Here's the rest of the Zuko Part 1 chapter…..(Yes, part 1 was cut into two parts. If it was animated, it would be an average chapter, but writing and reading it would take a long time.)
Disclaimer: I don't even know who the original writer of A: TLA is, but I'm not that person. (Although I wish I was. But I'm not.)
Chasca's POV
I had been assigned to follow Zuko. I knew I was brave enough, strong enough, and a good enough bender. I could do this. Honestly, I was kind of excited, but I was constantly fighting the urge to yeet a boulder at him, just because. As he wandered about the upside-down temple, I had crept along, keeping hidden away, until he started to get suspicious. He said, out loud, something about hating earthbenders, waterbenders, and especially airbenders. I shrugged them all off as Fire Nation talk and continued following him.
Eventually, Chrystal and I crossed paths and Zuko repeated his hate for all benders except fire, and then he continued to how he thought that the Airbenders deserved to be obliterated. I could see Chrystal getting mad. She was so angry, angrier than I had ever seen her. Zuko continued rambling on about how airbenders are so stupid, that he hates them, yadda, yadda. I didn't care about that, but I knew Chrystal did. She was very protective of her people. Especially since she wasn't allowed by life to claim them as her own. She knew that that was useless talk, cursing the avatar out, but it worked on her too. She knew that she was marching into a trap, but she didn't care. I was right there. I allowed her to blast Zuko in his bald head, but then, before I could react, she ran straight at him. Thankfully, she went at him at the right angle so that his fat uncle could not do anything to her. He was still in shock that there was an airbender left. One alive. Also, sudden attack. I had to help her. I earthbended the fat uncle into a cage, so he could not move his arms. That got him out of the way, but when I attempted on the banished prince, Zuko JUMPED OVER IT. BRUH. THE BANISHED PRINCE… HE'S LIKE… 13-14 YEARS OLD!
HOW?! Anyway, I got over the shock of someone BLUNTLY SMACKING IN MY FACE THAT THEY ARE BETTER THAN ANYONE THAT I HAD EVER FACED. Keep in mind that I don't always claim victory. I pretended not to look scared while trying again. HE JUST JUMPED OVER AGAIN. Ugh. I tried a new approach, pretending to do the same thing as before, but BEFORE I COULD EVEN ANGLE THE ROCK DIFFERENTLY, Zuko SWITCHED ANGLE IN MIDAIR. I looked at him like, Um, I don't think you're looking for the last airbender. It's always infuriating when your opponent is better than you and is looking as if he isn't even trying. I put on my angry face. I was not playing. This was real life. Not a game. He blasted fire at me, but I used a sudden attack of pebbles encasing his hands. It worked for a few seconds, but he quickly freed himself. The whole time, Chrystal had been helping with Iroh, who had somehow escaped from my rock-cage, just enough to blast fire at her. And occasionally blast Zuko with air.
"Chrystal," I called over to her, "Get the others, I can handle them."
Chrystal looked as if she was about to say something, but shut her mouth, nodded, and flew off.
Once she was gone, Zuko helped free his uncle, just to have me bind his hands and redo the earth cage his uncle was in. With him distracted, I made an earth cage around the banished prince.
"No!" he shouted, enraged. He pulled his hand free and shattered the earth casing around his body. I stepped back, but other than that, I showed no fear.
"Well, little girl, looks like you can't handle us," Zuko said. His uncle surprisingly stepped out of the earth casing, breaking it apart as if he were walking through water.
My jaw dropped. How. Anyway, back to fighting the people that just defeated my last attacks. I decided to use a completely different tactic. I made a circular shield. I couched under it for a second, before pushing it in the general direction of Zuko and Iroh. I heard Iroh trip, but I was Zuko standing on top of the circular shield. I took a deep breath. I got used to it. He was good. I can't just be so stubborn that I can't fight. Get used to it. I made a pillar under the shield, and Zuko stumbled off of it. I caught him off guard for a second and made a small pillar rise under his one foot, making him fall. He scowled, looking up at me with hate.
"Huh. Think I can handle you now?" I asked, circling five small rocks in my hand.
"Still no," and that's when Clove blasted fire at the back of his head.
"Got your message," she said, looking up. "Firebender vs firebender. Fair?"
"How about firebender, earthbender, airbender, and waterbender against firebender and firebender?" Concordia said, smiling. She blasted (A/N wow, I need to find a new word, other than then 'blasted'.) a stream of water at Zuko's face. (A/N after two google searches, I found 'projected'. I think that that is better, especially since google thought that that meant a bad word. I meant throw.)
Zuko turned intimidatingly towards the waterbender, but she didn't seem afraid. She simply turned around, streaming the water with her, projecting it at Zuko, who stumbled, off guard. He then tried to get her with three sudden columns of fire, but Chrystal took her opportunity to push Zuko over. Clove had turned to Iroh, who I trapped in a column of earth. She turned to Zuko, catching him with two fire punches. I encased his feet with earth and Concordia clasped his hands in ice. He melted the ice and, blasted Concordia, catching her off guard. She fell to the ground, and I couldn't help her now, so I bended a shield to protect her. I created a distraction, physically turning Zuko towards me. I create a pillar under his foot, then the other one, and he continually stepped off of them, but I created more and more pillars. Eventually, I threw a boulder at him. He took it in his stomach and fell back a little.
"Oh, looks like you got hurt." I mockingly pouted, which just made him angrier.
"AARRGG!" He yelled, taking a bunch of fire and throwing it at my face. I made a wall of earth block it and pushed it towards Zuko. We kept up the fight, everyone contributing to the fight, Iroh occasionally escaping the casing, until I made him a new cage. Eventually, I trapped both Zuko and Iroh, then ordered a retreat. Everyone ran by, but as I was tuning, I motioned that I would be watching them.
Once we were all safely on Bao's back, we were flying over the temple, and Zuko and Iroh were running to their… thingy? Whatever that thing was. He fired some fireballs at us, and we were doing our best, doing them one they came too near. We were trying to bend the earth and fire away from us, and Chrystal was bending the air to push them away. Concordia couldn't help, but we were fine with that. She was helping direct Bao.
After a few minutes of fireballs coming towards us, dodging them, and bending them away, something tragic happened. Things couldn't get worse, and then they did. We got hit. Two huge fireballs were coming towards us, and we thought that we could get one off, and then the other, but it didn't happen like that. The first took unusually long, and by then, the second hit Bao's side.
"Bao!" I heard Concordia scream. She landed our bison, but by then it was too late. Crashlanding. Concordia scrambled off, and check to see if Bao was ok. She wasn't. Concordia looked up at us, sadness filling her eyes. It took a second, but we let it in. Bao was dead.
Instead of sobbing all of our strength away, we fought through the tears. We bended a storm, just in the direction of Zuko's ship. We could see it be practically destroyed on the horizon. We turned back to Bao and held a moment of silence for the kind beast.
"Wow, that's sad," Abilene said, "So, you replaced her with Salt?"
"She could never be replaced." I said, "Salt is just our new sky bison. And we love as much as Bao."
Salt snorted, and I patted her side. "We had to just wander on foot after Bao died. We held a funeral at the Western Air Temple, once Zuko left. We found Salt wandering as a Lost. (Those are airbenders that survived the genocide done by the Fire Nation. They have to just hide. Sorry, Chrystal.)"
That's how I'm going to end the chapter. Not a cliffhanger, but not really leaving the reader satisfied. That's how I keep you here. Remember, no promises on the next upload, but I'll try.
-Saladin2
Edit: Also, because of reasons, I will be putting a pause on this story for a while. Sorry. Reasons. (Example: I have other fanfics.)
