Hello Yellow Jell-O! Well I can't believe it my fourth chapter already. It feels so good to know that my first fic wasn't a complete disaster, yet narrows eyes looking as if trying to warn the negative karma to stay away from the precious work Well anyways as always I appreciate your reviews and for those who have been reviewing me since chapters 1-3, if you check my homepage in my profile there should be a thank you list to all those who gave out good reviews or had me on their alert list because you guys became the voices in my head that said keep on going! And now I must say something that I haven't said in a really long time so that my ass will be totally safe from all corporate harm….
Disclaimer: I do not own ATLA nor will I ever, unless of course the C.E.Os of the place are willing to give it to me as a Christmas present, but I really doubt it so no I don't own it and nor will I ever.
And now without anymore interruptions or weird ramblings, My lords, My lady's and anybody else that actually likes to hear me ramble I present to you chapter 4!
Ch 4: Coming to Terms
When Zuko finally made it to the tavern, he flipped over the mantle that served as its door and walked in. The place was a wreck. Much of the furniture was reduced to ash or had brun marks, barely holding up. At the scene, he found many people rattled, talking about what had happened.
Zuko was worried as he searched for his uncle between the survivors, but he couldn't spot him anywhere. A gripping fear began to circulate through him. He felt a firm hand being placed on his shoulder. Zuko turned around excitedly.
"Uncle!" he said with smile of relief on his face, which quickly transformed into a frown as he discovered it wasn't him, but the bartender of the tavern.
"You better have a seat," he said, directing him to the nearest table that still looked strong enough to hold up despite its charred features.
"You must be Zuko, right?"
Zuko nodded. "What happened here? Where's my uncle?"
The bar tender sighed deeply and answered, "Three young women entered the bar looking for a couple of drinks. They were still underage, but they told me that if I didn't get them anything, they would burn my tavern to the ground, so I caved in… That was when a rumble started where the Pai Sho tournament was taking place. Apparently, your uncle was winning big time, but the others accused him of cheating and threw the game board aside, with the checkers flying everywhere. That caught the young girls' attention, and they started to attack your uncle.
"The girl that was the leader of the group started to throw fire everywhere, burning my tavern and my customers. She told your uncle that if he didn't turn himself, they would destroy this place along with everyone in it. Your uncle… he sacrificed himself in order to save us. Here, we're always rooting for the outlaws that cause trouble for the Fire Nation, but nobody could really take them on.
"Along with that Firebender were two other dangerous girls: a cheery one that could took away people's bending abilities and the feeling in their limbs, and a silent, weird one that was able to shoot needles and arrows out of her sleeves with the precision of a millimeter. Compared to those three, we were just dominoes waiting to be knocked down!" The bartender was looking at Zuko with a face full of remorse and fault. "She told us that if anyone of us saw you we had to inform them right away, and if not they would come back and would burn the town to the ground!"
"It's all right," Zuko sighed. "I was expecting this to happen anyway. Don't worry…I promise you that I'll make sure that they never come back to this town to cause you any trouble!"
Zuko was aware that he was being pursued and something like this would happen, but the thought had never crossed his mind that she would find him so quickly. That's when the idea hit him.
"The Avatar!" he thought. "Of course she's after the Avatar, but that means that… Katara!" Zuko said as he was beginning to put two and two together. She was in danger, and she had probably already been caught by his sister and her team.
Turning to the bartender, he asked loudly, "Did they tell you where they were going to be for you to inform them about me?"
The bar tender began to scratch his chin until he finally remembered. "The leader of the group…she said that they would be residing in the woods, about four kilometers from here. You're not thinking on going to take them on alone now are you?"
Zuko took a deep breath and turned around, making his way to the door. Without turning, he answered the bartender: "This is something I have to do alone."
Putting on the mask he had stowed on his back as he headed out of town, he gripped the handles of his swords. His hands clutched the swords tighter as he wondered if his uncle and Katara were ok, or if Azula had already begun transporting her prisoners to the Fire Nation.
As such thoughts floated around his head, he reassured himself that his uncle would not allow himself to be so easily controlled. But then, another idea sprang up in his head.
"What if they already caught the Avatar and his friends? What if Katara had been captured along with the Avatar?" He didn't want to think of the consequences that would occur if he allowed Azula to get away, so he ran faster under the night sky.
Meanwhile, Katara was just making it back to the campsite where she had left her group. As she was arriving, she took the cap off the bottle of medicine and, bending water from her canteen, thoroughly mixed the green powder and the water to create a the medicine.
"Guys, I'm back!" she yelled, moving closer to begin dolling out the remedy. Ture to the shopkeeper's words, the medicine seemd to have miraculous effects, as almost immediately Aang's and the other's fevers receded and they began to show signs of life.
The first to fully awaken was Aang, looking at Katara with fatigue leftover from his fever.
"Aang, don't worry. You're all going to be alright," Katara said with a smile on her face.
But Aang weakly whispered back, "Katara… you have to get out of here…"
Stunned, Katara wondered why Aang would say such a thing…until he rolled a little bit to his side to show that his hands were completely bound together and he was unable to bend.
Suddenly fully aware of what was happening, Katara dove to the ground to avoid arrows now flying at her from all directions. She stood up and tried to run back towards the town. But seemingly out of nowhere, a girl twirled in the air and landed right in front of her, punching her right arm and left leg. Katara recognized that girl: it was one of Azula's friends, Ty Lee. Her leg now lame, Katara had difficulty defending herself against Ty Lee's attacks with only the bending of her left arm.
Successfully using her water whip attack to evade the other girl, Katara suddenly felt a sharp pain in the middle of her neck. Trying to move to no avail, Katara was totally paralyzed.
A dark, silent girl came out of hiding from a nearby bush and walked up over to Ty Lee. "It worked, like Azula said it would, didn't it, Ty Lee? What a bore!"
The energetic girl looked over Katara's immobilized body and answered back happily to the other girl, "Yup, just as she said Mai!"
Slowly the third member of their party stalked up, slowly as a hunter saunters over to its fallen prey, and she said with a mocking tone, "And they say that water beats fire, ha! I'm still surprised that you actually took the bait that easily. I mean, when someone lives in a place where they can only eat icy fish, you'd think they'd at least learn the difference between the bait and the actual thing!"
Katara unable to speak or move, feeling only fear flow through her as she recognized the voice of the princess of the Fire Nation.
"Soldiers, take her away to the campsite!" She began to fear what would happen to them all. They would probably be sent to the Fire Nation as soon as possible, in order to be executed… But Aang, he would most certainly end up in a dark, cold cell only being barely kept alive so that he wouldn't die and reincarnate, and the Fire Nation wouldn't have to start their search all over again.
She wished that the Blue Spirit would save her again, but she knew that her luck had already dried up. As she was lifted by a Fire Nation soldier, she saw others carrying her friends back to the princess' campsite.
When they finally arrived, the soldiers tied their arms and legs up so that they could not move or bend. Then they put shackles around both their arms and legs and tied them all to a long chain, connecting them.
Katara looked around. There were about fifty soldiers at their posts, and about the same number of komodo rhinos tied to the trees. She looked over to find Appa tied down to the ground, with some Fire soldiers cruelly teasing him, poking him with their poles and sticks, and laughing at how defenseless the giant beast was.
She sighed and s she came to realize that escape was impossible, at least for the moment. Her friends were still half-asleep, even though the medicine was taking effect, so they couldn't run far even if they had the opportunity to. Not to mention that they didn't have anyway of escaping the binds in the first place: she couldn't bend the water out of her canteen and break them with her whip attack.
Suddenly, painful screams arose on the opposite end of the camp.
"Tell me where he is, old man!" Azula screamed and a whip-like strike was heard. Two more strikes cracked in the air followed by a scream of agony. She squinted hers eyes to see what was going on. Apparently, Azula was torturing some old man with a whip.
"Tie him up with the rest of the prisoners! He's not going to tell us anything soon, that stubborn old man!" Azula yelled as her soldiers recovered from hearing a formerly celebrated General of the Fire Nation scream in pain, beginning to escort him back to where Katara was.
As they approached, Katara was finally able to recognize the old man: it was Iroh. She was somewhat surprised that he survived Azula's first attack on him, a little bit relieved even, but she was left with her mouth agape as she saw the injuries that his own niece had inflicted on him. His back was red and bleeding from the cuts that the whip had inflicted all over. He was panting, trying to recover himself.
Tying him up and shackling, the guards attached Iroh to the same chain as the other prisoners. She couldn't feel sorrier for him, hating Azula and her outrageous cruelty. How could she have been so low as to resort to beating up old people? She observed him as he was with his eyes closed, still recovering from the whips that had taken away all of his breath with screams.
"Are you ok?" she asked. She felt so stupid as to ask such an obvious question, but she felt the need to make contact, anyway.
"Oh, hello there, it's been a while…hasn't it, Katara of the Water Tribe?" the former Dragon of the West answered back. "How's life treating you?" He made an attempt at hiding the pain he felt, though Katara saw through it as his right eyelid still twitched from the contortions his face had made moments ago.
"Why was Azula beating you like that? Who was she asking about?"
"Ahh, my diabolical niece was asking about her most favorite brother in the whole wide world!" he said with a touch of sarcasm.
"You mean Zuko's not with you?" she asked with some curiosity, since they had always traveled together.
"Luckily…I hope he was smart enough to get out of town and as far away as possible, before Azula spots him."
Moans began to come from behind Katara: her friends were waking up.
"Ah! Fire Nation camp! We're in a Fire Nation camp! We're all going to die!" cried Sokka from disbelief, as if he were in a terrible nightmare.
"Shut it, Sokka," ordered his sister. "Do you want them to come here and beat the life out of you?" Sokka quickly closed his mouth and began to observe his surroundings, landing his sight on the beaten Iroh.
"What is he doing here? And if he's here, then he's…" Sokka turned his head to look around, searching for the exiled prince.
"If you mean where's Zuko, then he's not here, so you can stop worrying yourself. And besides, none of us can do anything: they strapped us down with locks, ropes, knots, everything!"
Sokka relaxed his attempts to break free, losing himself in thought as he tried to plan their escape. Aang was already up too, along with Toph who sat next to him. Aang, though, was also muffled by rags so that he couldn't even Airbend through his mouth. Iroh looked back at the other members of Katara's group.
"You're that girl from forest!" He was referring to Toph, of course.
"You're that old man! Wait, you're the uncle to the crazy, ponytail wearing, hot-tempered psycho Zuko!" Iroh looked at her with serious narrow eyes. Katara wished that Toph could actually see just this once so that she would be able to notice the big mistake that she had made, but then her thoughts were broken off by oddly enough, Iroh's laughter.
"Ha-ha, what a great sense of humor this girl has… But I'm sorry to tell you, my dear, that my nephew isn't any of those things, well maybe except for hot-tempered. You see, he gave up that ponytail a long time ago, and psycho isn't how I would describe him, maybe…determined, yeah, that's the word, determined!"
Toph laughed softly from that joke. That was one of Iroh's greatest abilities, to make a bad situation seem good, even if only for a moment.
"So, where is that nephew of yours?" asked a curious Sokka.
"He's hiding from his psycho sister!" Katara said. While Katara answered Sokka's questions, Toph got Aang to lie down on the ground, helping him untie the rags that were muffling him.
As soon as the rags came off Aang took a deep breath and exclaimed, "Thank God! That rag smelled worse than Sokka's sleeping bag.
"Hey, what are you getting at cue ball?" cried Sokka back at him, but the boy was already disinterested in him and was looking around the camp to spot Appa.
"Appa, I'll save you!" The Avatar started to wrestle with his shackles, but they wouldn't even budge. "I can't believe this," Aang sighed. "After being on the run for so long, we've been caught! Now what?"
"Don't worry your bald head, young Avatar," assured Iroh. "I've got a plan." He showed them thumbs up. Taking a deep breath through his nose, he forced it back out in the form of super hot steam on his shackles. As the shackles bathed in the hot steam, they began to glow a bright red, and Iroh began to stretch the hot metal.
He thought that if he could heat the shackles just enough, then maybe they would become easier to break, but try though Iroh might, they didn't budge. Iroh looked at them in disbelief. His steam wasn't hot enough; he needed to use a direct flame on it. Everyone looked at him, hoping that he would be able to break through.
Iroh stopped breathing out steam and looked at them smiling, "No dice!"
"What do you mean, no dice!" exclaimed Sokka. "You never do the thumbs up thing unless you got a sure plan, never!"
"Oh like you got any better ones, genius," Katara said, defending the old man.
Suddenly, in the distance, battle sounds were heard. The soldiers were getting out of their posts and moving towards the front of the camp. Two soldiers making their way up to the captain of the platoon stopped by the prisoners' guards.
"You, come with me to the front. As for you, go warn the princess!" Everyone was confused.
"What's going on over there?"
"Tell her that the Blue Spirit is here, quick!" The two soldiers started running to perform their orders. As for the prisoners, Katara was smiling: her luck hadn't run out yet.
"He's coming; he's actually here to save us!"
"Who's here?" asked Toph.
"It's the Blue Spirit! He's an outlaw that once saved Aang from Admiral Zhao!"
"He what!" exclaimed Sokka. "What, he must be crazy coming to a Fire Nation campsite like this all alone…it's suicide!"
"It's probably nothing for him, since he infiltrated a military fortress of the Fire Nation where they held Aang captive and he took out all of the guards alone! He's practically invincible, right Aang? You were there, you tell them!"
Aang was completely stunned when he heard the name Blue Spirit, for he was the only one in their group who knew the true identity of the Blue Spirit. He looked at Iroh, who only looked back at him with a stern look, as if communicating to him that he knew the Spiriti's identity, so he looked back at Katara and faked a smile, "Yup, he's one of the most powerful swordsmen I've ever met…he'll get us out of here for sure!"
Aang began to wonder what Zuko was really doing here. He thought that Zuko must have lost his marbles to actually try to infiltrate Azula's campsite. Then, he thought of Iroh who was looking gloomily at the floor.
All Iroh could think was, "Zuko, you idiot, why didn't you run?" Aang knew from the expression on Iroh's face that he had nothing to do with it. He actually started to consider the fact that Zuko might actually want to do good and save them!
But then he turned to Katara. "Wait, how do you know about the Blue Spirit?" Aang had never told anyone about the Blue Spirit, only that he was indeed captured by Admiral Zhao, but later escaped.
"Well," began Katara, going a bit red, "when you guys were sick and I went to the town to get the medicine, the shopkeeper there didn't want to sell it to me, so I waited till night time and stole it. When I did the shopkeeper and his sons spotted me stealing it, and they tried to stop me with their Earthbending. I tried to run, but they eventually caught up with me and beat me up pretty bad.
"Finally, when they were going to crush my arms so that I couldn't bend again, there he was! He cut through the boulders and beat the Earthbenders in seconds. Then he took me in and patched me up! He tended to me and with the help of his medicine and some water it had in it, I healed myself! He was so kind and gentle to me…"
Katara finished the story there, not wanting to go into any details that were too personal for her friends to hear. Aang's and Iroh's jaws dropped all the way to the ground when they heard that story. In unison, they could only think: "Zuko…was nice…to her!" His uncle knew that he was of a pure soul that was just closed up, but he never would have imagined that he would have opened himself that much to someone so fast, oddly enough with the supposed enemy. He turned, carrying a smile on the inside, his sights going to the battlefield, trying to spot Zuko.
"This will be interesting!" he said to himself.
Aang, on the other hand, couldn't get over the shock. He could never picture the ruthless Zuko that he knew being gentle or kind. It was as if someone were trying to teach a fish to play the flute. Impossible! But then he remembered the day when Zuko freed him, when he knew him only as the Blue Spirit. Aang really owed him his life. If he were caught, Zuko might have not lived till the next sunrise, and Zuko knew it. He knew that Zuko's main intentions were probably to take him to the Fire Lord himself, but he felt too that Zuko had some good in him and that maybe, all that time in the dessert caused Zuko to realize that he could be good. He stood there, watching how the soldiers rushed to the front trying to stop Zuko.
Zuko was doing everything in his power to create enough chaos to throw the soldiers out of his way. He cut loose the komodo rhinos and let them run free, and he blocked and sent back the fireballs shot at him, which landed on the tents, supplies, and other unlucky soldiers.
After ten minutes of battle, Zuko had made it to where Aang and the rest were tied up. He sprinted to them so that he cut the chains and facilitate their escape, but three arrows and needles were shot straight at him, followed by a jet stream of blue fire. The Blue Spirit quickly reversed course and flipped backwards, barely evading the shots.
Azula, Mai and Ty Lee were only a few feet away from him when they launched their attack against him. Ty Lee held a wanted poster as if it were a magazine she were reading.
"Mai, isn't that guy over there the same guy that's on here?" asked Ty Lee in her usual clueless tone.
"The Blue Spirit, I presume?" asked Mai, interested. "I've heard rumors about him. That he's a legendary swordsmen, bearing two dual broadswords and a Blue Spirit mask."
Azula then broke in. "Too bad this one is a total disgrace to the memory of the real Blue Spirit!" she shouted. "The real Blue Spirit defended his people from traitors, not the other way around!"
Mai's eyes flashed with exitement. "Azula, please let me fight him. As a fighter that depends on weapons, I want to see if he's a challenge!"
"You're being selfish, Mai! That's very much unlike you," Azula told her. "You would get to have your little legendary fight of one of the greats, but what would Ty Lee and I get out of it?"
An evil grin on her face, Mai explained to Azula: "You know, if we catch this person now, we would be legends in the Fire Nation ourselves for being the team that caught all of the Fire Nation's enemies! Isn't that good enough for all of us, Azula? Your father would see that you are more than fit to rule, and would pass Zuko's birth right to you instead!"
Ty Lee broke in: "Yeah, we got the Avatar and his group, we got your uncle, we get the Spirit now, and we got that weird guy that sounded like he had a frog in his throat—what was his name, Long Long…?"
"Oh you mean Jeong Jeong…he was probably the easiest we ever captured. He must be rotting away in his cell at this very moment!" laughed Azula.
Aang, Katara and Sokka couldn't believe what they heard. Jeong Jeong, Aang's former Firebending master and genius was actually captured by this fifteen-year-old demon.
Iroh remembered Jeong Jeong, back in the day when he was just starting out with a low ranking. For a person so young, he truly had a lot of knowledge about Firebending. His genius helped him rise exponentially through the ran,s and it was probably only matched by Iroh himself. He couldn't believe that someone so experienced was captured by his wicked niece.
Ty Lee reminded Azula, "But we would still be missing your brother!"
"Don't worry, he'll slip up soon enough, and we'll be there to get him!"
"You see Ty Lee, once a dum-dum, always a dum-dum."
Zuko, still facing the three elite bounty huntresses, gripped the handles of his swords, preparing himself for battle.
Shrugging her shoulders, Azula said, "Well why not, getting more praise has never done anybody harm, and I really like the idea of having my dum-dum brother's throne so let's get to work! Mai, you get your wish. Attack at will!"
As soon as she heard this, Mai shot of like lightning towards Zuko. As she drew closer, she shot three needles aimed at Zuko's pressure points to immobilize him, but the projectiles where quickly cast aside by Zuko's dual swords.
Mai closed in on him, pressuring him to take a few steps back. As he did, he had to flip in another direction, because Ty Lee was going for his back.
"Ty Lee, what are you doing? This is my fight!" screamed Mai.
"Azula thought that we had to be extra-sure that he didn't get away, so I'm here to help!" she answered back in a cheery voice.
"Ugh, fine, just don't get in my way!" she yelled back furious that her supposed friend didn't trust her enough with the task. She was so furious, in fact, that she didn't see him coming when the handles of the Blue Spirit's swords made impact with her stomach. She was thrust back a few feet.
For his part, Zuko felt kind of sorry for having to hit them. It wasn't actually their fault; they just had really bad luck of knowing Azula, who always tried to exploit them for their abilities.
Everyone in the gang watched closely how the battle was going. Everybody was at the edge of their seats, stunned that anyone could have lasted that long against those girls, and a non-bender at that! Probably the only people that weren't excited were Sokka and Iroh.
Sokka, because he was being sarcastic, saying that he could do that too if he felt like it…but on the inside, he admired the spirit. He thought that if they made it out alive he could ask that legendary warrior to show him a few moves to take back home to the South Pole when the war was over.
But Iroh, he knew the real truth of the battle. Nobody really had taken notice that Azula was still there watching, waiting for the perfect moment to strike behind his back. Plus, he saw that the Blue Spirit was reaching his limit. He had wasted too much energy trying to beat the soldiers, and now he had to face two of the elite warriors of the Girls' Military Academy of the Fire Nation at the same time.
And as predicted, the Spirit dodged Mai's projectiles aimed for his chest. Ty Lee came from the side and jabbed for his arm, but he quickly responded by using the broad side of the sword as a shield from the jab. But Mai surprised him, shooting arrows towards his boots and stapling him to the ground, while Ty Lee finished him off with a flying kick to his face. He was thrown backwards, landing five feet away from the girls. It was a powerful kick. Iroh turned his face away when the hit had fallen on the Spirit, as if the blow were so hard that he too had felt it.
The Blue Spirit was down and the two warriors were slowly making their way up to him. Katara had turned away when she saw him take the blow. She couldn't believe that her legendary savior had lost.
Iroh began to try heating the shackles over and over again, faster and faster, but nothing worked. "Get up Zuko, Get up!" he thought, as though the fallen prince would hear his words.
Even Aang was trying to give his support. "Get up Blue Spirit! You can do it!" but it was in vain.
"How pathetic!" said Azula to her teammates. "I guess they'll call any outlaw a legendary warrior these days!"
Mai's grin quickly faded from her face as the old, calm self took control again. "That was boring," she replied. "Well, what are you guys doing there, go tie him up before he gets up! And then, next stop: fame and glory!" scream Azula. She felt great; she was the leader of a successful bounty hunter team that had actually captured all of the enemies of the fire nation. Her father was going to be so pleased!
As Zuko lay there, terrible images passed through his mind. He visualized how they would take Katara, his uncle, and the others and hang them in front of the public, which would throw things at them, encouraging the executors to start ahead of schedule. He saw the disappointed faces of the gang as they stared into his mask, their hopes fading.
He focused on the eyes of Katara and his uncle. They gazes penetrated his soul, charging it full of guilt. He couldn't stand it. Then, the images abruptly disappeared like a mist, and a strange figure approached him. He couldn't make out who it was at first, but as he got closer, he immediately recognized the visitor.
"Lu Ten! How in the world are you here?" he asked the spirit. Lu Ten only looked at him with a grim expression on his face and answered him, "I take it that you didn't like what you saw!"
Zuko couldn't believe that his cousin was right there in front of him. "Zuko, remember the promise that you made me, when I left? I asked you to keep on training, so that you could realize your full potential as a bender, but you didn't, did you?"
Zuko couldn't speak, his eyes couldn't believe what he was seeing, but he shook off the disbelief from his head and, unable to look at the spirit in the eyes, he answered coldly, "No."
"Zuko, if you had done what I have told you, you wouldn't be in this predicament. If only you could control your power, maybe you would be able to spare them from the fate that has been paved for them."
Zuko quickly replied back to him, his voice sounded like it was breaking, "I tried, I really did, but I couldn't control it, it would trigger with every emotion I had!"
Lu Ten looked at him with an expressionless face, "So you thought that the best way to control it was to forget your emotions at all. But emotions, they are the soul of Firebending. Their influence is what makes fire alive, Zuko! But you've killed it! I bet that you can't even summon half of the great power that you used to have!"
The spirit had changed his expression from stern to sympathetic and continued. "Zuko, the real purpose I'm hear is because I came to tell you that you have a big role to play in this war and its outcome! The world is in great need of that power, and I respect the fact that you don't want to hurt anyone, but if you don't harness that power now, millions of lives will be lost, not just on the side of the Fire Nation, but across the world.
"Already one race had to suffer from this: the Airbenders. You have to summon that power, Zuko; if not, the Avatar will fail, and all will be lost!"
"But even if I wanted to use that power, I've repressed it for years! It's almost impossible for me to summon it now!"
"That is not true Zuko!" the spirit told him, "I've been watching you and you already started to awaken it again! You've probably felt it, too. There is a girl out there who has opened the gates to your emotions again. You now have the drive necessary for you to use your powers again!"
"But if I use them here, she… they will get hurt!" His cousin looked at him with an easier expression.
"Zuko, you won't have to worry about that! I believe in you, you can do this! Now, if you don't, unfortunately your friends will pay the price." Zuko was suddenly barraged by images of how Katara and her gang and his uncle were all executed, one by one.
He couldn't take it! He didn't want to lose anybody else; he had already lost too many people he cared about: his cousin, his mother. If something were to happen to the only people that he cared for now, he felt that he couldn't go on living. He focused on this idea, how he wanted to be strong enough to save them.
He heard sharp fizzling sounds. His fists were covered in a blue flame! He could feel the power surging through his veins, the strength that he had forgotten about for so long. His cousin smiled.
"I think you've got it Zuko. Now, go save your loved ones, like the real Blue Spirit!" and suddenly the image of his cousin faded from his mind's eye.
Snapping back to reality suddenly, he saw his two opponents only two feet away from him, preparing to tie him up. He grabbed his swords and jumped up, swirling them around him with a blue flame emerging from tip of the swords. He was creating a human–sized, fiery tornado. The two girls were blown away by the blast, all the way to were Azula was! They had scorch marks all over their clothes and some superficial burns on their hands and legs, but they were completely knocked senseless.
Everyone was shocked at the warrior's amazing comeback. The flaming tornado continued burning, scorching the grass beneath it and lighting the nearest brush around the Blue Spirit in flame.
"He's a Firebender!" shouted Sokka, "I can't believe we put our trust of survival on a Firebender," quickly looking at Iroh who was still mesmerized by the Spirit's abilities, and adding a casual, "no offense," to the phrase, but Iroh didn't even hear it.
Slowly, a wry grin spread across his face.
"So, this was the hidden power that my son mentioned to me! Azula is in for a world of hurt!" He had heard from his son that he believed that Zuko was some how special, even more special than Azula, as if he were truly blessed from the Spirit World, but he never believed any of it since when he trained him all he saw was a struggling bender, a bender that had to try billions of times to get something right just once. But with the blazing tornado just about seven meters away from him, he could see how wrong he was!
Aang was smiling actually from the demonstration of Zuko's strength. He was wondering if he had always had that strength, and why never used it against him. But in a way, he was thankful that Zuko never did, because he was sure to have received a world of suffering! He was really exited now: he couldn't believe that they had a chance. He saw similar expressions on his friends' faces, even a little hope showing on Sokka's. After meeting Jeong Jeong, it was easier accepting a Firebender's help; it showed them that not all Firebenders were bad. And by this one's power, it would be smart to be on his good side.
Katara felt the same way. She had already met him and saw that he was a kind, gentle person. It didn't matter what nation he was from, just as long as he was good and honest like he was with her…then, nothing else mattered.
The tornado's spin was coming to a stop, and Zuko stood firmly, observing Azula's frightened reaction. He dropped his swords, but his hands were still radiating blue fire.
"So you're a fire bender! Don't you have any shame for helping these traitors?" she yelled at him. "It doesn't matter anyway, though…it seems that I have to put you in your place! I challenge you to an Agni Kai right now! If you have any shred of honor left in you, you will accept the challenge!" She was hysterical; for the first time in her life, she was losing her grip on things.
Zuko, changing his voice a little, yelled out his conditions for the duel. "If I win, you will release the Avatar and his group!"
"Are you crazy?" she yelled back at him. "And if you lose?"
Zuko stared coldly to her behind his mask "If I lose, which I doubt, I will turn myself in freely to you!"
Everyone could only look on as the battlefield was slowly devoured by fire. They didn't know what to think: possibly the most important duel of their lives was about to begin.
"Then you do accept?" yelled back Azula clenching her fist as she prepared for battle.
"I do accept!" yelled back Zuko.
Azula grinned, "Are you forgetting the rules to an Agni Kai, Spirit? Or is it that you haven't had honor for so long?"
Zuko was trying to remember what rule could have he been forgetting, until it became clear what she meant: the mask. No protective gear could be used in an Agni Kai by either of the challengers, and masks were included. He was cornered.
If he took off the mask now, everyone would recognize him; Azula would probably spread the word to his father, he would become a "two-for-one" prize, and Katara would no longer accept him. She only liked the Blue Spirit, not him. But then, he remembered the words of his cousin, to not be ashamed of who he was or what he could do. It was a part of him that he had to learn to live with for the rest of his life, and if she could not accept that, then maybe their relationship was not meant to be.
Iroh and the others looked to see if the Spirit would agree to taking off the mask. Only Aang and Iroh knew the true consequences of that action: Zuko would never be able to rest. Two prizes would be on his head.
Katara looked somewhat anxiously to see the face of her hero. She couldn't deny that it was a low trick in getting him to reveal himself, but she was still curious as to his identity.
"If you have any shred of honor left in you, then fight me fairly!" Azula yelled across the battlefield. She was grinning madly at her psychological achievement.
Zuko turned to face where Katara was. He didn't know how she was going to react, but when he remembered the visions of her execution, he knew that he preferred her to be alive and hate him for the rest of his life, than to carry her death on his conscience.
He took another deep breath, yelling the battlefield, "I accept all of your terms!"
He slowly reached for his mask with his still-blazing left hand, slowly pulling it off. Hearts skipping a beat, everyone held their breath, waiting to see who the masked man was. Aang and Iroh turned their faces away from the battle. They knew that as soon as everyone knew, their trust in him go up in smoke.
Well that's the end. Sorry for leaving you people in a cliffhanger after such a long chapter but that's how stuff goes sometimes. Well anyway I hoped you all enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed making it! Well I'm off to make chapter 5 and again I hope that I can count on more productive reviews. Peace I'm off to bed.
P.S: Don't forget to check my homepage for those who actually reviewed me since chapter 1. It's not much but I really wanted to thank all of you guys any way.