Fire that helps Chapter 11
"What!" Zuko yelled, jumping from his seat. Aang stepped back; little Shang had been kidnapped? "How could this have happened?"
"It's the rebels my lord, they snuck in and left a ransom. They slayed all the guards that tried to shield them."
"What about Katara, is she alright?"
"She was in the library, safe."
"Where is she now?"
"In the gardens."
"Did you see who did this."
"Yes, a man who looked like a monkey was all that the few surviving guards could say, as they were badly injured." It couldn't be, he's supposed to be dead.
"Search the city and the outside grounds surrounding the city within 5 miles. Do not harm my son, but do as you must to the man." The guard nodded and left. "Aang, I can't send you to her right now, I need to find Katara and Shang. Ask around for Mia, most of the people know her here." Aang nodded ad bowed before he left to join Toph and head out.
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Zuko hurried down the deep mahogany halls to the garden. He found Katara there, by the lush red and gold fire-lilies staring at the turtle duck pond. "Katara." He said, she looked down at the water in the pond. "Katara, tell me what happened."
"I put him down for his nap and went down to the library to get something to read. I came back, and Shang was gone. Blood was everywhere as well as 2 living guards, each severely wounded. I saw the ransom note, pinned to the wall, and I ran out here." She burst into tears. He placed an arm around her lovingly, gently caressing her cheek.
"I'm doing everything I can to have him found." He whispered in her ear, Katara clenched her eyes closed, tears falling out of her eyes. It was well past dark, and he could see the blue outline of Katara's face was wet from tears. He held her close. "I don't think that you should go anywhere for the next few days. I don't want you running off to help look for him; you could get hurt. And I do not want you walking around, I don't want you to be abducted." He told her while gently stroking her cheek. She nodded.
"I want you to have Mia look, if anyone can find someone, its her." She sniffled out. Zuko nodded.
"Come on, I want you to rest. I'll go and ask her myself before the gossip gets to her. Come on, I'm taking you to bed." He pulled her up and began to drag her toward the palace.
"No, Zuko I'm not tired, I want to help." She groaned at him.
"I can't risk losing you." He simply stated and despite her protests he dragged her all the way up to the 6th floor and into their bedroom. He pulled back the sheets and eased her into the bed, before pulling the sheets back up and tucking her in. "Sleep tight." He told her and kissed her forehead. She looked at him and sighed. He moved away from the bed and went to the dresser to get a black hooded shirt and matching black pants to allow him to prowl the streets without being recognized. She got up and pulled off her dress, putting on another one that was clean, and suitable for sleep, and then took out her hair. She flopped back onto the bed and watched as he pulled off his Fire Lord robes and put on the black pants and a loose black tunic. He pulled the hoodie over his head. He came over to her and ran his fingers through her hair. "I won't be gone long, I want to ask her myself and in person." Katara nodded, she didn't trust herself to speak. She was afraid she would burst into tears. Zuko kissed her forehead and went over to the wall, where there was a large banner with the Fire Nation emblem on it. He pulled it back to reveal a door. He went through the door into the secret passages in the wall. He hurried through here. The passages had been built incase the royal family ever had to escape or hide from attacks. Of course, the last time that someone used these for such purposes was a hundred years ago, when the Earth Nation made its first, and only, attack against the Fire Nation Capitol. He remembered that as a young boy he would explore these on nights when he couldn't sleep.
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He finally found it, Mia and Sokka's house. It didn't take long, but the man they had decided to ask directions of had a weird speaking disability and was hard to understand. He knocked on the door, and Sokka opened. "Aang, what are you? I thought you were in the central Earth Kingdom."
"I was, I need to talk to Mia." Aang said
"Come in, hi Toph the rock slayer." Sokka opened the door
"Shut up boomerang boy." Toph snapped at Sokka as he led Aang and Toph into the house. It was small, with a small sitting room and dining room up front and a kitchen toward the back toward the left. The bedroom was in the back toward the right.
"That's boomerang man to you." Sokka said to them
"Sokka, what's going on?" Mia came out of the bedroom in a pair of loose sparring pants, obviously Sokka's since the pants were dark red with a blue thread used to sew it together, and a black sparring shirt. Her medium length bright brown with yellow streaks hair was down and framing her face. "Oh, hi, what are you guys doing here?" She asked.
"Mia, I need to talk to you in private." Aang told her
"Why?"
"I'll tell you later."
"Whatever, let's go into the kitchen." Aang followed Mia into the kitchen it was small. And decorated in very plain attire. "What did you need to talk to me about." He told her about his dream and about what Avatar Roku had told him.
"And we need to go into the spirit world to fix this."
"So let me get this strait, I'm, an avatar sort of, and I need to go and return my powers?"
"I guess that Roku can explain it better."
"Okay, how do we get there?"
"Meditate?"
"Okay… let's try." They sat on the floor and got into a crossed leg position. They closed their eyes and folded their hand into their laps.
"What are they doing?" Sokka asked
"They're meditating genius." Toph answered
"I know that, but, why are they?"
"I don't know."
"Can you two idiots shut-up?" Mia opened her eyes, and so did Aang. "I mean really, how are we supposed to meditate?" Toph and Sokka shrugged. Mia rolled her eyes and locked eyes with Aang for a second. In the second they locked eyes, they entered the spirit world.
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"Okay, where are we?" Mia asked Aang, they were standing on a piece of land in the middle of an ocean of lava.
'We're in the spirit world." Aang told her
"I know that, but where in the spirit world?" She looked around; she spotted a monkey sitting in a temple. "Hey monkey thing!" She yelled
"Go away." The monkey said.
"Holy shit the monkey can talk!" she yelped and jumped back. The monkey cracked an eye and looked at them.
"Oh no, not you again. Must you interrupt my meditating place for Tuesdays?" the monkey said mad closed his eyes again.
"Okay than Mr. Bitchy monkey curly tailed lemur thing, we'll leave if you tell us where to go." She argued.
"There, follow that shiny thing." Aang jumped from rock to rock after it. Mia followed him.
"Don't fall." She yelled to him. He reached out and grabbed it; it materialized into Avatar Roku.
"Come with me please." Avatar Roku flashed them from the lava-surrounded rocks to puffy white clouds.
"Listen Avatar Roku, could you explain this all to me?"
"Avatar Mia, you have been the result of the secondary Avatar Spirit. What happened was 60 years after Avatar Aang was sealed in the iceberg; we extracted a part of the spirit, one that holds only the 4 most powerful avatars of the past. These spirits must be recombined with the others. The other two before you, both died before their 22nd birthday. Any other questions?"
"Is this why I was able to 'see' even when I was blind?" Mia asked
"Yes, It was."
"Will I still be able to?"
"Bending attaches itself to a persons spirit. It is part of your spirit. You will be able to bend all the elements, but you will never be able to master all of the elements, you will not be able to learn past the beginners sets."
"Okay, what do I have to do?"
"You and Aang, sit across from each other and join hands, then say Cedo, prendo l'alimentazione e lo lascio solo at the same time. Then you will find yourselves back in the physical world."
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Zuko knocked on the door to Mia and Sokka's house. Sokka pulled the door open. "What do you want Zuko?" Sokka asked
"I need to speak with Mia." Zuko said
"Well, you're going to have to get in line." Sokka opened the door a little more, to reveal Mia and Aang, in the spirit world. Then suddenly they both opened their eyes and stopped glowing.
"Mia, I need your help. Shang's been kidnapped, and you're the only one who I think can find him." Zuko said to her.
"Okay, I will." Aang said, in what sounded like Mia's voice. Mia and Aang were still sitting on the floor.
"I asked Mia, not you Aang." Zuko said in a matter of fact voice.
"I am Mia." Aang said, confused
"No your Aang."
"HOLY SHIT" Aang yelped and jumped into the air, blowing a bundle of air backwards and hitting the wall. " WHAT THE HELL, WHY AREN'T I IN MY BODY!"
"I think something went wrong when we came back to the physical world." Mia said standing up, sounding like Aang.
"Well that's a problem." Sokka said, Toph just stood there looking annoyed and Zuko stood there.
"Well, I've got work to do, I'm going to go find Shang. I can deal with this problem later." Aang stood up and stalked out the door, walking only about 20 feet out into the dark of the warm, Fire Nation fall night, before turning and walking back into the house. "Aang, do you have any black cloths? I can't stalk the night dressed in bright orange and yellow." Aang turned around and said to Mia. Mia opened her mouth to say something, but a bright blue light filled the room both of them passed out onto the ground.
"Okay what the hell is going on?" Zuko said
"I don't know who to go to! Is Mia, Mia and Aang, Aang? Or is Mia, Aang and Aang, Mia? Dammit I'm confused, and hungry. Mia was about to make dinner." Sokka groaned. Aang's eyes opened and Toph, who surprisingly had remained silent this entire time, bent down to hug him
"You are Aang right?" she whispered in his ear
"Yeah I am. I don't know what happened." He told her back.
"Shit" Mia sat up, "That hurt dammit, hey I'm in my body again!" she said, Sokka rushed over to her side and pulled her up to her feet
"You okay?" he asked her, pushing a strand of her hair being her ear
"I think," she told him
"I think, I think that this bending and spirit crap is hurting you, I don't want you to do it anymore." Sokka told her
"Well than your not going to get any anymore." She pushed him off of her, he looked hurt while Aang and Toph looked embarrassed and Zuko was angry looking
"Consider the fact that you and his sister have been getting down with it for the past 5 years, and a lot considering that you have a kid." Mia told to Zuko, she knew him and she was like a little sister to him. He was protective of her the same way Sokka is of Katara. "I still accept your offer, I'll go change into my stalking cloths and be off. Promise to you from me that I'll have him back by dawn tomorrow." She saluted him and turned to leave. This was how people dismissed in the military, how she'd been raised. Zuko turned and left the house as well as Aang and Toph, who had a temple on one of the cliffs of the nation that had a gorgeous view of the ocean. Sokka followed Mia into the room, where she was pulling off the sparring shirt; Sokka walked over to her side and pulled it off her head.
"Let me help you with that." He slipped the shirt over her head and tossed it aside. He ran his hand up and down her tanned body, over her breast bindings, "Much better." He told her. She swatted his hand away
"No, I told you no."
"Aw, come on…"
"I've got to get Shang, I'll tell you what. You be good until I find him and then you can have some, maybe."
"Fine." He grumbled Mia smiled and pulled on a tight, long sleeved black dress that came to just above where her wrist hit her thighs. She slipped off the sparring pants and pulled on leggings, along with a pair of shoes that were firm, but quiet. She pulled on her gloves and pulled her hair back into a low ponytail as she strapped on both of her swords to her back. She slipped black gloves onto her hands. Mia grabbed her hip-pack that was stocked with her sleuthing equipment.
"I better be going." She told him and reached up to kiss him good-bye, but he grabbed her face and deepened the kiss. She groaned into his mouth a little at this, he was such a good kisser. She pushed him off of her. "I gotta go, I have an idea where these rebels are hiding." She told him and stalked over to the window in their room and opened the shutters. She slipped out into the warm, dark autumn night. The moon did not shine at all, making it difficult to see. She used her earth bending to find where things were so she didn't trip. He powers were weaker now; she stepped on mice twice and could only detect the larger objects, such as trees and homes. She opened her eyes. It was useless. The stars shone just bright enough so that she could see everything, or at least a blurb of everything. She felt a hand over her mouth. She flipped whoever it was over her head and onto the ground. It was Zuko.
"I want to help." He told her, she looked him over. He was dressed in all black as well, but his scar was all too noticeable and a dead giveaway.
"Okay, but hold still for a second." She drew a small jar from her belt pack and pulled some goo out of it and placed it over his scar.
"What are you doing?" he asked her, he trusted her not to poison his or anything, but he was curious.
"There, all done." She pulled a mirror out and showed him his face, it looked just like he used to, before the tragic Agni Kai.
"What did you do?"
"It's a new invention of mine, I call it cover up.'
"Okay." Zuko was confused, but he knew better than to argue with Mia. She was not someone you want to argue with, seeing as how she can convince anyone of anything. But she's not perfect, her left arm and handwriting. Reading she breezes through like a breeze that comes off of the Pacific Ocean and kisses the face of whomever it can. She was always the first one done when it came to reading. Plus she remembered everything she read, making her useful in quick situations. But with the not perfect thing, yeah she has a weakness. As said before, it's her left arm. If it's twisted too fast in the wrong direction, it pops. And what is disgusting is that you can hear it pop, then pop back into place. This stops her. Mia can take a full-grown man twice her size and beat his ass to a pulp, but she needs both her arms in commission to do it. Zuko found this out the hard way, watching her brother abuse her by twisting her arm, making her practically helpless, then beating her and throwing fire balls at her. Mia stopped walking up the dark streets of the capitol. She turned left, down an alley. Zuko didn't question her methods, she knew what she was doing, and he just followed her.
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Orange blossoms. A food that only grows in the earth kingdom, a rare scent in the Fire Nation. Katara always wore a splash of orange blossom scented water, therefore Shang always smelled of orange blossoms too. The sent of orange blossoms was in the air, meaning that Shang was nearby. The ally led to a clearing in the forest that surrounded the city. In this clearing, were hundreds of tents with the Fire Nation insignia on them. But the symbol was changed, the lines were jagged not strait and curved. She pushed herself and Zuko back behind some crates that hid the entrance in the ally." Zuko, do you remember our old whistle?"
"Yeah." he remembered the whistle they used to tell each other where they were, and as a call of help.
"Stay here, don't come in unless you hear it."
"Mia I'm not letting--"
"Yes you are. Listen to me, they will kill you and Shang if you step foot in there. For your life and your son's, stay here until I give you the signal." He nodded and she slipped off into the camp.
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"Well look at you, a big boy, almost 2 years old as a matter of fact. You should be my nephew, if it all hadn't gone wrong. You know, I was planning on having your daddy bring back my little sister, this way I could get my hands on more power. Anyone else and she would kick their ass if they came within a few feet of her, but I've got her scared out of her wits of me. Then I would kill off your daddy and my sister and obtain the throne. Unfortunately that mother of yours got in the way." Zhao was holding Shang up, talking to him.
"Sir, we have found that the Fire Lord has gone missing. No one knows where he is." A guard came in and reported.
"Well, get your asses out there and find him. He is weak and vulnerable, what better time to get rid of him than now?" Zhao snapped at the guard, who bowed and hurried off to get a search crew.
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Dumb ass, didn't think to give that baby a bath. Mia thought to herself as she watched Zhao talk to the baby, telling it his plans. Don't worry Shang, I'll get that jackass away from you. Zhao put the baby down and left, some one was calling his name for some reason.
"What do you dumb fucks want?" he was yelling as he stormed out of his tent. Mia slipped back in and scooped up Shang in her right arm. She covered his mouth so he couldn't yell or talk and started hauling him out.
"Shang, its okay. It's only me, Auntie Mia. I'm taking you away from him." She looked at his pale little arms, covered in burns and bruises. She shook her head, Zhao never liked children, unless he needed him to suck up to his parents. She carried the baby back toward the opening under the tent that she came in through. Then she heard him.
"Sister, how nice it is to see you." Mia decided not to give him the satisfaction of her recognizing his presence and she kept walking. Suddenly he appeared in front of the exit, not allowing her to leave without a fight.
"Move aside Zhao."
"Alas sister, I will not take orders from a little girl. Give me the boy and join me."
"As much as you may not like it Zhao, I am happy. The world is at peace. You and the rest of you dogs are just going to have to deal, so move." In a flash he grabbed her left arm and twisted it expertly. She dropped Shang as she fell to the floor, gasping for breath. Zhao paid no mind to the baby as he crawled out of the tent.
"I see you still have not changed." He said and he stepped on the back of her head. "No matter, Igni has much fun with his work for me last time. He will most likely enjoy it again." He eyes widened as he pressed her face into the cold dirt. She remembered him, and she hated him. Zhao sent him, no way. "And yes, I did send him. I figured for you to be the future Fire Lord's wife, you'd need some experience to make him happy."
"All it did was traumatize me." She grunted as he pushed her face father into the ground.
"Well, it was a waste of money." He grabbed the back of her hair, which was now filled with the dirt from his boots, and looked her straight in the face. "But luckily he owed me a favor." She took the chance to attempt to whistle, but Zhao covered her lips with a hand killing her attempt.