A/N
I'd like y'all to keep in mind that I came up with this chapter before I saw "the Earthbending Tournament" (or "the Blind Bandit", whatever Nickelodeon decides to call it on that particular day… stupid network). So, I didn't rip this idea off or anything, although the description of the place is taken from my own eye-witness account of… that episode.
And EW Irrel. Sokka and Azula? Pu leez.
"Should we land outside the city?" Zuko asked over the roaring wind.
Katara sat at Appa's head, gripping his reins with a ferocity the bison had never known.
"Why?" She spat, barely sparing her passengers any thought.
"To avoid attracting attention?" Zuko stated the obvious.
"We want all the attention we can get. You, on the other hand, may want to put on a hat."
Haru handed Zuko his straw hat, shoved into a corner of the saddle.
"Wouldn't I add to the authenticity of this excursion?" Zuko asked, holding his lopsided hat.
"You would add to the fury of the people we are trying to recruit." Katara answered shortly.
The town appeared before them, its buildings in sharp contrast with the surrounding greenery. Katara pulled Appa down, landing him in the open town square. She had expected to be met by a chaotic flurry of people, demanding to know what was going on, or maybe even torches and pitchforks. But the scene that approached them was… empty.
"Where is everyone?" Haru gasped.
The town was bare. It didn't have the stale look of desertion, but there was no bustle, no curious eye to roam over the strangers that had just plopped into the square.
"Great." Zuko scowled, jamming his hat onto his head. "We landed in a deserted town to find help!"
Katara leapt down, holding back the urge to throw her hands up in a scream. "There has to be someone."
"Look! An old man!" Haru pointed down the lane.
"Get him!" Zuko screamed.
Katara bolted toward him, waving her hands in the air. "Sir? Sir! Excuse me, sir!"
"What? What's this? That thing is standing on the town tree! Get it off!" The man bellowed, brandishing his cane.
Appa groaned and sidestepped, revealing a ten-inch sapling.
"Oh." Katara said apologetically. "Sir, where is everyone? What happened here?"
"That confound it earth tournament happened! If you know what's good for you, you'll stay away too! They brainwash them people in there! My townsfolk will come out zombies!"
She wrinkled her brow. "Right. I'll… stay away. Where is it that I'm avoiding?"
He pointed a spotted hand to the far eastern edge of town.
"It's a big building with a green banner. You can't miss it, though I hope you do!"
"Uh… Sure. Thanks!"
She dashed back to Zuko and Haru. Both of them were on the ground, prepared to run wherever Katara told them.
The group found the building the old man described without incident. Katara turned to Zuko at the entrance.
"Why don't you, uh, stay outside?" she offered.
"Why?"
"Because…" she fumbled over her reason and looked to Haru for help.
"Because the people in there will probably kill you." He finished easily, grinning at him in his honesty.
Zuko scowled. "You want me to wait outside?"
"Please? Or at least keep in the shadows or something?"
He set his jaw and nodded.
Katara and Haru ducked into the thrilling darkness of the tournament hall. Rumblings and shouting greeted them at once. For a moment they lost themselves among flying rock and screaming crowds, mixing until the scene blended together into a swirl or Earth Kingdom at its most thrilling.
"We don't have much time." Katara said, finally able to focus enough to locate the commentator.
"Did you see that move?"
"Haru. Come on. You've got to help me."
"Oh. Right. Sorry about that."
The beefy man that was belting out names and scores was seated on a column of rock, perched high above the crowd and the ring.
"Can you get me up there?" Katara asked, pointing.
"Don't you think it'd be better if you were out there?" Haru said, pointing to the ring.
"Maybe I can get him to help too-."
"Not without some bribery. Let's just go out into the ring."
"But-."
"Come on."
xxx
Zuko was watching from the shadows of the stadium seats with mixed feelings. He curled his lip at the ordeal with which he found himself in. Earth benders were revered for their strength, but also mocked for their thick-headedness by the Fire Nation. The tournament only concreted that rumor. Here they were chucking rocks at each other with brute force. Dumb and strong at the same time.
He was also watching Haru pull Katara up onto the ring, and the two of them were sandwiched between two boulder-pushing, three-hundred pound, hollering men. Haru was an idiot, and here he was leading the only person among the three of them with any sense at all onto the most dangerous spot in the entire town.
Zuko did admit, if only to himself, that if anyone held the sense and brains in their outfit, it was Katara.
He wanted to shout at Haru and tell him to do something a little wiser, but he held back. The screaming crowd that was now on their feet only added to his urge to join his voice with theirs. It was unbearable to resist.
"Get out of the ring!" The people shouted.
Zuko bit his cheek. Yes, he thought, get out of the ring.
"Get 'em outta there!"
"Move 'em!"
"Get on with the show!"
"I didn't pay for this!"
Zuko took a breath, and bit his tongue to silence himself again.
xxx
Katara didn't know if she'd ever felt so terrified.
Haru had managed to stop the boulders that came rushing at them, but she was still being pelted with stone by the audience, and the glares from the performers were enough to send a girl her size running.
"Get off the ring!" she heard a particularly clear voice scream.
"Was that Zuko?" Haru muttered.
"It better not have been," she replied.
"Okay," Haru said, holding up an apologetic hand to the unhappy crowd. "Do your stuff, Katara."
"Uh… Good people of the Earth Kingdom… We come to you in a very desperate time!"
The crowd instantly began to boo.
"Louder!" Zuko shouted.
Haru groaned. "He's gonna get caught."
"Please!" Katara screamed. "The avatar is in trouble and he needs your help!"
Her voice was, once again, lost in a sea of hissing and screams.
The commentator jumped down and advanced towards them. Katara grabbed Haru's arm.
"He's half as big as Appa!" She squealed.
"What are you two doing?" the man growled. His very voice seemed to be tumbling stones.
"We need help." Haru replied.
"Obviously. You're stuck in the middle of two earth benders and in front of a very unhappy crowd that would squish you as soon as look at you. I'd say you needed some serious help."
"The avatar needs help. He's been captured by fire benders, and we need can't save him, just the three of us. We came here to ask that we might get aid." Haru said.
"He's the only hope we have of winning the war," Katara added from behind Haru.
xxx
After his second outburst, Zuko began to get icy looks.
"Hey!" one man dared to venture, "Are you cheering FOR those people out there?"
Zuko didn't respond, but pretended to be looking around for the culprit who was shouting such ridiculous things.
He saw, like some sort of impending doom, the commentator drop onto the ring. Katara panicked and ducked behind Haru. Instead of raising a hand to push them away, however, he talked to them, and they spoke back, with what Zuko presumed to be, a little less than fear.
Suddenly the man on the ring turned to address the crowd, who silenced immediately.
"There is a crisis in the world that cannot be silenced by a spectacular day of tournamenting." He began, speaking slowly, and it seemed as if every word hit the quiet crowd like stones being dropped into a calm pond. The ripples were waves of rumpled brows and fierce whispers.
"A hundred years ago," He continued, "The world was plunged into a war. Who knows of it?"
A thousand voices rose at once in a unanimous sound of contempt.
"And who knows of the Fire Nation, who stole our land, burned our homes, sent our sons to their deaths, broke our people's hearts, and has kept so tight a fist upon our throats we cannot breathe?"
The roar that was emitted from the crowd was humbling. It was as if the entire hatred for the Fire Nation was contained within that small building, and it was like the very flame that the people resented, flickering through the faces of the people.
"But wait," the crowd hushed, "There is hope… This can end, and it can end soon. There is hope…"
The commentator turned to Katara and Haru and nodded. "They'll listen now."
Katara stepped forward and swept her arms to her sides in a grand gesture, "The avatar has returned!" she paused to listen to a collective set of emotions pass through the audience. "I have traveled with him, and I know his gentle leadership is exactly what this war needs to extinguish it. He is a master of air and water, and yes, he still has a small way to go to become a full avatar, but he is willing to do anything he must to save us all! I have faith in him. I know he will not fail us.
"And likewise, we must not fail him! As we speak, he is locked in the confines of a ship, under the watch of the Princess of the Fire Nation. He is in trouble, and I call upon you, great people of the Earth Kingdom to come to his aide!
"All of us have suffered from this war. We feel its wrath every day, from lost loved ones, to struggling to make ends meet, to facing them in battle. We toil to end it; I know we all do, in any way we can! Now is the time to make a difference. Now, if never before or again, do something that bring the Fire Nation to their knees! The avatar is in dire need of rescue, and I ask you, the strong and courageous Earth Kingdom, to help him help us! Who will rise up against the Fire Nation and take back the avatar?"
Haru beamed at her. She hadn't lost her touch at all.
xxx
Katara's greatest fear at the moment was the sun. It beat its rays upon the earth in unforgiving torrents. Its relentless power would lend itself to the fire benders, only aiding to their possible defeat. She shuddered. This was one battle she could not bear to lose.
Haru watched the girl on top of Appa with a lovesick fascination. He turned to Zuko.
"Didn't I tell you she's beautiful when she's distressed?"
Zuko rolled his eyes. "I don't see how you could admire someone's pain. Don't you think she's pretty enough when she's happy?"
"Do you think that?" Haru asked, alarmed at his companion's sudden interest.
"I didn't say that." Zuko snapped.
"Hm." Haru pulled back to mingle with the fifty-some earth benders that had joined forces with the group.
Katara had triumphed. After her speech, the crowd raised their voices in a wordless cheer of agreement and passion. Forty of the audience joined her on the ring and most of the performers gathered around her as well.
Zuko climbed up on top of the bison and sat behind her. "What's the plan now?"
She spun around with a wide expression of confusion. "You mean-."
"This is your army."
"I thought… Well, I mean in the past you would've gladly taken charge."
"I'm just part of your ranks."
"I'm going to have to see the situation before I come up with a detailed plan, but I'm pretty sure I know what I'm doing."
"Pretty sure?" Zuko scoffed.
"Yes," Katara flushed, "I don't have much experience in this. Would you like to advise?"
He nodded. She smiled, and he half-smirked back.
"Ha." She said.
"What?"
"I got you to smile."
"So?"
"Aang said you never smiled."
Zuko widened his grin a notch, which gave her all the more pleasure.
To himself, he had just confirmed his theory. She was much prettier when she was happy.
xxx
A/N
Ay! I am about to write the single greatest chapter that will ever exist in Dream Royale's account (besides one I'll be adding in the sequel, which will top this million gazillion times). I have looked forward to chapter nineteen before I even began this fic.
Much ecstatic giggling will ensue.