Author's Notes: Sorry, Menamebephil, but I decided to go with the original chapter title for this one xD
Again, Aang's dreams are in no certain order. This one takes place shortly after the group's escape from imprisonment in Ba Sing Se (and the death of Haru) and after Zuko and Katara's unexpected kiss that caused a rift to form between Aang and Zuko, and after Katara subsequently blew up at both of them. However, this is right before Aang and Sokka's discussion from a few chapters back about the way they wanted to die. Sorry if it's a bit confusing :)
Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender and I am in no way associated with the creators of the show.
Book 2: Earth
Chapter 7: The Chase
He trusted Suki. She was as much a part of their gang now as anyone else, Haru included.
But now, due to the agents of the Dai Li and Azula's machinations, Aang and Suki were the only two left to stand against the tyrannical firebender. They were both clad in their Earth Kingdom disguises – Suki in her old Full Moon Bay guard uniform – for that was where they were currently fighting.
They were fighting atop a mountain pass, racing to defeat Azula before she could personally destroy the hidden shrine – one holding an orphanage of children who lost the most recent casualties to the war… Ozai's rain of destruction on the Earth Kingdom. And the Princess was doing this only to further lower their morale and eliminate any survivors. With the help of the Dai Li, she scaled up the treacherous mountain pass.
Only Aang was agile enough to follow her. With the Dai Li obstructing the paths of everyone else, only Suki was able to keep up with him. And she did it well – the Kyoshian wasn't even out of breath. They reached the mountain summit. Snow lay at their feet.
"Hmm," Azula hummed, "It seems that the Dai Li couldn't beat back all of your annoying friends." She sent a significant glare at Suki. "My favorite prisoner… You have no place in this fight."
Aang wasn't quite sure how it happened, but having Suki at his side was much better than being alone. Though he feared for her safety…
The Kyoshi Warrior drew her gleaming gold fans. "We'll see about that. I've gotten a lot stronger," she said with a smirk.
Azula rolled her eyes. "Don't you remember what happened last time?"
Suki was about to bite back, but Aang held out a hand and stopped her. "She's just trying to bait you. It's better not to talk to Azula before you fight her. Trust me, I know from experience."
"Fine, then," she said determinedly. "Actions speak louder than words, anyway!"
She sprang into a dash, propelled forward by Aang who pushed up the earth beneath her feet. Speeding up to her side, he bent the snow into sharp icicles, pushing Azula into a dodge. Suki redirected her momentum with a kick off of an outcropping of rocks, catching one of Azula's arms in a grip between her sharp fans. Azula's free hand readied to shoot fire at her, but Aang threw a rock at her fist, completely obscuring it. Azula used the force from his attack to bend back into a kick, hitting Suki in the gut. More rocks circled around Aang, sliding across the ground and at Azula's feet.
The firebender had to keep moving after that. Aang shot a platform up from the ground beneath Suki, catapulting her above Azula, nearly axe-kicking her in the head. Azula barely dodged the unexpected attack, causing Suki's foot to dig into her shoulder and pounce off. Pivoting as soon as she landed, Suki shot right back toward the firebender, flicking her fans open fast enough to dispel one of her blasts of blue fire, then flicking them shut again to punch her across the face.
Azula flew backwards, reeling from the blow, but quickly stumbled to her feet, snarling. A few strands of hair had fallen out of her constricting topknot.
"I don't know what's going on with Azula, but something's off," Aang speculated calmly, hiding his surprise at Suki's close combat skills. He had never really had a chance to witness her in action…
"She's been like this ever since she killed Mai and Ty Lee," Suki said, narrowing her eyes.
"You may have gotten better," Azula said sharply, apparently not hearing them, "But I'll still kill you both!" Wisely keeping her distance this time, Azula shot fistfuls of flame at the two, but Aang stepped in front of Suki and swatted most of them away with his staff. When she started shooting them with varying blasts of fire, Aang had some unexpected difficulty holding them off. He couldn't outright dodge them, because he was supposed to be protecting Suki. Moving her to the side would leave her exposed – she was right behind him.
When Aang turned his head for a fraction of a second to check on her, he almost did a double take, an action that would have cost him his life. Suki was gone, but now she was running at Azula from the side. The firebender hadn't noticed, continuing to unload a barrage of attacks on the Avatar, until Suki smacked her foot against her face.
Azula was sent reeling again, giving Aang an opening to shift the ground beneath her, disrupting her balance further. Suki attacked her wide open defense, pummeling her in the gut with her fists. Azula gasped in pain but managed to stop her fall with a hand, sweeping out both her legs in a wave of blue fire, tripping Suki and immediately reversing their positions. Luckily for the Kyoshian, Aang was at her side and bounced her right back up with snow, and the two girls engaged in a fist fight. Azula's attacks were punctuated by flames, but Suki unfolded her fans to catch and dissipate all of the fire, a dangerous enemy to Azula at close range.
Azula, growing more frustrated, turned and was on the move, trying to put distance between them. She continuously hurled fireballs at Suki, but Azula was faster. Aang rushed to catch up to them, and knowing that Suki could handle herself, he helped propel her back into the fray by creating a ramp of ice that she slid upon. In an attempt to distract Azula, he lobbed a stone over Suki's head and ran at his highest speed to gain momentum and throw all of the displaced air at her that he could.
"Just face it, Azula!" Aang yelled to her. "You can't take us both at once!" Azula had reached one of the mountain's ridges, successfully gaining a height advantage. It did nothing to protect her from Aang, who continually attacked her with spinning strands of water and spikes that emerged from the ground beneath her, occasionally expelling a blast of fire with his own in midair.
"And definitely not all three of us!" shouted the voice of Sokka, emerging from below. Aang's eyes widened.
"Sokka! The Dai Li!" he yelled, trying to fight off Azula as much as he could while Suki climbed right after her. He thrust an arc of wind into a flaming blue inferno that rushed after him.
"Katara, Toph, and Zuko are handling them," Sokka said, scuffed but barely wounded from his battle with the Dai Li as he hefted his black sword. "Let's take Azula down once and for all!"
"If you've got such an advantage in numbers I might as well lower them a bit!" Azula shouted back, smirking, as she began to circle her arms, weaving the deadly lightning attack as it crackled along her fingers and up and down her whole arm. Aang's eyes widened as he fervently hoped that Azula would attack him or Sokka. He'd be able to defend Sokka and redirect the lightning, but if Suki was so far away from him… He wasn't about to leave Sokka's side.
Suki continued to crawl up the mountain's rigid side, finding every rocky handhold she could and climbing it without the aid of firebending, like Azula used. She found the tiny path that Azula was currently standing on, and started to run after her. Azula had her eyes set on Aang – she'd be able to interrupt the attack…
Aang knew what was going to happen before it did. Azula's smirk was dark and malicious as she turned her eyes from Aang to Suki, who was quickly approaching her from the side. Holding her lightning in her hands like a monstrous snake, she suddenly plunged her fingers into Suki's direction, and would have struck her right in the chest if Aang didn't manage to propel his friend into the air with a pillar of stone in time. Instead, Azula's attack exploded the rock into millions of molten hot pieces, and Suki was soaring through the air right above her. Azula saw this, and before anyone could do anything else, a second bolt shot from her hand and struck Suki with deadly accuracy, blasting her right out of the air, throwing her right off the mountain.
"No!" Aang yelled, anguished, as Suki fell to her death. He was almost of a mind to jump right after her, but Sokka running to attack Azula without any reasoning in his mind immediately set him right back on the offensive. "Sokka, get back! I'll handle her!"
"No, I'm going to kill her!!" he roared, his voice blazing with hatred. Azula smirked but did nothing as a black form began to rise behind her, bringing with it the sound of an engine. One of the airships in her fleet had arrived, and it was coming to take her away…
"So sorry about your little girlfriend, Sokka," she said, giving him a mock pout. Her image of perfection was marred by Suki's many strikes in the battle, something that Azula would carry with her for a long time. But victory had settled her mind. "You can still save your stupid little orphans. Destroying that shrine really wouldn't matter in the long run anyway. Until next time!" She dismissed them with a quick wave, and once the airship flew away, Sokka fell to his knees and sobbed.
Aang, weak-kneed, almost joined him when the others united with them on the mountaintop. Katara looked at them in horror. "Was that… just Suki?"
The sight of Sokka and Aang's defeat was the only answer she received.
"Aang, wake up!"
The Avatar groggily opened his eyes, waking up to the glares of the sun and Azula. "What's wrong?" he asked, immediately at attention.
"Sokka's gone." Her answer was absolute.
"What? Where did he go?" Aang asked, sitting up and looking all around the camp.
"We don't know. Zuzu thinks he ran away during the night. He's out looking for him now," she answered. Despite the situation, Aang felt immense gratitude for his friends for going through the effort to find out what happened to the waterbender, even though neither of the two liked him. They respected Aang's wishes.
Aang didn't move. Instead, he calmly speculated Azula as she sat by his side. "You look as if you haven't slept at all," he said to her. Her hair was becoming slightly more frazzled by the day and dark bags seemed to be under her eyes often lately. She looked like a mess. Was she bothered by her decision to help Jet?
"So? Are you implying that I should have been awake to notice Sokka as he left? Well, I didn't. The stupid oaf turned out to have been very stealthy," she replied immediately, slightly offended.
Aang put up his hands in a gesture of surrender. "I didn't mean to imply anything. I'm kind of worried about you." He felt odd saying this. This was usually Katara's department…
She crossed her arms haughtily. "There's nothing to worry about. I'm fine." Then she glared at him. "Aren't you going to attempt to look for Sokka?"
Surprising himself, Aang answered quickly. "No." At her raised eyebrow, he decided to explain himself. "I finally realized that Sokka's place isn't with us yet. If he really wanted to go, I had no reason to keep him prisoner. It would just cause him to hate us even more." In his world, Prince Zuko must have experienced something to change his decision and his destiny. And, with Iroh imprisoned, Aang realized that Zuko did it all on his own. Maybe Sokka needed some time to figure out what he wanted.
She glared at him again. "You're really weird, you know that? After all that we've been through with that dork, you're perfectly fine with letting him go?"
"We'll run into him again," Aang told her confidently. "Trust me."
She rolled her eyes. "Whatever you say."
The riding was surprisingly smooth, though Katara shouldn't have expected anything less. Second only to eel hounds in terms of speed, snow panthers hailed directly from the Southern Water Tribe, Katara's own home, so they were tough, lethal, and perfectly efficient for travel. Like the people of the Water Tribes, the snow panthers had no problem adapting to the environment, so taking them away from the snowfields didn't bother them in the least. And now, with the royal sloop behind her, Katara and her friends were able to track the Avatar and her brother with the utmost speed.
First, they were tracking by Sokka's scent, until Suki spotted thick, white, coarse fur just about everywhere. Katara had never seen the creature, but she was sure it was the Avatar's bison.
Katara, Yue, and Suki continued to travel through the harsh deadlands of the Earth Kingdom, intent on their quarry as they rode upon the gigantic, white snow panthers. Their monstrous paws pounded against the hard, dry ground as they bounded forward. The girls in their black, tight-fitting clothes made a sharp contrast to the flawlessly white fur.
As they rode, Katara noticed a somewhat disturbed look on her friend. "Anything bothering you, Yue?"
"No," the white-haired girl hesitantly answered. She was ducked low over her snow panther, her white hair seeming to blend in with the fur, but being sharply distinguished by her black bangs.
"Do not show any hesitancy over fighting the Avatar. It could get you killed. We need to save Sokka, remember?" Yue usually kept her thoughts to herself, but to Katara, she was so easy to read.
Yue set her jaw, nodding almost regally. She would show bravery to Katara when she fought against the Avatar.
She could not disappoint her friends… Or Sokka.
Zuko came back a short while later, bearing nothing from his search for the waterbender. Aang told him that he didn't mind and Azula relayed the things he said to her. Zuko seemed to be slightly angry about it, but said nothing else to the confusing airbender. Instead, he tried to remind Aang of what they should have been doing before getting sidetracked with the Freedom Fighters.
"So, Gaoling, right?" he asked as they packed up camp. Aang stopped removing the traces of their camp with sudden abruptness.
"Uh… I don't know," he admitted. If Toph wasn't there, what was the whole point of going? It suddenly occurred to him that he didn't have a single aim in mind. With Bumi and Toph gone, who could be his earthbending master? Haru? But he was all the way in the Fire Nation…
He was still determined to have Toph be his teacher, but he had no idea where she could have gone. Could she have wanted to travel back to Gaoling, her home, to find her parents? No… Toph was an orphan in this world, and her home town most likely destroyed in a raid. What was Toph going to do? What was Aang going to do?
"What do you mean?" Azula asked him, eyeing the boy suspiciously.
"Well... I'm kinda set on having Toph as my teacher," he replied.
"Who's Toph?" Zuko asked. Aang's eyes widened when he realized his slip.
"Uh… Bandit, that blind earthbender in the Freedom Fighters, remember?"
Azula rolled her eyes. "How could I forget that obnoxious, dirty girl?"
Aang immediately jumped to her defense. "Hey, she's my friend. Don't you dare say anything like that about her in my presence." Azula raised an eyebrow, staring at him skeptically.
"How do you know her real name, anyway?" she asked.
"She told me once," he replied, averting his eyes. Azula's eyes narrowed, growing angry as jealousy flared to life again somewhere in her stomach. How close did the Avatar and the earthbender get? She never told anyone else her name – that much she knew.
Zuko, not sensing the tension between the two, asked another question. "So how do you plan on going about finding her? She didn't seem too keen on joining us when you asked."
"I'll find a way," Aang replied.
Azula was bored.
They were currently flying on the back of Appa, flying low, trying to find any trace of the blind earthbender that Aang so wanted as a teacher. His reasoning was that she couldn't have gotten far, and something deep down told him she was close. Aang was searching attentively on his glider for the girl while Zuko was at Appa's reins and Azula hung to the back of the saddle, staring jadedly across the bleak, uninteresting lands of the Earth Kingdom. What was the point of looking for "Toph" if she didn't want to be Aang's teacher in the first place?
And Azula had to admit to herself that she missed having Sokka around, if only to tease him and relieve her of her boredom. The waterbender was such a better target than her brother because he fought back instead of getting angry or whiny, or just plain ignoring her.
In her musings, Azula did not fail to notice the three white figures running across the barren plains with unusual speed. Sitting up with a little more attentiveness, she spotted with her keen, amber eyes that they had one rider each, clad completely in black. "Hey, Zuzu?" the firebender called, alerting her brother. "Someone's following us."
Katara examined the flying bison above her, unable to believe the magic creature existed until she saw it with her own eyes. She smirked upon seeing them and pulled down her blue oni mask, concealing her features and hiding her hair. She discovered often that if she hid her gender from her (mostly male) enemies, they would fight her more seriously, unwilling to hit a girl or something stupid like that. Katara didn't mind – it was much, much more satisfying to lift her mask and reveal her gender to the foes she defeated.
She wanted a fair fight with the Avatar. And he was going to give it to her. She ordered Suki and Yue to wear masks, too.
Upon seeing that the figures on the bison noticed her (the Avatar, on his glider, was in the distance and would hopefully stop along with the bison), Katara waved. The raven-haired girl on the back of the bison – the Avatar's firebender, whom Katara had met before– notified the bison's driver, causing the huge beast to turn around and face the three girls on the ground.
Good. Maybe they thought she was friendly.
"Keep your masks on, girls," she muttered to her companions, not moving from the back of her snow panther. In the distance, the Avatar on his glider turned around and flew toward his companions. Katara smirked underneath her mask. On her right, Yue waved to them meekly.
"Who are you?" the firebender called. The Avatar landed on the ground a safe distance away from them, watching Katara curiously. With surprise, the Princess noted that he was much younger than she expected, but it was hard to tell his exact age because of the coldness and the dark past in his eyes. The waterbender put this to the back of her mind. She was a good reader of emotions, especially because the Avatar seemed to display them so openly.
Katara slid off the side of the hulking snow panther and approached the Avatar slowly, watching every single one of his moves – the stiffness of his legs, the tightened grip on his staff, to name a few – and drew her short, thin-bladed wakizashi. Immediately, the Avatar drew back somewhat.
"What do you want?" he asked aggressively. "Who are you?"
The Princess leapt into the attack as an answer, swinging her blade with deadly precision. The Avatar backflipped away and swung his staff, but she sidestepped the arc of wind that followed. The bison landed on the ground, which was accompanied by an orb of blue fire, which she avoided by rolling.
"You stay away from him!" the firebender yelled, pouncing off the bison's saddle. She took a firebending stance. "You're my opponent."
"No way," Suki denied, appearing at Katara's side and drawing her fans. The Water Princess didn't take her eyes off the Avatar, who did the same. He didn't even appear to notice the presence of Suki or Yue, who appeared when the swordsman dropped into the coming fight.
"Guys, shouldn't we get out of here?" Zuko asked his companions, holding his swords ready in front of him. He had his eyes on the figure in the noh mask, wielding a katana. These strange masked people seemed dangerous to him.
"No," Aang and Azula said at once. Zuko gripped his swords tighter.
Aang glared at the figure in the Blue Spirit mask, having encountered it once before in this world. He knew that, in his own world, it had connections to Zuko. Once before, he falsely assumed that it was Zuko again, until the mask was removed and it was Sokka who lured them into a trap.
Something told him that Sokka wasn't one of the masked ones now. They held themselves with much more grace, finesse, and deadliness than Sokka ever could. He was getting very bad vibes from these people, but instead of running, he had to know who was under them. With unspoken communication, the Blue Spirit became Aang's opponent. He threw his staff onto Appa's saddle – who dropped into his own fighting stance behind them – and drew his meteorite sword. He didn't know anyone who could wield a weapon like this Blue Spirit did.
He couldn't even tell the genders of these three people, except for the one in the nondescript green kabuki mask, who was female, judging by her voice. He failed to notice the gleaming gold fans she was wielding when she stepped forward to engage Azula in battle.
Aang made the first move, running forward with a swing of his sword at the Blue Spirit, which was blocked faster than he could blink with the thin wakizashi. The spirit (demon?) stepped under his sword and brought their own blade around in a swipe at his neck, but he blocked the blow again and jumped away, but went right into the attack again with quick swipes of the black sword.
Azula narrowed her eyes before she engaged in the fight with the figure in the kabuki mask. She knew who was under the Blue Spirit mask, having encountered her before, back when Aang and Zuko were sick and she was captured by the Water Tribes. She told neither of her companions of her experience, but when her rescuer was unconscious she removed the mask to find a Water Tribe girl underneath. She never expected to see her again. Now, she wished to fight her and prove she wasn't as weak as she was back then, needing to be rescued and ordered around. But Aang took that away from her.
Barely even noticing, Azula sent a red fireball in the vague direction of the girl in the kabuki mask, but the blast was dispelled by her golden fans as she rushed towards Azula to attack. Caught off guard, the firebender bent back, away from the swipe of one of the bladed fans as it narrowly missed her neck. The next thing she knew, her legs were swept out from beneath her, causing Azula to land painfully on her back. She glared up at the warrior above her, who must have been smirking underneath that horrid mask.
"Get back up and gimme a real fight!" she taunted. Electric blue flames erupted out of Azula's fists, distracting her opponent long enough for her to sweep out her legs and release a horizontal arc of blue across the ground in an attempt to trip her up. She didn't fall for the bait, but Azula rose to her feet. "That's more like it!"
Meanwhile, Zuko and his own opponent in the noh mask commenced their battle, beginning the deadly dance of blades. His opponent's katana was heavy and slightly difficult to block, but easy to parry. He was able to catch their weapon between both of his own, but the katana was able to twist itself free. The figure struck at Zuko again, faster than he could fully react to, ringing off of both his weapons with a surprising amount of strength. This attack was followed up by a horizontal strike to his midsection, which Zuko tried to avoid by jumping back. The very tip of his opponent's long katana grazed along his stomach, drawing blood. Zuko winced.
His opponent nearly dropped their sword, bringing both hands up to where their mouth would be in horror. "Oh, no! I'm so sorry! Did I hurt you?" she asked in a soft, but panicked, voice.
"It was nothing, really," Zuko said toughly, confused by her behavior. If these masked people were assassins, they were really bad at it.
Aang continued his fight with the Blue Spirit, sending spurts of air amidst the sword strikes at the figure's mask, trying to blast it off, but it held. The demon was fast and dangerous, as if able to predict his every move, read all of his actions, follow him everywhere… He tried to get some distance to firebend, but was thoroughly surprised when icicles were shot at him from the Blue Spirit's fingertips, revealing them as a waterbender. Small amounts of water were drawn from the air, sent careening through the air to slice at him. He blocked these tiny strikes with the flat of his blade, which sizzled into steam when his sword was lit aflame. The burning brand swiped at the Blue Spirit, who was quick enough to dodge out of the way, but Aang didn't notice the tiny movement and the miniscule blade of ice that appeared, ready to thrust into his neck. By pure luck, he moved to attack her with his firebending when he felt it graze his back.
His firebending attack was changed into an airbending one mid-stride as he attempted to blow the demon away from him. The wind swept the person away from him far enough to give him some breathing room. "Zuko, Azula, we've got to go!" These people seemed to be almost as deadly as Princess Azula. Something about them was extremely eerie, making his instincts tell him to just get away. He didn't know if his companions could deal with this kind of danger yet.
Aang's actions were purely evasive as he tried to get away from the Blue Spirit, who was giving him an unexpected amount of trouble. He leapt high into the air, surprised to see Appa under him, his back to the masked person, slamming his tail against the ground with enough force to rip up vicious winds that slammed into the Blue Spirit. Judging by the pained grunt, Aang ruled that she was female, a fact that thoroughly bewildered him. Who was under that mask?
He jumped onto his bison, being immediately greeted by the lemur Sabishi, and gazed at the battles still being played out below him. Zuko and Azula did not seem to have heard him, so with two outstretched hands, winds surrounded the fire siblings, he restricted them from fighting and pulled them away, hoisting the two right up into Appa's saddle. Without another word to their opponents, Appa ascended and put as much distance between them as possible.
"Who were they?" Zuko asked in wonder. "They were really good."
"Almost too good," Aang said, reminding him far too much of Princess Azula and her friends.
"The one with the fans was annoying," Azula sneered. "I was trying to dispose of her quickly and help you, Aang, but she proved tougher than I thought."
Aang sat straight with a start and looked at Azula. "Fans?" There was only one person he knew – or, more specifically, a group of persons – who could fight with fans. "Did you catch her name?"
Azula glanced questioningly at him, as if trying to read his mind. "No. Was I supposed to? 'Hey, I know we're fighting right now, but I really wanted to know your name.' Is that how you wanted me to ask?" she asked dryly.
Aang sighed and shook his head. Thinking back on it, he did see that one of the masked people wielded fans, but he was distracted more by the Blue Spirit mask. Could one of them have been Suki…? Also, the blade that the Blue Spirit handled was one he often saw Suki using…
"I don't get it," Aang said suddenly.
"What?"
"Those girls were Kyoshi Warriors," he said. "I recognized them."
"So?"
"Kyoshi Warriors are named after Avatar Kyoshi, and they're all Earth Kingdom, not Water Tribe. Why were they fighting us?" he asked them. "But… Then again, the one I was fighting was a waterbender…"
"Who cares about why?" Azula asked with disdain. With confusion plaguing his mind, Aang settled uneasily on putting as much distance as he could between them and the trio of girls.
"Why won't you just listen to me and get on it?" Toph snapped at him, clenching her fists and holding on tightly to the side of the ostrich-horse. She hadn't gotten on it yet, preferring her 'companion' to ride the beast and help her up. She didn't like it, but she had to ride together with the waterbender.
"But you stole it!" Sokka retorted.
"So? We'll never catch up with Aang without it!"
After quite a lot of arguing, Sokka finally relented and mounted the ostrich-horse, pulling Toph up behind him. Luckily, Sokka was an expert tracker and Toph could read footprints effortlessly with her earthbending, so they knew exactly where the Avatar and his friends had gone. As they rode forward, Sokka couldn't help but question the tiny earthbender.
"You really don't think that the Avatar and the others can handle my sister?" he asked her.
"He could just use a warning, that's all," she replied gruffly. She was clearly uncomfortable on top of the ostrich-horse. "Aang trusts you for some stupid reason, but I don't. I don't know why he does, but when we do eventually run into that pretty-pretty Princess that's your sister, you're probably gonna betray him. I can see right through you. I know what you're planning. And then he'll know that it was stupid to trust a waterbender."
"What the heck are you talking about? I haven't even done anything yet! And I don't know why he trusts me either. I haven't given him any reason to," Sokka replied. "Besides, that's a stupid thing to say when I'm currently holding you on to a moving ostrich-horse with your hands around my waist."
She ignored the jab. "Aha, so you confessed that you're not on his side!"
"Duh," he shot back. "And he should know that."
"That's weird. He gave us the impression back at the Freedom Fighter camp that you guys were friends." Toph screwed up her face in concentration. "That kid's weird. I don't understand him. His story keeps changing, but I can't tell if he's lying or not." And that was something that perplexed her further.
Sokka was confused by the Avatar's behavior from the beginning, but as he thought about what Toph was saying, he tried to picture a situation where his sister confronted the Avatar, with him stuck in the middle. And he didn't know whose side he'd be on.
He picked up momentum by sweeping as much air up as he could, jumping high, and coming down as hard as he could, releasing all the pent-up wind he had gathered from his movements. The torrential winds swept through the campsite, knocking away the girls in the noh and kabuki masks and giving them free space to escape. Azula and Zuko were already on Appa's back, throwing down fire and daggers at the three attacking girls. The bison flew into the sky and Aang followed on his glider.
"How do they keep finding us?" Zuko growled, once Aang landed in the saddle. "That's the third time they've attacked us when we were trying to sleep!"
"And we're not any closer to finding out who they are and what they want," Aang muttered.
"I know how they keep finding us," Azula said – she alone not seeming to suffer from the lack of sleep. She pulled on Appa's thick fur, pulling away a tuft of white hair. "Appa's shedding."
Aang, recognizing the situation, did not object to this. "Then there's only one thing we can do." He was going to reenact the same plan in his desire to get one of the girls alone and question her. He needed to know who they were. Something felt horribly wrong about them. Was it just coincidence that they were in the same area of the Earth Kingdom as last time?
Aang rummaged through the group's things and pulled out a satchel bag, setting to pull out as much of Appa's fur as he could and bagging it.
"What are you doing?" Azula asked with narrowed eyes.
"I'm going to set a false trail. You two will lead Appa in another direction," he told them.
"What if they all go after you, instead of splitting up?" Zuko asked.
"You guys forget that I have a glider and I can fly away," he informed. Once the bag was as full as he could get it, Aang unfurled said glider and prepared to jump off of Appa's back. "See you guys later."
"There are so many ways this plan can go wrong," Azula said to her brother once he was gone.
"Well… We're going to have to trust Aang," he said. "No matter how hard that's been lately."
"Says you," she replied, changing the direction of the bison, flying away from Aang.
"It seems we've given the Avatar and his friends too much credit," said the figure in the Blue Spirit mask as she knelt down to pick up a wad of hair. Katara rolled her eyes beneath her mask. "They could have at least washed their bison to try to throw us off their trail!"
"Instead, there are now two trails leading in two different directions," Yue observed serenely. She was personally tired of wearing the noh mask and the black, tight clothes, so she switched back into her heavy Water Tribe wear, folding her hands in her sleeves. Suki had done the same, preferring to wear her Kyoshi Warrior uniform and makeup.
"Should we do what they want us to and split up?" Suki asked, crossing her arms.
"Why not? I have no problem playing right into their game. We'll beat them anyway," Katara answered, her smirk resembling the one on the outside of the mask. "Suki, Yue, follow the original trail. Obviously, if you see my brother, you will free him. I will follow the newer trail."
White fur fell from the bag like snow, creating a false trail for the Avatar's three pursuers. Aang's face, lined very lightly with tiredness, was set grimly as he flew. He was as determined as ever to find the identity of the three girls, so he hoped that all three would end up following him. If they came still wearing those masks, he would have to blow them off.
He didn't want to go too far away from the others, so he landed on the other side of a wide river. The water was flowing moderately fast, and it seemed deep – he hoped the waterbender that was tracking him would find the battleground suitable and stay to fight. He wondered if talking to them would work. The land was surprisingly fertile and the grass on both sides of the river was green. Tall pine trees made up a forest, which the river cut seamlessly through.
Aang sat, and he waited.
It didn't take long for one of them to show up – the Blue Spirit. He had to give it to the snow panthers – those creatures were fast if they could keep up with Appa. On the other side of the river, the Blue Spirit dismounted the snow panther and jumped into the water, speeding across it effortlessly. Aang stood and took a bending stance, forgoing the use of his weapons. It seemed that she was also going to stick to her bending for this battle.
"Tell me who you are," Aang said to her. "Please. I want to know your name." If it wasn't Zuko under the Blue Spirit mask, and it wasn't Sokka, then who could it be? As Aang expected, the masked girl thrust a hand forward and attacked him with a jet of water before she even reached land. The airbender jumped above the attack as the waterbender hurled a wave onto the riverbank, swirling water around on the ground. The moment Aang landed, the water rushed toward him, but he leapt over it and punched twin fists of flame in response.
Water rose up in front of her to block the attack, but he moved into an overwhelming offense strategy to remove that mask. He kicked more red flames at her, followed by quick punches that immediately evaporated the water. More water diverted his attacks to the side as he neared. She moved quickly to foil each of his attacks, keeping herself from being harmed but doing nothing against him in return. He spun around to the side of her and managed to hit her with a gust of wind before she could erect a shield in time, knocking her into the river.
The river's flow did nothing to impede her as she rose high out of the water, knocking another wave on land as her element surrounded him on all sides. It was closing in, spinning all around him with her on the outside. Seeing only one means of escape, he leapt as high as he could, and bombarded her with startlingly blue flames from above. He shocked himself with those – was he really aiming to kill her? Well, he surely wasn't protecting anybody…
She managed to block the attack with ice, but in the same motion, icy needles attacked him from below. Still airborne, Aang managed to burn the icicles with more blue fire as he landed. He rushed towards her again, sweeping out both legs and releasing arcs of air and fire. Water surrounded her arms and legs as she dodged, but her watery hands extended toward him in the same beat. They both tried to stab him, but he ducked underneath and managed to get closer to her than he previously did, striking her in the chin with spiraling winds surrounding his uppercut.
He watched her with a held breath as the force of the attack sent her soaring vertically. As she fell backward from the descent of her high arc, he saw that the mask fell off.
And then she landed painfully on the ground, her wild mane of brown hair free from the black hood.
Aang fell backwards, his mouth hanging open in an expression of complete horror.
"Ka – Katara…" he breathed.
Appa landed with a thump in the middle of the ghost town. His three occupants, Zuko, Azula, and Sabishi, fell off of him in tiredness as Appa himself nearly collapsed.
"Why'd you land here?" Zuko asked his sister.
"Because this place is deserted and we might find some place to rest," she snapped at him.
"I don't think so," Zuko answered, pointing behind her. She spun around, anger on her face, and recognized the two people that had approached them on snow panthers. She knew they were the masked ones, even though they were wearing completely different clothes. They still held the same weapons.
"I was right. You were all girls," Azula said with a smirk.
"What do you two want? Aang isn't with us!" Zuko said to them.
"What about Sokka?" the one with the katana asked, stepping toward the siblings.
"Sokka? He ran away from us the other day. You missed him," Azula coldly informed the white-haired girl. "What did you need him for, anyway? An execution?" she asked hopefully.
"Princess Katara and Emperor Hakoda want him back," the white-haired girl told Azula, her blue eyes becoming cold and hard. "You captured him."
"Who cares?" asked the girl with the auburn hair. "Obviously, Sokka's not here. Can we just fight already?"
"I'm willing," Azula agreed, settling into a firebending stance. The other girl flicked open her golden fans with a smirk.
"This is a rematch I've been waiting for," she said, right before springing on the firebender. Azula shot a compressed fireball from her two fingertips, causing the girl to twirl out of the way in a flurry of green and gold.
"By the way, what's your name? For some reason, the Avatar wanted to know," Azula said to her, rolling her amber eyes.
The other girl laughed. "Suki, but you won't get a chance to tell him that!"
Zuko and the white-haired girl, however, didn't engage in battle yet. "Look at them," said Zuko, sighing exasperatedly at his sister. "She doesn't know when to quit."
"Suki's the same way," the girl said softly. "She just does it because she loves to fight." The girl lowered her katana and blushed. "How is your cut? Are you alright?"
Zuko raised an eyebrow at her and rubbed his stomach, where she previously cut him. "I'm fine, it was nothing." He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "So…"
"Yue," she said, smiling. "And…?"
"Zuko," he told her with a grin. "So, Yue, you don't like fighting?"
"Oh, not really… I'm not a big fan of blood or anything…" Behind them, a blast of compressed blue fire hurled Suki into the crumbling remains of a building, and both Zuko and Yue flinched. "I better go check on her. Go catch up with your friend!" Yue called to Zuko over her shoulder as she ran to Suki's aid. Zuko was jolted out of the awkward conversation when he remembered Aang. He banished the strange girl to the back of his mind and ran to his sister.
"Come on, let's go help Aang," he said to her. Without another word, Azula was on Appa's head and grabbing hold of the reins, eager to assist Aang.
No… It can't be… Not my Katara… She's too pure, too good…
But something in the back of his mind told him it was true. He always sort of knew. It was easy to piece together, but that part of his mind – the curiosity of Katara's whereabouts in this world – was practically locked from him in his refusal to believe anything terrible about her. And now that he was confronted with the truth…
It hurt so much more.
"I will never, ever turn my back on people who need me!"
I need you, Katara. Don't you understand that?
He did not stand up. He did not even move. He did nothing as she attacked him with a torrent of water and a roar of rage, letting the attack slam into him. She buffeted him with ice and water, knocking him everywhere. Katara made him bleed and he did nothing to stop her. His stare was blank as his mind utterly rejected the idea of Katara hurting him.
He refused to believe it.
"Sokka and I, we're your family now."
Family. Why did family hurt so much?
He felt nothing. No pain, no sadness, no relief from seeing her. He was just… numb. Frozen.
"Attack me!" she shouted at him, but he did not hear. "Give me a real fight! Why'd you stop?!" Water sliced into his inert form, spraying blood. Water rose underneath him in an attempt to make him stand straight, but she blasted him with full force when he did nothing. "Is it because I'm a girl?" Ice bound him against a tree in a standing position, but his head simply hung lank, his eyes wide open in an expression of frozen horror. She whipped him across the face, trying to snap him out of it. "Forget it. You're weak. Something is clearly wrong with you. You're not even worth keeping alive."
He was thrown forward from the tree, propelled into the river. Before he crashed into the water, the earth rose up to meet him, catching the boy. A small girl slid by him, rolling the ground around to strike Katara head-on. The waterbender, not expecting the attack, was sent flying into a tree.
"Miss me, Princess Priss?" Toph asked with a smirk. "Aang, what are you doing? Get up!" She stomped her foot, and a portion of the ground jabbed into his back, knocking him into a standing position, where he stumbled.
The sound of Toph's voice seemed to knock him out of his catatonic state. "How…?" he asked weakly, seeing the earthbender standing next to him.
"What's gotten into you? Why aren't you fighting?" she demanded.
"I…"
"Sokka!" Katara shouted, her face lit up into a smile. Her scarred brother stepped into her view.
"Hey, sis," he said distractedly, helping her stand. She grabbed his hand gratefully and stood beside him.
Toph stood solidly in her earthbending stance as she felt this happening, her face becoming darker as Sokka stood by his sister's side. She expected it, but now it had come down to her fighting against him.
Aang stood perfectly still, his wide, frantic eyes locked onto Sokka. Sokka himself seemed unsure of what he was doing, staring down at the water pooled around his feet instead of lowering into a fighting position, like his sister and Toph. Everything seemed to be focused on the prince. Time seemed to stop.
And then it sped up again when he sent a wide arc of water at Aang, who somehow managed to curl air around himself to disperse the attack. Sokka wheeled his arms and shot more and more water at the Avatar, anger taking over his actions. He was frustrated with the boy – everything he made him do, think, say, feel... He shoved his confusion to the back of his mind and let his battle instincts take over, striking Aang and his feeble defenses as hard as he could.
Toph decided to let Aang handle Sokka as she threw rocks at Katara, upturning the ground and trying her hardest to take the princess down. However, the nature of water allowed it to seep through the rocks and coil around Toph's best defenses, causing her to be especially on guard, forcing her to respond to even the slightest movement. Water was a deceptive substance. Sometimes, it looked gentle and forgiving, but it could also wipe out whole civilizations. Toph's hardest strikes were blocked with a solid wall of ice, which instantly reformed into water and became an offensive attack…
Aang could not find the will to bend fire. He couldn't even attack. He felt himself become reduced to a small, crying child, and just as helpless. What was wrong with him? Seeing Katara was supposed to make him happy… But not when she was like this. Not when she was an enemy…
And now Sokka was fighting against him again…
The wind was the only element that remained faithfully by his side, carrying him away from Sokka's attacks with barely a thought on his part. But his movements were becoming even more sluggish as the pain from his wounds was catching up with him. Water snaked around his body, smacking him against one of the trees with another grunt of pain. Aang felt his vision blurring…
A roar of fire brought him back to awareness as he saw Azula standing before him, her back to him and facing down Sokka. Blue fire daggers were held in her hand.
"You really let this dork beat you, Aang?" Azula said to him condescendingly. "My, my. You must really be out of it."
Sokka simply glared at Azula. She glared right back. "Get out of my way," he ordered.
"Do you really think that's going to work? You know this fight is supposed to happen, so just give in. You are my number one opponent," she replied with a smirk.
"Fine. I've wanted to fight you for weeks," he acquiesced, sending a slicing ribbon of water at her. A wave of blue fire sizzled from Azula's hands, blocking the attack as Aang was on the ground beneath her.
"What are you doing, Aang?" Azula asked through grit teeth, creating a wall of fire to block a particularly large wave. She nearly quailed under the force of it, but made herself resist. "Stand up!" When the wall dispersed, she punched two more fireballs and sent a kick at him. The daggers flared to life in her hands again as she sprung on the waterbender, swinging the makeshift weapons with deadly accuracy. Water rose from the ground to push her back, but she kept coming.
Aang finally forced himself to look at Katara – really look at her – to see her fighting against both Toph and Zuko. Her hair fell past her shoulders, but her signature style was still there, as well as her beautiful blue eyes. He rose to go and meet her, unheeding of the blasts of blue fire and water as Azula and Sokka continued to fight.
A wall of earth blocked the hail of ice shards from impaling Zuko, but he sprung up from behind the defense with his swords drawn, slicing only air as Katara managed to dodge his blows. Watery blades attacked him back as she fluidly moved from defending to attacking. Another rush of water was sent to ward off Toph, but Zuko proved more skilled than she imagined, forcing her to bring out her own small blade. With her sword, she did short work of him, managing to knock both weapons out of his hand. When his broadswords fell to the ground, she pushed a hand forward and swept them both away.
"Now what'll you do without your weapons?" she asked with a smirk. He raised his fists as she sheathed her blade, but it was only to ward off another attack from Toph. She pulled more water from the river, which wrapped around the unsuspecting girl and pulled her right in. Toph let out a horrifying scream before she was abruptly submerged.
"Bandit!" Zuko shouted after her, about to dive in the river. But when he tried to run, he tripped and finally noticed that ice had bound his feet. He watched the girl panic as she tried to stay above water, but he could do nothing to help her.
"And now I'll deal with you," said Katara, as a bullet of water bludgeoned his chest and knocked him flat on his back.
"A gift?"
"A gift," the scarred man repeated. "Use it well." And, to Zuko's great shock, the scarred man sprouted twin balls of fire that circled around his palm, meeting in the center. They propelled from his palm, striking Zuko in the chest, knocking him to the ground with great force.
He knew no more.
She bent closer to him and held a hand over his head, forming a lance of ice between her fingers. She brought it down to impale him.
Before the ice spear could stab him in the chest, Zuko thrust his fist forward to punch her, not knowing exactly what he was doing, not expecting anything special, not planning anything whatsoever.
And to his great shock, fire streamed from his knuckles and washed over the princess' face, knocking her backward with a yell. At the same time, the ice around his ankles melted and he jumped to his feet, staring at his palms in astonishment. Katara held both of her hands to her face, both covered in glowing water. Zuko managed to gather his wits when Katara removed her glowing water gloves – her face blemished only by pure anger – just in time for her to attack him sharply with blades of water. He rolled away from the attack, remembering Toph and trying to run to her aid, but to his great relief, he spotted Aang on his glider, pulling her out of the river.
In that crucial moment when his back was turned to Katara, she attacked him again. He turned around just in time to see the attack – and the form of a tattered brown cloak jump in front of him to intercept the attack.
"Kanna!" Zuko exclaimed, stunned.
"Grandmother," Katara greeted coldly.
"Attacking a boy when his back is turned? That is not how I taught you, Katara," said the old woman. Further back, Zuko spotted his master, Piandao, interrupt the equal match between Azula and Sokka. Sokka backed away from his two foes, panting. Zuko regained his swords and helped Kanna surround Katara, just as Aang and Toph came back. The wall around the water siblings was complete.
"Sokka, looks like we can't even trust our own family anymore," Katara said to her brother.
"Sokka, don't listen to her!" his Gran protested. "She is no longer the child you grew up with!"
"Oh, shut it, Gran-Gran," Katara hushed her. "Sokka's a big boy. Let him make his own decisions." Sokka, at his sister's side, clenched his fists.
"Aang, Zuko, it is good to see you two, though it's not under the best of circumstances," Piandao said, taking the time to greet his two students. Aang didn't take his eyes off of Katara – he still seemed frozen, unable to do or say anything. Katara took the lull in vigilance to her advantage, shooting an arm up into the air and drawing water from the tree behind her, which immediately shriveled into nothing. Six thin tendrils of water emerged from the tree and sped to each of the girl's enemies, which was blocked by all the benders. Piandao tried to swipe his sword through the water, but it did nothing except turn to a sharp blade of ice right before it stabbed into his chest.
Piandao fell back with a roar of pain as Azula, Toph, and Kanna all fired their attacks on Katara and Sokka, but the Princess managed to surround herself and her brother with a sphere of water which carried them right into the river, sweeping them both away.
"I'm going to kill them both!" Azula shouted with a clenched fist, staring after them as the waterbenders surfed away. Toph slammed a boulder against the ground in anger while Zuko and Kanna were both at Piandao's side. A healing glove immediately covered the old woman's gnarled hands as she melted the shard of ice impaled into the man's chest.
Azula, unworried about Piandao, saw Aang on his knees, hunched over and wretched-looking. She knelt down at his side, putting a hand on his shoulder, and was completely unprepared to see that he was crying.
Author's Notes: Bleh. I'm rather unhappy with this chapter, as usual. I forced this chapter out because I've been quite stressed lately and writing seems to help. Sorry for making this chapter so similar to the episode it's based on. It's got some (hopefully) surprising twists in it, so I hope that made you guys happy.
On a better note, check out the new Prince Sokka art by nebunedzar and a Distorted Reality trailer video by Mramirez1991 in my profile!! Go check them out, and please review!
