Chapter 25: Finding Zuko
The three of them exited through the main entrance of the palace; Long Feng and the Avatar hadn't attempted to stop them from leaving, lest they be forced to deal with Accelerator once more. By this time, the black sky of the night had been largely illuminated by the white sphere of the moon that levitated effortlessly in space. Accelerator looked up at it, his blank hair blowing gently in the silent wind; he had never gazed up at the moon with so much intensity as he had right now – the celestial body mirrored how he felt inside – an emerging brightness within a sea of dark.
He turned around and glanced back at the two girls; Ty Lee was busy tending to her wounds, while Azula simply stared off into space as if she was contemplating something. The three of them moved in an almost linear fashion, down the front steps of the palace and off onto the street.
None of them said it, but it was obvious what they were all thinking, 'What do we do now?'
Although Accelerator had come to a soothing sense of self-realization, he was still aware of the fact that none of them had any real plan at this point.
Sighing loud enough to break the silence, he was the first one to speak, "Well, what do we do now? We didn't exactly complete our mission back there."
Azula said nothing and instead stared down at the ground.
Ty Lee lifted her head to the esper, "I don't know. I guess we meet up with the troops outside of Ba Sing Se, right Azula?"
Once again, the Fire Nation princess didn't talk, she just continued to walk alongside them at a constant pace.
"Hey, you ok?" Accelerator wondered with a hint of worry.
"Hm?" Azula finally said, lifting her head to look at him as if coming out of a trance, "Did you say something?"
"I said: what are we going to do now? What's our next step?" he asked again.
Azula frowned, "There is no next step," she said, returning her gaze to the ground in front of her, "Don't you see? That was it – our final chance to salvage this mission. We had the advantage of entering the city without them knowing, but….it didn't matter."
Suddenly, Ty Lee's eyes were drawn to something that caused her to tap Azula on the shoulder; after getting her attention, the brown-haired girl pointed toward a relatively small building with her mouth agape.
The building was moderately sized – not too big, not too small – at it didn't look like it was a residential house of any kind. Rather, the building was a restaurant, or more precisely a Tea House, with the title "Pao Family Tea House" etched in black ink just above the entrance. The door was propped open, revealing the inside of the establishment; reddish-orange lights from within the building spilled out onto the surface of the street.
However, the sight of the tea house wasn't what had drawn the two girls' attention; inside of the building, beyond the tables full of late-night customers, were two men who were for some reason engaged in a sword battle. One of them held two identical blades that were quite thin and curved slightly at the end, enhancing its deadly nature; he kept a long blade of grass positioned neatly in the corner of his mouth, even despite the fact that he was fighting. His clothing was a combination of red and blue, except for two shoulder pads of varying colors.
The other fighter seemed to be just as unique as the first; similar to his opponent, he was duel-wielding two identical swords that whistled through the air with every swing. However, unlike the other, his attire did not seem to be battle-ready. He wore a brownish-green gown that a finished with a white apron that wrapped around his waist. But one of the main features of this fighter was the fact that he sported a nasty scar on the left side of his face.
The girls starred on in surprise at the pair locked in a furious battle of blades; Accelerator, who hadn't noticed they had stopped until he was a good 20 paces away, rejoined the two and looked into the store.
"What's the matter?" he asked, "Have you never seen a drunk bar fight before?"
The joke washed over the two of them as they remained intrigued by the two men.
"Hello?" Accelerator said with a hum, waving a hand in front of their faces, "Is anybody home?"
Still unaffected by his antics, the girls watched the fight with an almost admirable amount of focus; Accelerator, realizing he wasn't going to break them of the spectacle, begrudgingly turned to watch the battle as well.
The two men picked up their pace as the battle evolved, striking and blocking each other's blow with their blade to produce small sparks from the impact. At one point in time, they even hoped up on tables and used the surrounding objects in the store to assist them as well. Eventually, the battle moved outside, providing the fight with a slight change of scenery.
Realizing that they were just watching the fight out in the open, Azula and Ty Lee grabbed a confused Accelerator and pulled him behind a nearby building corner. In an effort to continue witnessing the two warriors, Azula and Ty Lee peeked their heads around to watch.
The battle began to slow down, but it wasn't because either of the fighters were losing their stamina; apparently, someone had called two guards over to deal with the commotion. The three teens couldn't quite hear what was being said, but it looked like the boy with the reed in his mouth was about to get arrested. Sure enough, the guards took him by the arms and began to drag him away, but not before he could say his final parting words, "They're Fire Nation! You have to believe me!"
The sounds of his shouting pleas drifted off into the distance as he was dragged away, until even the echoes of his voice faded. The other fighter, whom Accelerator could see was probably around his age, retired back into the tea house as an older man escorted him in with a guiding arm.
"So, this is where Zuzu was hiding," Azula whispered to herself with a smirk.
"Who?" Accelerator asked, becoming angry that he didn't have any idea what was going on.
"Zuko," Ty Lee said to fill him in, "He's Azula's older brother."
"'Brother?!'" Accelerator practically screamed out, but was quickly shushed by a flustered Ty Lee.
Regaining his composure, the esper turned to Azula, "Your brother? How did your brother end up in an Earth Nation city? Is he under cover or something?"
"As if," Azula coughed, "That fool probably doesn't even have a clue that the avatar is here. He is simply a coward."
Accelerator detected a hint of disgust with that final statement she made, but he decided to ignore it.
"It doesn't sound like he's a part of the Fire Nation anymore," the esper stated, but the way he spoke made it sound like a question.
"He's not. The idiot was banished by my father," Azlua informed quickly.
Accelerator said nothing and instead grunted in response; looking into the tea shop at the boy, he realized that the large, red scar apparent on his face looked like a burn mark. He didn't want to make any random assumptions, but he could probably guess where those wounds came from.
The sound of Ty Lee's voice broke him from his analyzing stare, "What do we do, Azula? I doubt Zuko is gonna like seeing us here," she said, much to the Fire princess' annoyance.
"Seeing Zuko here was a stroke of luck," Azula said, "our last plan failed; however, if we can get Zuko to join us, there may still be a way for us to salvage this mission."
"It doesn't sound like he would be that welcoming to you," Accelerator noted, "How are you going to get him to join us."
"Oh, don't worry. I have my ways," the princess hinted with a slight lilt in her voice, causing Accelerator to raise his eyebrows in subdued curiosity.
"Ok, well we can't approach him right now. There are too many people in that shop," he said.
"Agreed," Azula returned, "That's why we will have to wait until they leave."
"When's that going to be?" Ty Lee questioned.
"I'm not quite sure. We'll have to wait and see," Azula said with crossed arms, "but you won't be here for that," she said as she turned to the brunette.
"What do you mean?" Ty Lee wondered.
"As much as you may want to stay, I need you to join up with Mai and the rest of the troops to relay information," she explained, keeping her vision secured on the tea shop.
"What kind of information?" the wide-eyed girl questioned.
"You'll have to tell them that our initial plan of assassinating the Earth King failed; however, tell them also that we have located prince Zuko and are currently working with him to apprehend the Avatar."
"'Working with him'?" Accelerator repeated in an almost astonished fashion, "We haven't even talked to the guy yet."
"I told you, I have ways to persuade him," Azula calmly replied, turning to the confused esper.
"Do you understand, Ty Lee?" she asked, prompting the girl to nod her head.
"You'll have to leave as soon as possible. Because our cover was blown at the party, I'm sure the Earth King's agents will be doing everything they can right now to block off any exits so they can trap and overwhelm us – you have to leave the city before that happens."
Ty Lee's face grew serious as she listened to Azula's words, taking them in as if they were gospel.
"One more thing," Azula added on, "Tell them to await any further instructions until morning. When the sun arises, they must return to the Fire Nation and submit the information we have garnered here for later use."
After nodding once more in complete understanding, Ty Lee wished the two remaining teens good luck as she snuck off into the shadows of the alleyway and disappeared beyond a corner. Turning their attention back to the tea shop, which now already seemed like it was about to close, Accelerator and Azula waited patiently for Zuko to leave.
Finally, after all of the customers had left and the employees finished cleaning the shop, Zuko exited the restaurant and headed down the road accompanied by a much older man. The two of them talked as they walked down the almost empty street that was bordered on either side by silent buildings. The old man, unlike Zuko, talked quite a bit as the two of them continued on through the city.
"Do you know who that guy is that your brother's talking to?" Accelerator asked.
"Please, refrain from calling him 'my brother'," she growled as the two of them pursued, "But to answer your question – yes, I know who he is. He's actually the reason why I decided to keep you here and not Ty Lee. That's my uncle, and he may not look it, but he's fairly powerful; if the two of them were to attack, I'd hate to say it, but I don't think I could beat them alone."
"Hmmm. I see," Accelerator said, staring intently at the old man. Strange, he didn't look that powerful.
The two of them remained silent as they snuck behind the pair in pursuit.
"I was wondering," Azula suddenly began, refraining from looking at Accelerator, "back at the palace…why didn't you just kill everyone? It was obvious you had the upper hand; if you wanted to, you could've killed the Earth King's assistant and the avatar without even batting an eye."
"I just realized something is all," the esper said.
"And what exactly is it?" Azula asked.
"I realized that I hate killing," he stated bluntly.
"Hm. Well it seemed as though you murdered too many of those guards in the palace to be someone that 'hates killing'," the princess said with a smirk.
Accelerator looked over at her, staring deeply into her eyes.
"That's exactly why I hate it," he spat back forcefully, his tone serious, "It's way too easy to take a life; way too easy to kill. If you would've asked me a while ago what I thought about murder, I would've said it was quick and necessary. And if you would've asked me if I cared about the lives I took, I would've said that they were nothing to me – just lambs led to the slaughter."
They continued to creep further down the street, careful to keep a respectable distance between them and their targets so as not to alert them; using the darkness of the building's shadows, they moved slowly along outer sides of the road, sidling up next to the bases of building walls.
"And you're different now?" Azula said with a little levity in her voice, trying her best to stay silent, but she genuinely wanted to know the answer.
"Yes. Back then, I didn't have anything to aspire to – nothing but absolute power. But 'absolute power' isn't a motivation, it's a goal; there was nothing that was special to me, nothing to protect or yearn for, at least until…."
"Until…what?" Azula said, her face rigid with curiosity.
"Until her," he quietly spoke; although this time, the words came out very quiet and hushed.
After glancing over at her brother and uncle, who still hadn't become aware of their presence, making sure that they hadn't left her line-of-sight, Azula then turned back to the esper
"Who?" she questioned, forgoing politeness in pursuit of answers.
Opening his mouth to respond, the white-haired teen abruptly stopped before he spoke and immediately pointed in the direction of the two targets. Azula swung her head to meet the trajectory of his pointed finger.
Zuko and Iroh had turned off from the main road and were now entering a moderately-sized building, possibly an apartment complex judging by its size and style. Losing sight of the two figures as they walked through the door, Accelerator and Azula looked at one another, each studying the other expectantly for answers.
"What now?" Accelerator asked, "We can't exactly walk in the building like we own the place."
Azula glared at the front entrance in deep thought. "Perhaps. Although, judging by the state of it, this apartment complex isn't upscale; in fact, its probably the opposite – it's lower class."
Accelerator raised a questioning eye brow. "Yeah, so? Why's that important?" he asked.
"It's important because it means that they don't have money to spare, so they probably don't have any guards on payroll. What's more, of the employee's who work here, I doubt any of them have any combat training."
"So, what are you proposing? Do we just bust in there and take out the employees?"
She slightly shook her head and turned to him with a grin, "We may not even have to."
End of Chapter 25
Author's Note: Well, well, well….what do we have here? It seems that you all have been starving for another chapter; don't worry, I am here to provide you with all the literary sustenance you'll need.
First of all, I'd like to address where I've been for the past few…months? (has it actually been that long?) Now, I have already addressed this at the end of chapter 22, but I think some clarification is in order.
Well, as you probably know, during the time of my hiatus, the Corona Virus has been taking the world by storm, and a lot of people have been worrying about what the future holds. If you're wondering – No, I wasn't affected by the virus (thank god), and family is fine as well. My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone who was affected by this.
The reason why I didn't (and couldn't) update the story is pretty simple and upfront. I don't have a laptop or device that can upload documents to any online website, so I was literally stuck with nothing to do. I had already finished a few of them beforehand though, I just couldn't upload them. Sorry! Hope you understand. I'll be working on future chapters as often as I can, so you can expect the story to continue.
And now, I can finally say that horrible 7 letter word; the one that should never be spoken aloud; the one that instills fear into any who read it:
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