He blinked. Why was it so dark?
Zuko struggled to sit up and glanced around him. A cave?
Oh… The avatar. He looked across the ashes of the fire to see the bundle of yellow and red robes. An ache that had plagued Zuko for months filled him now. He stood, careful to avoid brushing his head on the ceiling.
He took one step towards Aang, and his foot knocked into the bowl the girl had given him the night before.
He had been wronged. He had been banished for doing the honest, decent thing. He had wanted to save those innocent men.
Zuko raised his gaze back to the avatar.
Why should everyone else suffer for Zuko's own demented past? They had done nothing wrong. He lowered himself back onto the cave floor.
He would never sit upon the throne of the fire nation. His people would forever look at him as a failure, a traitor, and his father would never accept him again. But at least Zuko could know that no lives had been uprooted to satisfy his own desires. He was not his father, and that knowledge brought a strange peace to his heart.
A hollow plunk snapped him from his pensive state.
A stone had tumbled from the cavern lip to the water below. Someone was on the surface…
Zuko leapt to his feet, straining to hear the voices over the clamor of the waterfall. They were doomed, should those people come down here. He glanced over his shoulder at the bison.
The tracks led the soldiers right to this spot!
Zuko stepped over Sokka and Haru and shook Aang's shoulder.
The boy jerked awake, his eyes widening as Zuko stood over him.
Zuko motioned for him to be silent and pointed to the cave mouth.
They both crept to the opening, being careful so as not to come into view. Aang glanced at Zuko, who leaned down to whisper to him.
"We have to do something. If we sit here, we'll be caught."
"Well, I'm open to ideas, Zuko. It's not exactly easy to get out of here." Aang replied testily.
The rest of the group woke to their whispers. Sokka almost called out for Zuko to get away from Aang, but the grim looks on their faces stopped him.
A thought struck Zuko. He rushed to his pack, and pulled out his hood.
Aang watched him with a sinking feeling. He knew what he was doing. He looked to Katara and Sokka. He felt awful for not telling them what had happened when they had been at the ruined temple, but he felt ashamed, both of himself and of Zuko. The Blue Spirit had haunted his conscience since that day.
He couldn't afford to let his own feelings put the others in harm's way. He grabbed his staff.
Xxx
"I don't think there's anything here. Maybe the bison took off from this spot." Ty Lee offered, as she and Mai studied the tracks leading to the waterfall.
"Azula won't like it if we come back empty handed. You know that." Mai replied.
The men paused their search of the area while the two girls decided what they were going to do.
"Let's go back the other way, maybe-." Ty Lee was cut off by a large whoosh, and something that sounded like water being sucked down a drain.
All eyes swiveled to the falls.
The cascade had suddenly bubbled backwards, the water rushing back up the other way.
Everyone backed away, their hearts beating several times faster than they had just a few moments ago.
Xxx
Aang pushed the water of the falls away, clearing a path to the surface. Zuko stepped next to him, slinging one sword from its sheath and gripping it in his left hand. Aang pulled his staff above his head, twirling it and pushing air beneath him, making him rise up off of the ground. Just as he was high enough, Zuko wrapped his free arm around him.
The two disappeared.
Katara's face was panic-stricken. "No! What are they doing?"
Sokka grabbed his club and boomerang. "I don't know, but that looked a little rehearsed, didn't it?"
"I think we're in trouble." Haru said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
"What's going on?" Katara asked no one in particular and joined her brother, gazing up at the passage that Zuko and Aang had just leapt through.
The water had continued to plummet into the cave once more. Its beauty did not appease Katara's worry.
"Sokka." She muttered, clutching his arm.
"Haru! Get us up there!" Sokka ordered.
"I don't think that's such a good idea. There are probably fire nation troops up there."
"Well our friend is also up there! So come on!"
"Haru please… this doesn't feel right." Katara pleaded.
Haru stepped closer and swirled his arms, bringing the rocks crumbling down around them. He stepped closer to the other two. The ground shifted, and a boulder that had been solid rock now rose into the air, with them on its back.
Xxx
Aang moved as if in a dream. The air above them had met him too fast. He wasn't ready to face the half a dozen or so fire nation soldiers. Zuko seemed equally surprised, and took a devastating misstep as he fell onto the ground.
Mai seized the opportunity that their confusion had allowed and thrust her arm out, causing arrows to fly at Aang. He ducked, narrowly missing them.
Zuko lunged, his swords, now both drawn, acting as perfect extensions of his arms. Ty Lee blocked him, kicking him backward from her handstand.
Aang heaved Zuko upright with a blast of air.
They had been such a good team before, why couldn't they cooperate now?
They had trusted each other then. Now they didn't.
Aang gritted his teeth. They would have to, he thought.
Aang hoisted Zuko into the air, and he spun, knocking Mai to the ground, and slashing two soldiers' chests. They fell away, writhing in pain upon the ground. Mai struggled to her feet, but a gust of wind pushed her down once more.
Ty Lee was having better luck. She danced around Aang, and he scarcely missed her with every water whip. She struck his side with her forearm, and the breath rushed out of him. She moved to strike his head, when Zuko swept his sword between them.
She shifted, watching the shining silver blade as it worked its way closer and closer to her with every slash.
Xxx
Haru was stable upon the boulder, but Sokka and Katara had to grab hold of him to keep from tumbling back into the cave.
None of them was quite prepared for the scene that met their eyes next.
Zuko, hooded and with swords in hand, had his back to Aang's, knocking arrows and spears from their path. Aang was pushing soldiers down with the air in one hand and trying to strike a pink-clothed gymnast down with water in his other hand.
"They're working together?" Sokka gasped.
"They're… winning?" Haru breathed.
Katara said nothing, preferring to think over what she was seeing when seconds didn't matter so much.
A wall of water rose behind her and crashed, without warning, upon all the occupants of fight.
Xxx
Katara picked her way across the clearing, making sure that all the people weren't going to wake up any time soon.
Sokka stood over Zuko and Aang, who were also unconscious.
"Why did you hit them too?" Haru asked, looking over Sokka's shoulder.
"It's kind of hard to pick and choose who I take out with a giant wave," she replied coolly.
Sokka pushed Aang's shoulder until he finally blinked awake.
"What happened?" he looked up to catch the fierce stare Katara was giving him from across a few limp bodies. "Katara? Was that you?"
"Yes, that was me. Aang, what were you thinking? And what was that?" she gestured wildly to Zuko, who was beginning to gain some control over his body again.
Aang looked at Zuko, hoping he'd rouse himself and explain exactly why Aang and Zuko did know how to work together.
Zuko pushed himself up groggily. "Blasted water…" he muttered.
Sokka pushed his broken spear in Zuko's face. "Answer Katara! What were you doing?"
Zuko pushed the spear away and jerked off his hood. "We were saving your sorry hides. What did it look like you were doing."
Guilt was taking over Aang's mind. Sokka and Katara should know.
"Tell them." Aang muttered to Zuko.
Zuko swiveled around to face him. Surely he didn't just say…
Aang leapt to his feet. "Tell them, Zuko! Tell them what you did because of your selfishness!"
Air swirled around them, and Zuko almost couldn't stand up with him.
"My selfishness? My selfishness is the reason you're here, and not in the fire nation right now!" Zuko cried in defense.
"You would have taken me yourself, and you know it!" Aang screamed.
"Don't you think I could've waited for Zhao to bring you where you were a little more accessible? I saved you, you ungrateful-."
"Ungrateful! I could have left you there! I could have walked away and left you to die, but I didn't!" Aang shook with rage, and the arrows on the backs of his hands began to glow ominously, "I saved you, Zuko! But you couldn't take that, could you? You couldn't let that happen. You were still going to take me to your father, even after all we had just done!"
Aang turned away, trying to calm himself. "You're right, Zuko. I wouldn't know of fathers. I'm glad I don't." he glanced at him over his shoulder, "If a father is a man who would force you to turn your back on your friends."
"I am not your friend." Zuko answered dully.
"I know. You told me, remember?" Aang stalked away, leaving Katara, Sokka, and Haru to stare pointedly at Zuko.
"What have you done?" Katara asked him quietly.
(A/N I think I broke my own heart with those last closing words... The next chapter will make up for the gloominess, trust me.)