Disclaimer: I do not own A:TLA or any of it's characters. The only thing I own is my OC.
The Six Rules:
Rule Number One: Alec won't warn the Gaang about things in advance or solve their problems for them, with a few rare exceptions.
Rule Number Two: Only Alec has the right to tell people his true origins, and he will mostly limit this to group members. He will tell new group members his secret as soon as they join the Gaang.
Rule Number Three: There are some changes Alec wants to make, and he will use his knowledge of the future to make those changes.
Rule Number Four: Sometimes, to make a change, Alec will act in a way that doesn't make sense. If that's necessary, he'll tell the Gaang "I need you to absolutely trust me." After he says that, the Gaang has to either do whatever he asks or leave him to do what he needs to do.
Rule Number Five: After a change happens, Alec will tell the Gaang what happened in the original story, in the interest of transparency.
Rule Number Six: If a major change happens that Alec doesn't expect, the Gaang will have a meeting ASAP. In this meeting, Alec will break Rule One and tell them all relevant information that will help them figure out how to respond to the change.
Chapter 8:
The Waterbending Scroll
Alec POV
It had been two days since we fled Roku's temple. We flew high in the sky, with mountain peaks poking through the clouds beneath us. Sokka sat on Appa's head with the map, steering the bison. The rest of us sat in the saddle. Well, Katara, Momo, and I sat in the saddle. Aang was pacing with a worried look on his face. He was panting pretty loudly, too. It eventually became too much for Sokka.
"Would you sit down?!" He called to Aang. "If we hit a bump, you'll go flying off! What's bugging you anyway?"
"It's what Avatar Roku said." Aang replied. "I'm supposed to master all four elements before that comet arrives!"
"Well, let's see." Sokka said. "You pretty much mastered airbending, and that only took you 112 years. I'm sure you can master three more elements by next summer."
Honestly, Sokka really wasn't helping at all. Making Aang feel worse wouldn't do us any favors.
Katara turned to me. "How long does it normally take the Avatar to master all the elements?" Obviously looking for some kind of reassurance.
I thought about it. "Honestly, it depends on the Avatar." I answered. "I know that Roku was a master firebender by the time he hit sixteen and the sages told him his identity. After that, he spent another twelve years mastering the other three elements."
"Twelve years!" Aang yelled in despair. "I don't even have one!"
I needed to salvage this situation quickly. "You can't compare yourself to him." I said quickly. "The world was at peace when Roku was around. He could afford to take his time. If he had to rush, I think he could've pulled it off." That didn't seem to reassure the airbender.
"Aang, look at me." I said sternly. He turned and looked at me with wide eyes. "Do I look worried?" I asked.
"No." He said after a moment.
"Exactly." I nodded and smiled. "If I thought you couldn't do it, I would've had us go pick up your earthbending teacher, kidnap your firebending teacher, and then go directly to the North Pole so you could start waterbending." I explained.
He tilted his head quizzically. "What do you mean, 'kidnap'?" He asked.
I wagged my finger in his face. "Nuh uh, no spoilers." I said in a singsong voice before going back into serious mode. "I may not know why I'm here, what my destiny is, or if I even have a destiny, but I know you can do this." I said kindly, putting my hand on his shoulder to reassure him.
He smiled. "Thanks." Then his eyes widened and he smacked himself on the forehead. "Oh, I forgot!" He exclaimed.
I raised an eyebrow. "Forgot what?"
"Roku gave me a message for you." He replied.
My eyebrows shot up. That was surprising. "Okay, what did he say?" I prompted.
"He said that once we reach the North Pole, you have to go to the Spirit World to discover your destiny. He said you'd know where to go." Aang said.
I was floored by this. The voice in my head that told me I was fifteen made me suspect that I wasn't here by accident. Now I could hopefully get some answers. "Okay." I said. "I know the place he's talking about. I'll take care of that when we get there. I can finally get some answers around here."
"I'm happy for you." Katara said with a warm smile.
"But what am I gonna do?" Aang asked. "I haven't even started waterbending, and we're still weeks away from the North Pole."
"If you want, I can try to teach you what I know about waterbending." Katara offered.
"You'd do that?" Aang said in a soft voice. Katara nodded and looked over the edge of the saddle.
"We'll need to find a good source of water first." She said, scanning the ground below.
"Maybe we can find a puddle for you to splash in." Sokka quipped.
The 'puddle' they found was a massive basin with a river that a waterfall emptied into. "Nice puddle." Sokka deadpanned. Aang and Katara had big smiles on their face. Appa jumped in the river and sent out a massive wave, soaking Momo, who screeched angrily. I studied the surrounding area. This was a perfect place for me to practice without burning down a forest.
Appa splashed around happily in the water. Aang stripped down to his underwear. "Yeah! Don't start without me, boy!" He exclaimed excitedly.
Katara brought him back down to earth. "Remember the reason we're here." She reminded Aang.
"Oh, right." Aang said sheepishly. "Time to practice waterbending." He put his clothes back on.
"Great." Sokka said unenthusiastically. "So, what are we supposed to do?" He asked.
Aang picked up a leafy branch from the ground. "You two could clean the gunk out of Appa's toes." He suggested.
"Actually," I spoke up, "I'm going to shoot fireballs at the waterfall. I don't have many places where I can safely practice firebending, so I want to take advantage of that here." I explained.
"So, while you guys are playing in the water, I'm supposed to be hard at work picking mud out of a giant bisons feet?" He inquired.
"Mud and bugs." Aang confirmed.
Sokka was silent for a beat. "Okay." He shrugged.
I stood on a rock in front of the waterfall, shirtless. I didn't want to burn my clothes away, after all. I started shooting fireballs at the water. When the fireballs hit the water, they exploded and I got splashed by ice cold river water. It wasn't long before I was shivering.
Dammit! I couldn't quit now, I needed all the practice I could get! I needed to warm myself up and keep going!
Wait. That's it! I remember Zuko breathing fire to survive in the North Pole. If I could do that, I'd be fine! I tried to focus the breath in my body. I got a little warmer, but when I breathed out, I just coughed up some smoke. I tried again, concentrating harder. The second time, it worked. Warmth bathed my body from my lungs all the way to my fingers. I wasn't shivering anymore. Fire shot out of my mouth about a foot in front of me. I couldn't use it as an attack, but I wouldn't freeze to death anytime soon.
I mentally patted myself on the back for figuring out breath of fire. I went back to shooting fireballs at the waterfall. I started experimenting, trying to change the size by focusing my energy. I made them bigger. Now they were about the size of a beach ball, as opposed to the size of my fist. I tried again and I doubled the size. I had to take another break to warm myself back up.
"Okay, I can make them bigger." I thought. "Now, what happens if I try to compress them?"
I made the biggest fireball I could. I tried to shrink it down, but still keep the same amount of fire. It started to become unstable. I threw it away, but not quickly enough.
BOOM!
"FUCK!" I screamed.
My right hand got burned in the explosion. The normally fair skin was now a deep, angry red. I dropped to my knees in agony. I cursed myself and my recklessness. I wasn't good enough to make fire bombs! What the fuck was I thinking?!
Aang and Katara stopped practicing and ran over to me."Alec, are you okay?!" Katara asked frantically. She took a look at my hand and gasped. "Oh my gosh!"
"Do we have any medicine for that?" Aang asked quickly.
Katara shook her head. "No! And if we don't do something quickly, he could get really sick!"
I tried to think through the pain. We needed to fix my hand. I needed a doctor! Or a healer!
Oh, right. I would've facepalmed if my dominant hand wasn't a burned mess. "Katara." I said through gritted teeth. "I need you to grab my hand and put it in the water."
"We don't have time, we need to find a doctor." She insisted.
"Just do it!" I shouted in pain.
She tentatively grabbed my hand and put it in the river. As soon as both our hands touched the water, a light blue glow formed around our hands. The pain immediately subsided. A few seconds later, the glowing stopped. I pulled our hands from the water. My hand was now completely healed, as if the burn had never happened.
Aang and Katara stared at my hand in awe. "What just happened?" Katara whispered. "Did I do that?"
I smiled and nodded. "Yep. You have healing abilities. Some waterbenders have the gift for it. I knew about it because of the story. You didn't learn about it until a little later, but there's no harm in you knowing now."
"That's amazing, Katara!" Aang said earnestly.
Katara got over her amazement and went into 'mom mode'. "I think you've had enough practice for today, Alec." She said seriously.
I rubbed the back of my head in embarrassment. "Yeah, I just learned the hard way not to compress fireballs." I agreed.
Sokka ran up to us. He was soaking wet. "I heard the explosion. What happened?" He asked seriously.
"I kinda almost blew myself up." I admitted sheepishly. "But Katara healed me, so I'm okay."
His eyes widened. "Wait. Katara healed you? How!?"
"It's a waterbending thing." I explained. "Why are you soaking wet?" I asked.
"Because a certain monk got too excited, made a big wave, and washed our supplies down the river." Sokka answered, glaring at Aang.
"Sorry," Aang apologized. "I'm sure we can find some way to replace all this stuff."
Sokka shook his head. "My life was hard enough when you were just an airbender and Alec wasn't blowing things up." He grumbled.
We made our way to a seedy pier inhabited by a bunch of rough-looking types. My siblings were concerned by all the people glaring at us. Aang, being sweet and naive, had a big smile on his face. I made sure to hold my head high and return a few glares every now and then. I knew that if we looked timid, we would make ourselves a target.
We spent a few hours shopping until we replaced all our missing supplies. Thankfully we hadn't lost anything too valuable, just food and a few blankets. Sokka walked out of the last shop. "We've got exactly three copper pieces left from the money King Bumi gave us." He announced. "Let's spend it wisely."
I wasn't that worried. We hunted, fished and gathered most of our food anyway, so we didn't have much to spend money on. Katara even made our own soap out of animal fat and a few plants. "Make that two copper pieces, Sokka." Aang corrected. "I couldn't say no to this whistle." He pulled out a bison-shaped whistle from his tunic. He blew it, but no sound came out. Or, to be more accurate, we couldn't hear any sound come out.
"It doesn't even work." Sokka said. Momo made a squawking noise. "See, even Momo thinks it's a piece of junk." He pointed out.
Katara held her hand out. "No offense, Aang, but I'll hold the money from now on." She said gently. Aang handed over the money with a resigned look on his face.
Sokka and Katara started walking down the street. I tapped Aang on the shoulder. He turned and looked up at me.
"Whatever you do, don't lose that whistle." I told him. He nodded.
We moved to leave the pier and go back to camp. We just passed a ship on the dock when a man stepped out. He wore a light green tunic and dark green pants. He had a green headband and gold hoop earrings. "Earth Nation! Fire Nation! Water Nation! So long as bargains are your inclination, you're welcome here!" He announced. "Don't be shy, come on by!"
He spotted us and approached. "You there! I can see from your clothing that you're world traveling types. Perhaps I can interest you in some exotic curios?" He offered.
Aang was hooked. He was such a mark. "Sure! What are curios?" He asked.
"Unusual items, usually valued as curiosities." I explained.
The barker nodded. "Exactly!" He grabbed Aang and took him to the ship.
The ship's hold was full of a rare assortment of objects. Furniture, pottery, rugs, a few small statues, but nothing interested me. Besides, we didn't exactly have money to spend. Aang browsed through everything, even though I was certain he didn't know what half the stuff was. Katara looked briefly at a monkey statue with rubies for eyes.
Suddenly a gravelly voice spoke. "I've never seen such a fine specimen of lemur."
We turned around. A man stepped forward. He had long, grey hair and wrinkles on his face. He wore a red outfit and hat, both of which had white trimming. A green iguana parrot perched on his shoulder. Honestly, the only thing he was missing from the 'stereotypical pirate checklist' was an eyepatch. "That beast would fetch me a hefty sum if you'd be interested in bartering." He continued.
Aang held the lemur close to his chest. "Momo's not for sale." He said firmly.
"Look at this, Aang!" Katara said behind us excitedly. She held a scroll in her hands. "It's a waterbending scroll. Check out these crazy moves."
"Where did you get a waterbending scroll?" Aang asked the captain.
The captain grabbed the scroll and rolled it back up before putting it back on the shelf where Katara found it. "Let's just say I got it up north at a most reasonable price: free."
"Wait a minute." Sokka realized. "Sea-loving traders with suspiciously acquired merchandise and pet reptile birds? You guys are pirates!" He accused the barker.
The barker smiled and put his hand around Sokka's shoulder. "We prefer to think of ourselves as high-risk traders." He said cheekily.
Katara turned back to the captain. "So, how much for the traded scroll?" She asked.
"I've already got a buyer." The captain replied quickly. "A nobleman in the Earth Kingdom. Unless, of course, you kids have two hundred gold pieces on you right now."
Aang got close to my sister. "I know how to deal with these guys, Katara." He said. "Pirates love to haggle."
I decided to intervene. I had a question for the captain anyway. "No, Aang." I said firmly. "I don't care how good you are, you can't haggle down to two copper from an asking price of two hundred gold. Just take a look around."
Aang sighed. "Okay."
Katara looked crestfallen. I pulled her out of the captain's sight line and whispered in her ear. "I have a few questions for the captain. He should be busy with me for a few minutes. Use that time however you like." I finished with a wink. Katara got the message and nodded.
"So," I walked up to the captain, "Speaking of scrolls, I'm curious: do you have any firebending scrolls?"
The captain's eyes went wide. "Are you crazy?" He growled.
I was confused. "Am I missing something?" I asked.
"Those are heavily banned by the Fire Nation. They enforce that ban with the threat of death." The captain explained. "I'm a high-risk trader, but I'm not suicidal."
Figures. The Fire Nation didn't want their enemies to study firebending and come up with countermeasures. Of course they kept a tight lid on firebending scrolls. I'd have to wait to learn more firebending for a while. Oh well.
I shrugged. "That's okay. I didn't know." I said. "Thanks for the information." The captain nodded curtly.
Katara walked up to me. "Can we get out of here? I feel like we're getting weird looks."
I knew what that meant. I nodded and followed her off the ship.
As soon as we left the ship, Aang spoke up. "What was that all about, Katara?" He asked.
"Yeah," Sokka added, "I was just starting to browse through their boomerang collection."
"Get ready to run." I said in a low voice. The boys rounded on me. "What do you mean?" Sokka asked.
"Hey you! Get back here!" I heard the barker yell from behind us.
We turned and saw five pirates approaching us with various pointy objects aimed directly at us. "Run!" I yelled. We made a break for it, with the pirates in hot pursuit. Time to make the pursuit even hotter. I launched several large fireballs back at them through the streets. They were forced to duck into alleys to avoid them, but a few made contact and the pirates were knocked back, their clothes scorched and their skin burned. They screamed in pain. I didn't enjoy hurting them, but I would do anything to protect my family.
We ran past a vegetable cart. Sokka and Katara bumped into it. I managed to get around it without hitting it. Aang jumped over it and then sent a massive current of air behind him, knocking the cart into our pursuers.
"My cabbages!" A familiar voice screamed. "This place is worse than Omashu!"
"Ah, there it is." I thought with a smile.
Unlike the original story, we were able to evade the pirates until they stopped chasing us. I guess they didn't think the scroll was worth getting roasted over. We made it out of the city and ran back to camp once we were sure they weren't following us.
We got back to the campsite by late afternoon.
"I used to kind of look up to pirates, but those guys are terrible." Aang said.
"I know." Katara said with a sly smile. "That's why I took this." She pulled the scroll out of her bag.
"No way!" Aang exclaimed. "Isn't it great?!" Katara said with excitement.
"No wonder they were trying to hack us up." Sokka realized. "You stole their waterbending scroll!"
"They stole it, too." I pointed out.
"It doesn't matter." Sokka said. "Katara put all of our lives in danger just so you could learn some stupid, fancy splashes!" He threw up his hands in frustration.
I bristled. Sokka's dismissive attitude towards bending was really starting to irritate me. "Sokka," I said lowly, "If it weren't for her 'stupid, fancy splashes', I'd still have a nasty burn on my hand and probably be sick with an infection by now. Don't dismiss bending."
"If it weren't for your stupid fireballs, you wouldn't have been burned." He accused.
Oh, he was gonna play that card? "We might not have escaped without my 'stupid fireballs'!" I retorted, getting in his face.
"What do you mean?" Aang asked. I took a deep breath and backed down.
"In the original story, the pirates kept chasing you until you got cornered in an alley." I explained. "You escaped by gliding away with Sokka and Katara holding onto the glider. I didn't know if that would work this time, so I made it too dangerous for them to chase us."
Aang tilted his head in confusion. "Why wouldn't that have worked this time?"
"You barely managed to fly with two other people hanging onto the glider." I stated. "I wasn't sure if you could get off the ground with three extra people, so I just shot fireballs at the pirates every chance I got to make them leave us alone."
Aang nodded. "You're right. I probably couldn't." He admitted.
I turned to my brother. "Listen Sokka. They need to get better at waterbending. Don't you want every possible advantage if we get in a fight?" I knew treating this like a combat situation would appeal to Sokka's warrior mentality.
Sokka sighed. "Fine, whatever." That was about as good as I could hope for in this situation.
"Well, we have the scroll, so we might as well learn from it." Aang said.
Katara poured over the scroll. "I just wanna try this one move first, and then it's all yours." She said to Aang. "Here, hold it open for me." She handed him the scroll and Aang held it up like a cue card.
Katara studied the pictures on the scroll. "The single water whip. Looks doable." She attempted to mimic the moves in the scroll, but ended up smacking herself in the forehead with the whip. I winced. That had to hurt. Sokka just laughed at her.
She turned to our brother and glared. "What's so funny?" She asked lowly.
"I'm sorry, but you deserved that." Sokka replied. He turned to Aang. "You've been duped. She's only interested in teaching herself."
"Aang will get his turn once I figure out the water whip." She insisted. She tried again. This time, the whip hit Momo, who screeched angrily.
"Ugh! Why can't I get this stupid move?!" She exclaimed in frustration.
"You'll get it." Aang said in an attempt to reassure her. He put the scroll down and walked to the water's edge. "You've just gotta shift your weight through the stances." He said, executing the move perfectly. "There. See? The key to bending is-"
Katara interrupted. "Will you please shut your air hole!" She yelled, getting in his face. "Believe it or not, your infinite wisdom gets a little old sometimes! Why don't we just throw the scroll away since you're so naturally gifted?!"
"Katara!" I barked sharply.
She glared at me. "What!?" I pointed at Aang. She turned to face him.
I felt bad for Aang. He was just trying to help her, and all she did was yell at him. Aang's eyes shone with hurt, and his lip quivered slightly. I could tell he was on the verge of tears. To her credit, Katara immediately realized what she'd done wrong.
"Oh my gosh, Aang." She said, her voice full of remorse. "I'm so sorry, I don't know what came over me." She picked up the scroll and rolled it up. "But you know what? It won't happen again." She said firmly. She handed him the scroll. "Here, this is yours. I don't want to have anything to do with it anymore."
"It's okay, Katara." Aang said, accepting her apology immediately.
"What about Momo?" Sokka indicated the lemur who was still rubbing his bruised backside. "He's the real victim here."
"I'm sorry, Momo." Katara said kindly, giving the lemur an affectionate pat.
"And what about me?" Sokka continued. "There was that time you-"
"No more apologies!" Katara said firmly.
That night, I pretended to fall asleep when everybody else did. I kept my eyes open just enough to see. Eventually, Katara got up from her sleeping bag, grabbed the scroll, and wandered off into the woods. I waited a few seconds and followed after her. She was pretty easy to find. All I had to do was follow the frustrated grunts.
"Shoot! Come on, water! Work with me here!" She said in frustration.
"You know, getting angry won't help." I said, revealing my presence.
She spun around, eyes wide. She relaxed a little when she saw it was just me, but she was still embarrassed about getting caught. "What are you doing here?" She asked.
"Following you." I said. "It's dangerous to wander off at night by yourself."
She looked down, guiltily. "I'm sorry. I just really want to figure this out."
"I get it." I said gently. "It's frustrating that Aang gets this stuff so quickly, isn't it?"
"Yeah." She admitted.
"I envy you, you know." I admitted.
She looked at me and tilted her head in confusion. "Why?"
"You actually found a scroll." I said. "If what that pirate said is true, it's unlikely I'll find one. Also, the master waterbenders are on our side. The master firebenders aren't. Plus, I can't experiment without risking burning myself or someone else."
She nodded. "Yeah, I guess I'm pretty lucky. I've always had to figure out waterbending for myself until now, and I just went crazy after I finally got to learn some proper moves."
Suddenly, we heard a scraping noise. We immediately tensed. We tiptoed over and poked my head through the bushes. We spotted Zuko's riverboat. "Shit." I cursed. Katara didn't bother to correct me this time. We ran back to the clearing, and came face to face with a pirate. We doubled back, and ran headlong into Prince Daddy-Issues himself.
"I'll save you from the pirates." He said.
I just rolled my eyes. "You mean the pirates that you probably led here?" I pointed out. "How generous of you." I snarked.
"Silence, traitor!" He barked.
Katara and I each got tied up to a tree. We were completely surrounded by pirates and Fire Nation soldiers. Iroh was also there. It was a bit ironic that the most powerful man in that group was also the one I feared the least. I noticed that several of the pirates had singed clothes and pretty nasty-looking burns.
Zuko turned to me. "I wouldn't burn through those ropes if I were you." He said. I knew he had a point. I was completely surrounded and outgunned. Plus, Katara was tied up, too.
"Tell me where he is, and I won't hurt you two or your brother." He ordered.
"Go jump in the river!" Katara spat.
"And after that, go fuck yourself!" I added.
Zuko tried to play good cop. "Try to understand." He said to my sister, walking around the tree she was tied against. "I need to capture him to restore something I've lost: my honor."
Honestly, If I had a gold piece every time he said that word, I'd be richer than the Earth King.
"Perhaps in exchange," Zuko continued, "I can restore something you've lost." He held up Katara's necklace.
Ah yes, I remember this: the scene that launched the Zutara ship. Silly Zutara shippers. You're supposed to tie the girl up only after you start dating, and only if she says yes. Doing it before and without permission is just creepy.
"My mother's necklace!" Katara exclaimed. "Where did you get that?"
"I didn't steal it, if that's what you're wondering." He replied.
"You picked it up off the ground, and instead of returning it, you're holding it hostage." I pointed out. "That's stealing."
Zuko turned to me. "You know, that reminds me. I wonder how you know so much about myself and the Fire Nation."
Shit. That wasn't good.
"I'm too busy to interrogate you right now, but maybe my uncle can get you to talk." He turned to the old man. "Uncle, take him away and find out where he's from, and what he knows."
I gulped. This was a bad situation. On the plus side, I'd get to talk to my second-favorite character from the show. On the downside, I knew that most of Iroh's harmless old man act was a facade, and he was extremely clever. I needed to tread carefully.
Two of Zuko's men led me about twenty feet away, each one holding an elbow. Iroh walked with us. Iroh had the guards leave the two of us alone. I looked the old general in the eyes. He didn't show any emotion. I knew that didn't mean anything, though. I decided to speak first.
"General Iroh, the Dragon of the West." I said respectfully. "I'd bow, but I'm a little tied up right now."
He smiled and I saw a slight twinkle in his eye. "It's fine." He assured me. "My nephew is curious about your origins, and is convinced you're a traitor to the Fire Nation. He wonders about how you knew about his scar and about his duel with Commander Zhao." He said.
I had thought of a brief excuse. "I'm not a traitor to the Fire Nation." I began. "I can't betray a country I've never served, after all."
Iroh nodded. "I see. Where are you from exactly?"
I took a deep breath. I gave him my 'born near Senlin Village and crashed into the Water Tribe' story. After I finished my story, Iroh just looked at me thoughtfully. "Perhaps." He finally said. "Your story is certainly plausible, but it doesn't explain how you know the things you know."
Time to see if I could bullshit one of the wisest men in the world. "That's easy." I said. "Soldiers love to drink on shore leave. All you have to do to hear the latest Fire Nation gossip is go to any tavern in occupied territory, sit in a corner, and keep your ears open." I lied. "Something juicy like a Commander losing to a teenager spreads pretty quickly."
"I suppose." He admitted. "Why do you fight with the Avatar?"
I looked him in the eye. "It's a choice between bringing balance back to the world, or the Fire Nation crushing everyone else under its boot." I said. "I think we both know this war is causing nothing but pain."
Iroh's eyes widened for a fraction of a second before returning to normal. "You are a very strange young man." He said with a small smile.
I returned the smile. "You're pretty unusual yourself."
Iroh took me back to my sister. The soldiers retied me to the tree. I noticed that the pirates were gone, presumably hunting down Aang and Sokka. Zuko turned to his uncle.
"Well?" He asked, raising his only remaining eyebrow.
Iroh shrugged. "He claims he was born in the colonies."
"And how he knew the information?" Zuko prompted.
Another shrug. "He says he snuck into taverns where Fire Nation soldiers were drinking and gossiping."
"You guys really like to cut loose on shore leave." I commented.
Zuko pinched the bridge of his nose. "I don't need to deal with drunken sailors running their mouths." He muttered. "I have enough problems already."
A few hours later, the pirates returned with Aang and Sokka.
"Aang, this is all my fault." Katara apologized.
"No, Katara, it isn't." Aang replied kindly.
"Yeah, it kind of is." Iroh piped up. I barely kept my laughter in check. Iroh was such a treasure.
Zuko addressed the pirates. "Give me the boy."
"You give us the scroll." The captain responded.
I could see an idea forming in Sokka's head. "You're really gonna hand over the Avatar for a stupid piece of parchment?" He asked the captain.
"Don't listen to him! He's trying to turn us against each other!" Zuko quickly replied.
The captain looked at Aang. "Your friend is the Avatar?"
"Sure is." Sokka confirmed. "And I'll bet he'll fetch a lot more on the black market than that fancy scroll."
"Shut your mouth, you Water Tribe peasant!" Zuko shouted.
"Yeah, Sokka, you really should shut your mouth." Aang warned. Sokka ignored him.
"I'm just saying, it's bad business sense." My brother pointed out. "Just imagine how much the Fire Lord would pay for the Avatar. You guys would be set for life."
He had them convinced. "Keep the scroll." The captain said to Zuko. "We can buy a hundred with the reward we'll get for the kid." The pirates turned to leave.
"You'll regret breaking a deal with me." Zuko said dangerously. And with that, he attacked.
Zuko shot a fireball at the pirates, scattering them. The pirate barker threw several smoke bombs at him and the soldiers, enveloping them, along with Katara and me in a massive cloud of smoke. I took advantage and burned away the ropes binding my hands. Momo chewed through Katara's ropes. We made a break for it and made it to the pirate ship. Katara and I tried to push it into the water, but it was too heavy.
Sokka and Aang caught up with us. We tried to push the ship again, but even with four of us, it wasn't enough. "We need a team of rhinos to budge this ship." Sokka lamented.
"A team of rhinos…or two waterbenders." Aang suggested. He and Katara managed to bend enough water under the ship to make it float. We hopped in and sailed down the river. We soon noticed that the pirates had 'commandeered' Zuko's boat and were gaining on us. I shot several fireballs at them, and managed to hit a few pirates, knocking them down and burning them.
The pirates pulled up alongside us and boarded the ship. Aang bent a massive wave and knocked one pirate off the ship. Katara executed a perfect water whip and knocked off another. I was too busy shooting off fireballs to hear Aang congratulate her. The pirate barker approached Aang with a knife. Aang pulled out his whistle and blew into it. Sokka snuck up behind the barker and knocked him overboard.
Aang and Katara suddenly noticed that our ship was sailing straight towards a waterfall. They used waterbending to stop the ship. It worked, until Zuko's boat crashed into the ship, tipping it over and sending us over the waterfall's edge. Luckily, Appa heard Aang blow the whistle earlier, and caught us before we fell to our deaths.
A few hours later, Katara spoke up to Aang.
"Aang, I'm sorry. You were just so good at waterbending without really trying. I got so competitive that I put us all in danger."
"That's okay, Katara." Aang replied with a smile.
"Besides, who needs that stupid scroll anyway?" Katara said.
Sokka pulled said scroll out of his bag. "Is that really how you feel?" He taunted.
Katara perked up. "The scroll!"
Sokka held it out of her reach. "First, what did you learn?"
"That stealing is wrong." Then she grabbed the scroll and smirked. "Unless it's from pirates!"
We all laughed.
AN: The next chapter will be the reason this story earns an M rating. Just be warned.
