"Hold your fire. The Avatar needs to be captured alive!" Zhao roared.
Elyrie ran up behind the Admiral, still trying to grasp what she had seen in the last few minutes. Zhao had given his speech with a lot of grandeur, talking about fire being the superior element and burning down the city of Ba Sing Se. And that with the return of Sozin's comet, the Fire Nation will win the war once and for all now that the Avatar had been captured.
But Zhao had noticed the disappearance of Aang far sooner than she had expected and the alarm had sounded. What followed was the most miraculous attempt to escape she ever witnessed. The masked figure turned out to be a master swordsman, who could easily overpower several guards at once. And Aang was the Avatar, whose bending blew away the other half of the guards. Literally blew away, she thought amazed. She had never witnessed someone using airbending, but what the Avatar had displayed was everything she ever imagined and more. He could fly, he floated through the air and blasted every soldier away with ease.
She wondered if the masked figure and the Avatar knew each other, since they worked together as if they had never done anything else. Moreover, Aang had refused to escape without his rescuer when the opportunity presented itself.
And as a result, the pair now stood surrounded by a dozen soldiers and Zhao in front of them. Elyrie had followed silently the entire time, not wanting to miss anything. But now, all hope to escape seemed lost. But after Zhao's order, the masked figure quickly came up behind Aang and placed his swords in front of his throat. Elyrie's breath hitched when she saw this. But then she understood. With Aang as his hostage, they can escape, she thought.
Zhao came to same conclusion next to her. The Avatar was far too valuable to lose, even if this stranger held him hostage.
"Open the gates." he ordered through gritted teeth. Colonel Shinu, who was present the entire time too, looked at the Admiral in surprise.
"Admiral, what are you doing?" he asked confused. Zhao ignored him and repeated his order. "Let them out. Now!"
The gates opened behind the pair and the masked figure urged the Avatar backwards. Elyrie studied the retreating figure, as her mind raced to figure out his motivations. He plays a dangerous game, all or nothing, she mused. She was not sure who the masked figure was, but she got a gut feeling he was not a bad person. Even more strange, she had the feeling she knew him
As the figure retreated, he kept his swords up. Dual broadswords, she suddenly realized. Her heart started to pound. He could not be that reckless, she tried to convince herself. But she remembered the swords on the wall of his room. He told me he still practices with them, she thought while biting her nails, Oh gods no.
"How could you let them go?" Colonel Shinu asked. Elyrie looked at the Admiral, wondering what he would answer.
"A situation like this requires precision." Zhao simply answered, emphasizing the last word and Elyrie suddenly understood. Of course he would use the archers to take out the masked figure. Always three steps ahead, she thougth while she quickly followed the two men as they made their away to the watchtower on the walls of the Fortress.
"Admiral," she began as they reached the outer watchtower, "Maybe the Fire Lord is interested in this Fire Nation enemy as well?" If she could convince Zhao not to kill the masked figure, the pair still had a chance to escape.
Zhao raised his eyebrows at his young fiancée. "Maybe.." he said while stroking his chin as he watched the leader of the Yuyan archers take position
Elyrie looked over the walls and saw the pair still walking backwards. As her eyes tried to focus, she saw that masked figure still held his dual swords against the Avatar's throat. The leader of the Yuyan archers prepared his shot and strung an arrow on his bow as he looked at his target.
"Do you have a clear shot?" Zhao asked. The archer remained silent, but aimed in response. Elyrie bit her carefully manicured nails one by one, but could not care less.
"Knock out the thief. I'll deliver him to the Fire Lord along with the Avatar." Zhao ordered as he placed his hands on the stones in front of him.
Elyrie was sure they could hear her heart pound through her chest. Zuko, if it is you and you survive this, I am going to kill you myself, she mentally damned him.
The archer released his arrow and for a moment, Elyrie's heart stopped. Then she ran to the railing and saw the masked figure collapse backwards, releasing Aang as he dropped the swords. Aang recovered quickly and used his airbending to draw up a huge cloud of dust around himself and the masked figure, shielding them for her view.
"Quick! Recover the Avatar!" Zhao yelled next to Elyrie. Elyrie saw the soldiers approach the cloud, but when the dust cleared, they were gone.
Trembling, Elyrie let out a sigh of relief as she threw her head in her neck. When she turned to look at the Admiral, she felt a shiver. She was not afraid of him, but the look of intense anger on his face was terrifying.
And as if the universe tried to get back at him for his earlier luck, a thawed frog croaked in front of him before it jumped off the wall to freedom.
Zuko woke up with a terrible headache. With a lot of effort, he opened his eyes and saw different shades of green. He blinked a few times to clear his blurry vision. When he turned his head, he saw a person sitting on a tree root beside him.
The person was bald and wore an orange and yellow tunic. Zuko had to blink a few times before his bruised head registered who the person was. The Avatar sat a few metres away from him, with his knees against his chest as his chin rested on his folded arms.
"You know what the worst part of being born over a hundred years ago is?" the Avatar asked him, while staring into the woods, "I miss all the friends I used to hang out with." His voice was sad and melancholic. Zuko had never heard him speak like this before, as if they were old friends.
"Before the war started," The Avatar continued without waiting for a response, "I used to always visit my friend Kuzon. The two of us, we'd get in and out of so much trouble together. He was one of my best friends I ever had" Zuko saw that his lips formed a smile when he thought about his past.
"And he was from the Fire Nation, just like you." The Avatar added while he turned to look at Zuko. "If we knew each other back then, do you think we could have been friends, too?" the boy asked him with a tentative smile.
The thick fog in Zuko's head cleared and he reacted instinctively. He let loose a huge fireball in the direction of the Avatar, who evaded it with ease. Zuko watched him disappear as he hopped from tree branch to tree branch until he was out of sight.
"Suck on these. They'll make you feel better" Aang said in a tired tone as he gave Katara and Sokka the frozen frogs. Then, he collapsed backwords on Appa's tail with a sigh. This day had been more exciting than he had asked for. His clothes were torn, he was tired and he felt sad. At least my friend will get better now, Aang thought as he stifled a yawn.
"Aang, how was your trip?" Sokka asked, trying to hold onto the frozen frog in his mouth. "Did you make any new friends?" It was clear the Water Tribe warrior had not noticed how tired his friend looked due to his fever. And for this, Aang was glad. Katara did not say a word as she sucked on her own frog.
"No, I don't think I did." Aang answered in a tired voice. Zuko had tried to free him, but attacked him when the moment was there. So much for a new friend. But when he rolled over, he remembered Elyrie and her kindness. She was Fire Nation and a good person, like Kuzon had been.
Perhaps I did make a new friend, he mused before the sleep took over him
Zuko stared at the ceiling of his room.
When he saw the Avatar disappear in the trees, he had felt a sense of guilt coming over him. He felt confused and guilty, unable to understand why. The Avatar spoke to him like they were friends, offering him kindness. He had never considered the possibility to be friends with the Avatar. To him, he was a mere necessity to capture so his honour could be properly restored. He had never thought about the boy himself or what he was like.
Zuko turned on his side as he came to the realization he had never met anyone who offered friendship and kindness to an enemy.
"Please, she helped me." The Avatar had said, he remembered now. Elyrie had stepped aside when he had helped the Avatar escape. There was no way she could have known he was behind the mask for certain, yet she had stepped aside to let them pass. Where did her true loyalty lie? He had asked himself that question earlier when she stated her opinion on the war and his father's ways of reigning.
She had helped him the first time in his quest for the Avatar, but she did not shy away from stating her opinion on the matter. She disagreed with him and talked about the Avatars place in a world out of balance. She had helped the Avatar during his capture and willingly stepped aside when he tried to escape. Her loyalty was not to him, to Zhao or to the Fire Nation. She is loyal to her own heart, he mused as he turned away from the Fire Nation flag.
And for the first time, he realized the Avatar was more than just a prize to be captured.
Elyrie lay down her head and stared at the ceiling. Zhao barely had paid attention to her after the escape from the fortress, so she saw the opportunity to retire early. For some reason, she was completely exhausted after today.
Not for the first time, the events of today made her question her place in all of this. She wondered if she was on the right side of history and if there truly was nothing she could do about it. Yes, she was engaged and she had obligations to her aunt and uncle to keep up the family name. But were they important enough to throw away everything she believed in? Everything her parents taught her? She liked to think she was a rebel, but all the more she realized it were small naughty things that she did.
Feeding a starving boy should not be a rebellious act. Zhao should never held a boy prisoner if all he wants to do is bring balance to the world. An end to the Hunderd Year War. Growing up, she learned that the Fire Nation was the greatest civilization in history and that the Fire Lord was a divine person, brought to this earth to serve as a replacement of the gods.
But her friendship with Zuko made her realize that the royal family was not divine, the Fire Lord least of all. She had lost that belief when he mercilessly scarred his own son. She turned to her side to repress the painful memories.
She remembered the history lessons her father had taught her. Not only Fire Nation history, but also from the other Nations. And because of this, she knew that the Air Nomads did not possess armies when Fire Lord Sozin released his attack on the temples. The greatest battle in Fire Nation history, as she was taught in school, was nothing more than genocide.
She turned around again, switching sides as she let her thoughts wander freely. She was thankful to her father for his honest lessons. He always told her that nobody is perfect, but that people can have perfect intentions. And that they should be judged based on those intentions.
What would her parents think of her now? Her life as a whole, a dutiful fiancée of a high ranking Admiral who was twice her age, was nothing rebellious. It was not even something she did because she loved to. She felt it was her duty to her family and her fathers good name. Her duty as a woman in a patriarchal society. And as a girl in a world which only expected her to marry rich, she played the part as the blushing bride-to-be at 21 years of age.
A shiver went through her. She had not allowed herself to think much about her upcoming wedding this summer, after Sozin's comet. But Zhao's speech this evening had painfully reminded her of her future. She closed her eyes tight as she tried to fight the images flooding her mind.
Herself in a wedding dress, Zhao at the altar, the wedding night…
She quickly sat up and punched her pillow a few times to try and block the thought. She was not naieve and knew what was suppose to happen. But with Zhao…. She let herself fall down on her pillows. Her body physically rejected the idea, as her stomach began to turn at the idea of her future.
But then she remembered Zuko, as he had held her close the last night on his ship. She felt his faint breath in her neck and wondered what it had been like to be kissed there by him. Not for the first time, her mind began to wonder what it would have been like if it had been him to who she was engaged.
She let herself fall back into her pillows. This was exactly her problem. If she allowed herself to think, she started to doubt everything. She was not worried about Zuko, for she knew Aang had taken him to safety with him. If anything, she had to be worried about Aang after Zuko woke up.
Aang, the Avatar had a name now.
She smiled to herself in the dark. His large grey eyes were full of kindness and compassion, she had seen it. He must be bearing a huge burden, she mused as she tried to imagine the pressure on his shoulders from the entire world. But he did not have to bear it alone. The Water Tribe boy and girl, she knew they had accompanied him on his travels. They both had left their homes behind as well. The girl was around her own age, but had left her home just the same. Did she had obligations or an engagement at home when she left? And if she did, did she defy those traditions to follow her heart?
Her mother had been opposed to traditions, which she never tried to hide. She always said to her daughter that she should be proud to be herself. That nobody should tell what she could and couldn't do. What would Mama say if she was here? She thought pensively.
"Mama, if you are listening" she prayed silently, "Send me a sign that you support me whatever I decide to do". She opened her eyes and looked around the dark room. As expected, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Elyrie let out a disappointed sigh, but was startled by the sounds of the wind. The balcony doors blew open and the full moon shone his light into her room, bathing everything in a mysterious blue light.
Elyrie wiped the curls out of her face and swung her legs over the bed to get and close the doors. But before she closed them, she smiled at the moon and grabbed her locket. "Thank you!" she whispered to the night sky as she softly closed the doors.