Chapter 33
...lol, okay, I've tormented you long enough. Enough suspense. Here's the chapter you've been waiting for.
The sky was turning a shade of darkening purple and crimson as the sun sent up its last tendrils of light into the sky. The moon had already risen and was hovering above the eastern horizon, waiting like a pale witness of the horror that would soon ensue.
Everything was still, as if the entire world was holding its breath, waiting for the outcome of the battle, waiting to see how history would write itself, for that was what we were surely doing. In the hush of the deepening night the snapping and clacking sounds of the buckles on Zuko's armor seemed all the louder as I tied and laced them. Maybe it was just that I was afraid, and that was why each noise seemed to pierce the calm like a razor's edge.
My hands slid down Zuko's breastplate. I tugged on its edge, making sure that it was firmly in place. The toughened leather didn't budge, and I stroked it gently, as if I could persuade it to protect my love from the battle that was about to ensue.
But even if the leather could get Zuko past the barricades and the palace guards, it would do him no good when he went to face his father. In the year I'd spent with Zuko, I'd learned about the firebender way of life, and their myriad of traditions and customs. One of those customs was to strip yourself of your armor, your shoes, even your shirt, before entering an Agni Kai. I stared at Zuko's chest, imagining deadly tongues of fire circling his skin, burning and destroying the man I had come to love. I felt tears gather in my eyes, but I blinked them back, clenching my fists in the effort. I would be strong for Zuko.
"Everything will be okay, Katara." Zuko comforted me, placing his hand over my clenched fist. The familiar warmth of his fingers caused my taut muscles to relax, and I leaned into him, my armor making a soft whump sound as I fell against his.
"I love you, Zuko."
"And I love you, Katara."
His arms wrapped around me, holding me for a few precious moments. Then, he hooked his finger under my chin and brought my face up to meet his. His lips covered mine, and I could feel his heat flow into my body through our mouths.
But then something strange happened. Zuko's hand, which had been clasping mine, heated up quickly. Too quickly.
"Ouch!" I yelped, pulling back and withdrawing my hand from his.
"What's wrong?" Zuko's eyes were full confusion. I felt the same. Zuko had never hurt me before. And, from the look on his face, he hadn't meant to now. I looked down at my hand and at the skin that was turning a light shade of pink from the slight burn.
"What happened?" I asked.
"I... I don't know." Zuko said, looking at his hands as if they'd betrayed him. "Maybe it's the thrill of battle. I feel... strong, invincible. I guess I just lost control." He shook his head. "A firebender should never lose control."
"Yeah, maybe you're just worried about the battle." I said comfortingly. "It's not your fault. Look, it's going away already." He nodded, but still seemed distracted. A pounding on the door caught our attention.
"Commander, we've arrived on the border of the Fire Nation waters." A soldier's voice came through the thick steel of the door.
"I'll be right there." Zuko said. Turning to me, he gave me one last smile.
"I'll see you after the battle."
"Promise me, Zuko."
"I promise."
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My heart felt filled with a sudden, icy energy as I stared at the horizon. There, glimmering a pale silver in the moonlight, were the unmistakable lines of Fire Nation navy ships. There were only two patrolling the area, which gave me a thrill of hope. The odds were good, and we had the element of surprise on our side.
"To your stations." Zuko said. His voice was low, careful not to betray our motives to the ships ahead. The soldiers rushed to their positions on the ship, moving in a perfectly timed choreography.
Our ship came closer. Soon, we could see the tiny figures of Fire Nation soldiers moving about the decks, their pale face plates making them look ghostly in the moonlight. I shook the thoughts out of my head. There was no place for fear now.
"Halt and state your name." A commanding looking firebender said from the prow of the Fire Navy ship. As rehearsed, we all stayed motionless, sailing as if the ship moved of its own accord.
"Halt and state your name!" The soldier said again, this time louder and with more authority. Again, no reply came from our ships. I felt my muscles tense, my heart beat with the rapid fluttering of a bird beating against the wind.
"You will stop your ship now, or we will be forced to open fire upon you!" The soldier was screaming now, his ship only a short distance from ours. I could see his mouth moving in the darkness, and wisps of smoke curling from his lips like breath. Stillness washed over the ship, and I felt as if I were drowning in it. Finally, when I felt I could stand it no longer, Zuko's voice pierced the night, conquering the silence with his masculine tones.
"Who are you to demand information?" He sounded firm, sure of himself. The same arrogant, imperious Zuko that I first met. But there was something more now, too. A confidence that hadn't been there before. Not one of cocky self-assuredness, but one of quiet power, like a lion awakening from slumber.
"I am Admiral Jin-su. I patrol these waters, and authority has been given to me by the Fire Lord Ozai to question any that try to pass." The man said. His voice was less bold now, tinged with confusion and apprehension. "You will give me your name, now!" I noted a quiver in the man's voice.
"Then, Admiral Jin-su, listen carefully. I am Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation, and I have come back to end my father's despotism and to claim what is rightfully mine." With that, Zuko raised Teikei's sword in the air, and the soldiers on our ships let out a war cry that rattled the metal beneath my feet.
I saw a look of panic on the admiral's face, and watched as he made frantic hand gestures to his soldiers. But it was too late. The waterbenders had been focusing on the water around Jin-su's ship, and their concentration produced a swelling of water that immediately tipped the vessel onto its side, sending its men plunging into the moonlit water.
Our small victory did not go unnoticed by the other ship, however, and a barrage of fireballs arced over the sky. Waterbenders on each of our ships worked together to raise waves up to meet the oncoming attacks. Wave after wave reached from the sea, catching the fireballs with liquid hands and dragging them into the sea. Sweat beaded on my forehead as I bent my concentration on helping pull a wave from the sea. My body tense and my muscles straining, I watched as the wall of water caught the fireball just in time.
I felt a gust of wind blow my hair back and I looked up to see the faint silhouette of Appa flying through the midnight sky. Aang was on his back, the young boy's body snapping through powerful airbending moves, deflecting some of the wayward fireballs.
Finally, the attack stopped as the firebenders hurried to reload their catapults.
"Attack!" Zuko yelled.
Rebel firebenders lit catapults of their own and sent waves of fire to crash down on our enemy's ship. Above, Aang blew the flames into a frenzy, causing them to explode into a roaring, devouring beast on the deck of the enemy ship.
A few more fireballs came spinning our way, but most were lost in the ocean or deflected by Aang. Only one hit one of our ships, but it caused no major damage, and the waterbenders aboard were able to put out the flames in one smooth motion.
With our enemies incapacitated, we picked up speed and coursed into Fire Nation water with powerful quickness. There was no turning back now.
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We knew we were getting close to the Fire Nation by the bright glow on the water. It was as if there was a strange fire burning beneath the waves. But the fire turned out to be torchlight reflecting off the ocean, torchlight from the thousands of burning lights that surrounded the port and lit the Fire Nation's land border.
"Into position!" Zuko yelled. A red flag went up, signaling the other ships to pull along side each other. They began forming a type of 'V,' the tip pointing away from the Fire Nation, and the arms straining forward, ready to attack.
Just as we'd guessed, the port was heavily guarded. Fire Nation fleets surrounded the port in a row of sharp metal teeth poking up from the sea. Without waiting for the ship captains to realize what was going on, Zuko raised his sword and sliced it through the air, signaling that the attack was to begin.
Water, fire, air. All mingled in the night air and rained down on the fleet of ships in a brutal, powerful storm. Although the earthbenders couldn't bend at the moment, they put their brawn to work and readied the catapults.
Our attack was well-planned and well-executed, and we were able to cut a small opening through the midst of them, which was just what we wanted. It would have been impossible to beat them all, and certain death if we tried, but we weren't trying to beat them. We were just trying to get to the palace.
As soon as we broke through the barricade, we rammed into the port, our ships crunching and the metal groaning as it buckled and tore against the shore. In a few moments, they would be consumed in flame as the Fire Navy fleet attacked them, but it didn't matter. If our mission failed, there would be no getting out of here, anyway.
Abandoning our ships to their destruction, we jumped to the ground and began to take up formation. The leaders assembled their men and readied them for the march through the heavily-guarded area. Already Fire Nation soldiers were gathering, preparing to defend their palace from the strange army that had somehow landed on their shore.
"Attack!" Zuko raised his sword and rushed forward.
Clouds of dust, whips of water, arcs of flame, spray of blood. All mingled in the night air, tinging the breeze with the perfume of death. The march to the palace doors seemed to take an eternity, and yet seemed to take less than a breath's time. When we arrived at the marble steps, Zuko rushed inside with only a few soldiers following in his wake.
I yearned to go with him. Watching him disappear into the dark, cavernous doorway was like watching myself fall into a long, dark pit. Maybe something would catch me... maybe I'd just hit the bottom.
Zuko'd insisted that I stay with the waterbenders. It was safer, he said. The rebels that were going with him into the palace would have the job of slaying the guards that tried to halt thier progress, and he didn't want me to have to take up that position. Besides, If Ozai came out victorious, he would start by killing the rebels Zuko'd brought with him. Zuko had said that staying outside might give me some time to escape into the woods and try to get back home, and He'd made me promise I would do just that, though we both knew that if he died, I would fight to the death, too.
"Hold up the gap!" A leader of the rebel army shouted. His voice was so loud that it made my ears ring. I took a quick look around our little stand on the Fire Palace steps. Already our army seemed overwhelmed, a tiny force compared to the massive, roiling sea of red uniforms that were closing in on our edges.
Remember, we're not here to beat them, just hold them back. I repeated to myself as I threw myself into the melee, snapping out with my waterwhip and chasing the fire from the hands of my enemies.
But something was wrong. The fight was not going in our favor. Come on, Katara, you didn't really expect this to be easy, did you? No, I didn't, but I didn't expect it to be this hard, either. After fighting in the rebel army for a year, I'd gotten used to the rhythm of the firebenders, and to how much force was needed to put one out of commission.
But today was entirely different. There was something strange in the way the firebenders attacked, as if they possessed some raw, uncontrollable power I'd never come up against before. What's going on?
I sent my waterwhip cracking against a soldier's forehead, but the man turned and caught the water in a burst of flame, then he lashed out with his fist, pushing me to the ground with such force that the air was knocked from my lungs. I lay on the ground gasping in pain and shock.
I'd had a year's worth of war training, and yet the soldier had been able to dispatch me with a simple two-step maneuver. It was night, and the moon was up! I should have been stronger than him!
I cast my eyes up the moon, which had risen higher into the sky, a pale dot of light mirrored in the glow of thousands of silvery stars.
... except for one.
One star was different from the others. It glowed red instead of silver.
My breath stopped in my throat as I stared in horror at the fiery 'star'. Suddenly, it all made sense... yesterday, when I'd watched them train, I'd thought that the rebel firebender's increased energy was just from nerves. I'd thought that Zuko's burning of my hand had just come from worry. But that wasn't the case at all... they'd all been given greater power... power that came not from themselves, but from the sky.
I could feel every heartbeat.
Feel every pulse of the blood that rushed through my veins. The world seemed to stop for me, leaving me alone and staring up at the death in the sky. Leaving me with one bitter realization.
We were too late.
The comet had already arrived.
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I do not know how long I lay there, but I did not lay there long. Jumping to my feet, I looked around. Everywhere I turned, the rebels were being slaughtered, with the exception of the firebending rebels, of course.
"Okan!" I yelled when I saw the familiar face in the midst of the chaos. Hearing my voice, he turned to me.
"Katara! You must fall back, Zuko would wish it-"
"I don't have time for Zuko's wishes right now. Where is Aang?"
The guard shook his head. "I haven't seen him. Him or Zaike or Dako or that old firebender general, Iroh." Visions of these men came before my mind's eye, visions of them lying on the cold ground, their faces pale in death, their breath stopped and their lifeblood draining onto the dirt.
"I have to find Aang!" I shouted over the screams. Akon reached out to stop me, but I evaded his grasp and darted into the roiling mass of bloody, sweaty, writhing bodies.
"Aang! Aang!" I called out, hoping my voice could be heard above the thud of earth being thrown and the hiss of fire as it crackled in the air above my head.
I looked for what seemed to be an eternity. I was beginning to lose hope, my vision filling with the image of the young monk's body torn and lifeless on the ground, when a sudden flash of yellow caught my eye.
"AANG!" I screamed so loud my throat hurt. When no reply came, I wondered if Aang had heard me, or if I'd only imagined seeing his yellow clothing among the clash of red and green.
Suddenly, I was lifted off my feet. I gasped as the world dropped out from beneath me in a speed that made my stomach lurch and twist . I turned my neck as I strained to look up. That's when I felt a familiar, fuzzy warmth and smelled a musky odor.
"Appa!" I shouted.
"Hey, I'm the one that rescued you. Mind giving me a hand?" I looked further up and noticed Aang's face for the first time. It was pulled tight into a scrunched look of exertion as his hand gripped the back of my tunic.
Grabbing handfuls of Appa's fur I hoisted myself up and into the saddle and sat there panting for a short time. Finally, I caught my breath and looked down. In the pale moonlight and glittering torches I could see thousands of tiny bodies smashing and striking against each other, coloring the ground with their blood.
"War is such an ugly thing, Katara." Aang said in a voice barely above a whisper. Out of my daze now, I whipped my head up to face him.
"Aang! The comet! It's already come." I pointed to the burning light. Aang only nodded.
"I know, I saw it up here a little while ago."
"Then you know we're too late! All this has been for nothing." Despair slithered through my veins and into my heart with icy fingers.
"No. Maybe not." Aang said, looking into the sky.
"What? What do you mean?" Aang's face hadn't changed since he'd brought me onto Appa's back.
"I don't know... I was thinking." Aang said softly. "I've been having dreams."
"Dreams?" I wondered if the young Avatar was finally losing it. Maybe the war had been too much for him.
"Dreams of thunder. And darkness. And the avatars before me." Aang said quietly.
"What? Aang, I don't understand." But Aang didn't offer any explanation, only crawled forward to grab Appa's reigns.
"Yip yip." He said. I watched as the palace grew larger beneath us and Appa swooped in to hover just a few feet of the ground.
"This is where you get off, Katara." Aang said. I looked up at him curiously, but obeyed. There was something new in his voice, just as in Zuko's. There was a new kind of bravery there. A determination.
"What are you going to do?" I asked.
To my shock, the arrows on Aang's body began to glow a bright blue, and his eyes shone with an empty, ethereal light.
"Go to Zuko." Aang said. Only it wasn't just Aang. His voice was there, certainly, but there were also many other voices behind it, all pulsing with sudden purpose.
"Wait! What are-" But Aang was already lifting off into the sky. Unable to take my eyes off the strange, glowing figure, I watched as Appa carried Aang off into the midnight sky.
Suddenly, a wind began to whip up around me. I saw it come crashing down around the armies, swirling through the masses of fighting bodies and snapping at the flames of the torches with hungry jaws.
I looked up and saw clouds begin to gather in the sky, swirling and boiling as they slowly began to blot out the moon and stars. Building in thickness and intensity, the clouds continued to come together, their black shapes first obscuring, then hiding Aang's glowing form.
Lighting began to flash from their depths as wind shrieked from the sea, wailing like a lost thing in the night, and blowing out the torches that lined the streets and surrounded the palace. I shuddered in the darkness. I could sense the wrath of the storm, I could feel the fury of the wind and the darkness as it closed in on me. Lightning flickered in the sky, illuminating for a moment the dark mass of clouds that now writhed in the midnight sky. Thunder shook the ground and for a moment the fighting ceased below me.
Aang said to go to Zuko. My breath caught in my throat. Go to Zuko.
I dropped my arms to my sides and ran.
Well... I have the next chapter typed out, too. Should I let you have it now, or drag out the suspense and wait a day or two? Thanks, everyone, for your amazing reviews! They have been truly an encouragement and a blessing to me! You guys are amazing, and you all deserve a big hug!
HUG