Metalbending the delicate and complex inner workings of a lock requires deep concentration and complete silence.
"I should have known you were behind this!" shouts the waterbender.
As if one Zuzu wasn't bad enough. Azula scowls, "If I were, then I wouldn't be trying to free you."
"Maybe you're just trying to get me to trust you."
They stare at each other.
"Okay, that was a stupid idea," admits the waterbender.
"No, really?" Azula says dryly, turning her attention back to the lock.
"But if you're not behind this then who is? And do you know where the others are?"
"No, but we can find the answers to these questions if you stop talking."
The waterbender furrows her brows. "Can't you just firebend it away?"
Azula growls. "Do you want to be rescued or not?"
The brows furrow further. "Why are you rescuing me?"
"I have no idea," says Azula, melting the lock. "There. Happy now?"
"They took my waterskin."
"A pity your element is so weak."
"I'll teach you my element if you help me get it back and find the others."
Azula tilts her head in response.
The waterbender shrugs. "You were going to learn it anyways and I'm a better teacher than Aang."
"Fine, but only if we talk to each other as little as possible."
"Fine by me."
Underground, with strangely unrelenting stone, a surprise confrontation could easily turn into a burial. They move quietly, half expecting to run into a sea of guards after every corner.
Azula presses her hand against the wall. "I can't sense anything through this earth."
"Are you sure it's the earth?" whispers the waterbender with a pointed sneer.
"You shouldn't doubt my bending abilities, considering I successfully used them to kill your friend."
"You are so lucky I don't have my waterskin."
"Wait," says the waterbender, "doesn't this layout match the inside of a Fire Nation ship?"
"A Fire Nation ship made of earth?"
"I've been in enough Fire Nation ships to be able to recognize one," retorts the waterbender. She leans against the wall. "Huh, that's strange."
"What?"
"This earth feels like water."
"That would explain why I can't sense through it…" Azula raises a hand to her chin. "If this is a replica of a Fire Nation ship, then your waterskin will be this way."
"It's a bit weird that we haven't run into anyone isn't it?"
Azula reluctantly nods. "Did you find out what caused the sickness?"
"It's not a disease, so a spirit or a man-made illness."
"Man-made?"
"Like an injection. How were you captured?"
"Red gas. You?"
"The same."
The two girls share a brief moment of silence.
"Why didn't the gas kill us?" asks the waterbender.
"I assumed it was because I reduced my intake with airbending. Otherwise, either we're bait for Aang or there's an ambush waiting for us up ahead."
"In that case, there may be a water pipe in the wall over here. See if you can burn through to it."
"Zuko hasn't written back yet."
Azula remains silent. Red gas could fill these close corridors faster than they could bend.
The waterbender presses on. "Do you think he's okay?"
It doesn't matter. No, if she says that then the waterbender will raise her voice, attracting attention, and potentially returning Azula to her father as either a corpse or a failure. Azula can't risk that. She won't.
Azula lies, "I'm sure Zuko is fine."
"Really?"
"Of course, he is your soulmate after all." Azula holds up a hand. Listen.
Dull footsteps crescendo in harmony before fading away.
"Are you worried about your soulmate?" whispers the waterbender.
Azula doesn't lie this time. "No. Aang can handle himself." Unlike Zuzu, Aang wasn't prone to reckless acts. Then again…
Azula glances at the waterbender arms long enough to confirm that there's no answering scrawl. She looks back up, only to catch the waterbender watching her with a curious gaze.
"It doesn't matter," says Azula, cutting off whatever pitying remark the waterbender was going to make, "whether they're dead or not. We can't do anything about it."
If Zuko had died at sea Azula would have been one of the last to know.
That thought, that weakness, is quickly burned from her mind and Azula refocuses on the task at hand.
"We'll need to take them down quickly, that gas will give them an advantage in closed spaces," warns Azula.
The waterbender nods and remains silent.
"Azula, were those Dai Li agents firebending?"
"Yes."
"And earthbending?"
"Yes."
"Do you know—"
"No I don't."
"Cover me."
A/N: I like feedback/critique
