking over what the man said, he realized something...
"Wait...if you were there, how did you survive...?" Zuko asked slowly. The small shaking in Katara's shoulders paused.
The man coughed. He was fading fast. "There...there was a blue light...an instant after the explosion...it shielded...most of us...I survived the explosion...only to get this injury while trying to make it out of the sinking ship," he cracked a bloody smile and said grimly, "...my luck seems pretty fickle, eh?" He coughed several times more.
So, Zuko thought, the Avatar was the one behind the explosion, but only used his powers to survive it. The soldier mentioned Zhao...if the Avatar and this man survived, then so did he...
Katara trembled over the man's words and pulled herself up again. She nearly gasped from the relief. Suddenly the world had color and sound and light and everything was beautiful to her. Stuck on an island in a hostile nation, with no supplies or allies, along with her hated enemy, and everything was wonderful and perfect because they were alive, Sokka and Aang were alive, and that was all she needed right now.
"Thank you," she told the man, who looked at her sideways with an incredulous look. Zuko shared a similar expression. Katara didn't even know why she was thanking the man–he was one of the men who had tried to capture Aang and hurt Sokka–but she was so happy, so happy, to hear her loved ones were alive she could have kissed the deliverer of good news.
The man coughed again, and his breathing was becoming slow and labored. Katara took his hand and made small adjustments to make him more comfortable. Both the man and Zuko looked astonished. Zuko absolutely couldn't believe what he was seeing. They were in this terrible situation because of Zhao and his men–men like him! Did she think if the roles were reversed, that that man would have shown her any compassion? Why was she comforting someone who had taken part in her capture, and the near death of her brother and companion...?
...You're a person before you're a firebender...
Zuko looked away, unsure what to feel.
Katara held and patted the man's hand. She was surprised slightly at the hot tears slipping down her cheeks again. The man saw her and looked confused. Honestly, she couldn't completely understand why she was crying either...this was one of Zhao's men! He was one of the men that held her prisoner, and tried to hurt Aang and Sokka. He...he...might have even been one of the men that raided her village two years ago... But...he wasn't Zhao's soldier now...he was just some man dying on a beach. She remembered the awful, heavy feeling from when she had thought Sokka and Aang were dead, and how happy and relieved she was to hear from this man that they were alive after all. This man was dying, though...and he wasn't going to come back to life like they did. Katara sniffed back her tears. Did this man have a home? A family? Someone who would feel the grief she did a few moments before...?
The man looked away, unable to meet her blue eyes anymore. "...N-no..." he rasped, "...thank you..." Katara squeezed his hand and smiled. "...I..." he began, eyes still looking away, "...I'm sorry...about..." He tried to finish but had already passed. Katara closed his eyes. What did he want to apologize about? She would never know.
Zuko's discomfort level was already higher than he could stand. When Katara finally let go of the man's hand, he hardened his expression and slipped back into what he was familiar with–necessity and protocol. He strode up and kneeled beside the man, making very sure to avoid eye contact with the waterbender. He searched the body and found a knife and small spying glass. Zuko took these, along with the soldier's belt and helmet, and quickly moved himself away from the body. He hated taking things from dead people, but they were in desperate need of any supplies they could get, and it's not as though the man was going to be needing them anymore...
Katara stared after him with an outraged look on her face. This man had just died, and all Prince Zuko could think about was the tools he could get off him? She turned back to the dead man, disgusted. Looking down, her face softened, and she put her hands together in a prayer. As we all hail from the sea, so must we return to the sea...that which sustains us in life, watches over us in death... Katara used her waterbending to call water up from the ocean to drag the body out to sea. It drifted off a ways before it finally sank from the weight of its armor below the water's surface.
Zuko, who had been trying to keep himself busy inspecting what he had taken off the body, made a quick glance in Katara's direction...and found the body gone! He turned and scanned the area, spotting the body in the distance just before it sunk into the sea. Furious, he stormed up to Katara, still crouched in prayer. He whirled her around and shouted, "What are you doing?"
"Putting him to rest!" she cried in answer, confused by the sudden outburst.
"Putting him to rest?" he balked, "You cremate the dead! What sort of...barbarians...lay their dead to rest by making them into fish food? How you–" Zuko stopped his tirade mid-sentence. Why was he getting so upset? This was just some soldier of Zhao's–what did he care what happened to his body? He turned and muttered, "Never mind. Forget what I said. Let's get going..."
He strode off stiffly inland, Katara watching him with anger and disbelief. She didn't like hearing her people called barbarians–especially from someone who takes possessions off the dead without a second thought! At least she had the decency to bury the man! But...she supposed the rituals were different here, and the soldier was already put to rest, so she bit her tongue and followed.
Aang awoke to being shaken. He opened his eyes and slowly focused on the figure before him. Sokka. Aang tried to move, but his body felt like lead. So tired...it took his brain several moments to recall what had happened. There was an explosion...then blue...then black. He moved his eyes around, and found he was now on a beach. Sokka was saying something, but he couldn't hear the words. The Avatar sat up, but the motion made him dizzy, so he sat with his head on his knees for several moments until his mind cleared.
"Aang...Aang! Are you okay?" Sokka's voice finally came through to him.
"Sokka...? What happened?" he asked.
"I...think you used your Avatar powers to get us off the boat. I don't know what happened...I just woke up a few seconds ago." Sokka said, quickly looking around. "Momo still hasn't woken up yet," he added, pointing to the small, unconscious creature lying a few feet from them, next to Aang's staff, its wet fur crusted with sand.
Aang looked around. They were on an island, one of many small land patches that dotted the sea around them. He didn't see any driftwood–did his Avatar spirit carry them here? Aang tried hard to remember, but it only resulted in a throbbing headache. He looked back at Sokka, hoping maybe to get more answers, but found the older boy's gaze locked on something, his face frozen in a look of panic.
Aang followed Sokka's gaze up into the sky and saw...
Smoke. A giant cloud of it.
He tried to find the origin, but it was hidden around the bend of a sand bank. He whirled back around to his friend and cried, "Sokka, what happened to the ship?"
Sokka swallowed several times. "I don't know..." he said, his voice cracking, "L-let's find out..." Sokka grabbed Momo and got to his feet, waiting for Aang. The airbender reached for his staff and tried to use it to help himself stand, but only succeeded in stumbling over. "Here," Sokka said, handing him Momo and squatting to the ground, "Get on my back. I'll carry you." The boy did as told and they were off, Sokka nearly tripping several times due to the sand and his own haste.
They rounded the sand bank and finally came to see Zhao's ship. Or rather, what was left of it. Aang felt as if someone was squeezing his heart with a vice. He couldn't breathe. One thought rang through his head...
Katara!
Aang dropped his staff and slid off Sokka's back. He clutched the still unconscious Momo and took a few shaky steps forward. The view of the ship blurred with tears before him. Everything inside him seemed to turn into fluid; his insides felt like water and his knees felt like jelly. Aang sank to the ground. Please, please not Katara. Images of her trapped...with water coming in at all sides...her trying to fight it off...but failing...
It was all his fault!
Aang felt sick, but couldn't throw up. He buried his face in Momo's fur, desperately needing to feel something warm. He made tiny little noiseless sobs, and his eyes burned–whether it was from his tears or the sand in Momo's fur getting into his eyes, he didn't know.
All his fault!
Aang saw blue for a moment, and the air around him flew into a frenzy. But he was too exhausted from using his spirit earlier to maintain it, and he collapsed. He awoke once more to Sokka's face. But unlike Aang, whose whole body felt like liquid, Sokka crouched over him rigid and unmoving. His jaw was clenched and a muscle in the arm he propped Aang up with was twitching. He took Momo out of Aang's grasp and laid him down to the side stiffly, then turned back to his friend, his face tight with emotion.
"Aang! What are you doing? Stop crying already!" Sokka shouted. But Aang couldn't stop...Katara... Sokka lightly slapped him on the face. "Knock it off will you! Katara's not dead! She's fine! Fine! So...stop crying...already..." Aang would have found him more convincing, if it wasn't for the tears streaming down the young warrior's face. "Katara's a waterbender, remember?" Sokka pleaded, "If anyone, she could make it out of this. She'd have found a way to get off that ship...so don't fly off the handle like that, alright? She's fine. She's...not...dead! Okay?"
Aang didn't answer.
"OKAY?"
Aang stifled a sob.
"Katara's ALIVE," Sokka shouted again, pain cracking his voice. He took several deep breaths and calmed down. "Aang" he started again, "Katara made it out...she...she did. And...she's out there somewhere, and she needs us to rescue her. Are you going to just leave her? Or are you going to help her?"
This seemed to reach Aang. "You're right," he choked, "We put Katara in this mess...and we'll get her out of it...we'll save her...this time, we will..." Aang fell unconscious again, too exhausted to continue.
Sokka laid him out on the beach, and placed the Avatar's staff into his small hands. Then he cleaned Momo off to the best of his ability and laid the animal next to Aang. He sat down on the sand beside them and ran his hands over his face. Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breath out. Katara was alive. Katara was fine. Katara made it out. She wasn't...wasn't... He wiped the tears from his face. Warriors didn't cry. Katara was alive. She had to be.
He didn't know what he would do if she wasn't.
Zhao was a born survivor. He didn't pull through his father's beatings, the cruelty of battle as a new recruit, and the viciousness of politics as his scratched and clawed his way to up to commander simply to give up. But, at that current moment, he wished he had died with his ship.
The Avatar had used his powers to shield himself and those closest to him–including Zhao and a few of his other men–from the blast. His entire ship had been destroyed. The Avatar had managed to punch his way out of the wreckage using his tremendously powerful spirit, just as he had said, leaving those who had survived the initial blast to die in the sinking wreckage. Zhao had somehow made it to the water's surface, burned and bruised, along with a handful of his men, where they drifted on whatever they could find to float. Some of his other men–ones who had been far enough away on the ship to survive the explosion–had managed to get whatever lifeboats they could find and escape the sinking ship. They had found him and a few others among the wreckage and pulled them aboard.
It was some time before Zhao was able to come to his senses and think clearly. And when he realized the entirety of the situation, he cursed his men for saving him. Because all they had done was prolong his life until he met his very painful end at the hands of another.
Lord Ozai.
When the Fire Lord learned about what happened–a failed attempt to capture the Avatar, a destroyed naval battleship, and his son killed–Zhao was a dead man. He didn't even want to think about what the Fire Lord had in store for him.
He weakly propped himself up from where he was sprawled on the back of the lifeboat. A few of his men gave him questioning looks. Seeing his movement, one of the soldiers called to him, "Sir, shall we scan the shore for survivors? There are many islands in the area...some of the men could have drifted ashore..."
"No," he answered resolutely, "We absolutely must find the Avatar..." That is the only chance I have to spare myself from Ozai's wrath, Zhao thought grimly.
"Should we wait until one of the navy's ship arrives for rescue...?"
"No!" he barked. If one of those ships pick us up, word about my failure will reach the Fire Lord's ears even quicker, and we'll be at the mercy of the crew on that ship...what's worse, one of those vessels may find the Avatar first and take him for themselves. I MUST get to the Avatar before anyone else...or I'm doomed, he silently thought to himself. "We must find the Avatar. That is our top priority."
The men exchanged wary glances, but stayed silent. One of the soldiers eventually spoke up and said, "Sir, several of the men who manned the lifeboats said they saw the Avatar as he was leaving the ship, and the direction he headed in..."
Zhao sat bolt upright. "Why was I not informed of this before? Follow the Avatar immediately!"
"But sir...shouldn't we wait for a ship to pick us up before we attempt to follow? This lifeboat–"
"FOLLOW HIM! We'll come aboard one of the ships after he's been captured by us!" he snapped.
The soldiers gave another round of uncertain looks, and began rowing as told. Zhao clenched his fists and steeled his resolve...he would find the Avatar. He must.
Had they scanned the shores as suggested, Zhao and his men would have come across a wounded soldier of theirs on a nearby island, accompanied by a waterbender girl and a firebender prince.
Mmm...this chapter seems a little damp from all the sobbing. Next chapter, things start to pick up as everyone fights for survival!