Chapter 9: Into the Fire
Reacting quickly despite how fast her mind was spinning, Rinzen threw a blast of air to divert the attack before it could reach Aang. She only succeeded in slowing it down just enough to give him time to dive out of the way, his shoulder slamming into a large stalagmite jutting out from the ground. Even as she spun around to block Zuko's next barrage of fire blasts aimed at Aang, she caught a glimpse of the smirk on Azula's face as the younger firebender leapt at Katara and threw a jet of fire at her with an underhanded toss, clearly emboldened by Zuko's change of heart. Katara extinguished the fire with a stream of water from the waterskin on her belt, cracking the water like a whip in return.
Figuring that Katara could hold her own against Azula, Rinzen turned her attention back to Zuko, her hurt and confusion quickly giving way to anger. He was focused on targeting Aang, which gave her an opportunity to create a whirlwind and send it in his direction. The gust of wind threw him off-guard as he skidded back, giving Aang time to earthbend green crystals from the ground around himself like a shield. Zuko threw another fireball at Aang once he regained his balance and the force of the blast shattered Aang's shield, sending bits of crystal flying everywhere as Aang flew backwards.
Before Rinzen could rush in to stop Zuko from taking advantage of Aang's imbalance, Azula intercepted her with a crack of lightning aimed at her feet. Rinzen jumped back to avoid being singed by the bolt of electricity, grimacing at the sharp scent of ozone that lingered in the air where the lightning had struck before sending a powerful current of air at Azula. She was glad to see Katara rushing in to take on Zuko with water streaming behind her like giant tentacles while Aang recovered, scrambling to his feet and leaping up into the stalactites in the ceiling to drive one into the ground as hard as he could. Rinzen pushed herself into the air with a quick burst of wind at her feet to avoid the shockwave, Katara balancing herself on a wave of water, while the two firebenders were both swept off their feet.
Zuko was on his feet before Rinzen even touched the ground again, punching as hard as he could until a giant fireball flew out towards Katara as Azula rolled to her feet and did the same. Katara brought her wave of water around her like a shield, but the impact of the fire blasts threw her back into a cluster of green crystals, knocking her unconscious as her hair fell free of its usual neat braid. Rinzen hurried to help Katara, but she was intercepted by a team of Dai Li agents leaping out of the shadows and surrounding them. Azula smirked as she approached Rinzen, who knelt beside Katara as Zuko targeted Aang again. The younger airbender leapt nimbly between pillars of stone to avoid the lashes of fire aimed at him.
"Did you really think you had a chance with him?" Azula sneered, sparks of electricity dancing on her fingertips menacingly, and Rinzen scowled back at her, wondering silently how she had even known. "The Dai Li have been the eyes and ears of this city for years. There's no secret in Ba Sing Se that I don't know," Azula answered easily, as if reading Rinzen's mind.
"Well, you don't know anything about me and him," Rinzen snapped back.
"I know there was no way he would've settled for you." Azula rolled her eyes, crossing her arms. "You're an airbender peasant." She spat the word out like it was a curse. "And he's the prince of the Fire Nation. You'd have to be delusional to think he'd actually want you."
Rinzen knew she was only trying to get under her skin, but it still stung when she realized it was most likely true. What had it even meant, then, when he had kissed her and smiled at her the way he had only a few days ago before she had left for the Eastern Air Temple? She was distracted out of her thoughts as Katara winced and began to regain consciousness beside her. She placed a hand against Katara's shoulder to support her as the waterbender sat up, rubbing the back of her head.
"Face it," Azula said to get Rinzen's attention back on her. "You could never have made him happy." She turned to focus her attention on Aang, who was clearly beginning to tire under Zuko's constant barrage of attacks as he began to stumble more and more while dodging each fireball.
The truth in her statement combined with the image of the smug smile on her painted lips made Rinzen's temper flare as she pushed herself to her feet angrily, but the Dai Li were already closing in on them. Katara rolled to her feet quickly as well, bending the water on the cavern floor around herself and Rinzen until a ring surrounded them, tentacles of water spreading out like an octopus that lashed out at the Dai Li agents. As several more Dai Li agents descended from the ceiling, Rinzen sent a blade of air at the ropes attaching them to the ceiling, severing them and causing the agents to fall to the floor of the cave so that Katara could keep taking them out.
"There's too many of them," Katara said in frustration as she lashed out at another group of agents closing in them, knocking them back. Rinzen glanced around desperately, but there didn't even seem to be a gap they could escape through in the literal army surrounding them.
"It'd take a miracle to get out of this," she agreed reluctantly, still feeling like her heart was in pieces as she sent out an air current between the tentacles of water to throw back a Dai Li agent trying to climb past their defenses.
As if answering their prayers, suddenly, a bright burst of light filled the cavern. Katara and Rinzen turned to find the source of the light only to see Aang rising into the air, his eyes and tattoo glowing pure white and a pillar of cosmic light surrounding him. Rinzen felt a flash of hope as she watched her brother enter the Avatar State, far more calm and controlled than she had ever seen him before. Maybe he had learned to let Katara go and mastered the Avatar State, just as Guru Pathik had taught him, and as much as it hurt Rinzen to know that he had let Katara go, it still meant he had gained inner balance. She felt more proud of him in that instant than she had ever been.
Then Aang spasmed suddenly in mid-air as lightning flashed behind him. His eyes widened as he writhed in agony like a worm on an invisible hook before the glow in his eyes and arrows disappeared abruptly, like a candle being snuffed out, and he began to fall, as if in slow motion, to the ground.
The world around Rinzen seemed to fall silent. Her mouth fell open, as if to scream in horror, but the sound caught in her throat, choking her into silence. Her eyes focused on Azula on the ground behind Aang, smirking as her fingers smoked with the remnants of the lightning bolt she had shot at Aang. Zuko, just behind his sister, was frozen like a statue, clearly in as much shock as Rinzen herself at what Azula had done. Even from the distance Rinzen was at, she could see the angry red burn on Aang's back and the tiny burn on his foot where the lightning had exited as he fell.
Even as she forced one foot to move forward from where it was rooted to the ground to try and catch Aang, Katara was already moving forward swiftly, her expression filled with rage and grief as she threw her arms behind her until a wave was sweeping her forward, wiping out the Dai Li agents surrounding her. She caught Aang before he hit the ground, collapsing to her knees with him cradled against her shoulder. He looked so small in Katara's arms, crumpled like a paper doll with his clothes burned and tattered and his skin sickly and pale in the dim green light of the cavern. Katara looked up at Rinzen, tears streaming down her cheeks, and the devastated expression on her face combined with the fact that Aang's chest wasn't rising or falling confirmed Rinzen's worst fear as her heart stuttered in her chest.
Aang was dead.
She wanted to move forward, run to Katara and Aang, but her knees gave way instead and she collapsed. Before she could force herself to her feet again, she felt two rock gloves surrounding her wrists and yanking them behind her back. She couldn't bring herself to fight off the iron grip of her captors, her eyes fixed on her brother's lifeless body in Katara's arms.
"Rin!" Katara cried hoarsely, but Rinzen couldn't muster the energy to respond. If her heart had been in pieces before, it felt like the pieces had been ground into dust now, leaving a hole in her chest that ached with each breath she drew. Zuko and Azula began to close in on Katara, who clutched Aang protectively like a lifeline, but to Rinzen's relief, a blast of fire landed between the siblings and Katara, separating them as Iroh jumped down from a ledge above them.
"Get out of here!" he shouted to Katara, who looked torn as she glanced back at Rinzen, not wanting to leave her behind. "I'll hold them off as long as I can!" He threw out another wave of fire to keep Zuko, Azula, and the other Dai Li agents at bay. Katara threw another desperate look at Rinzen, who forced herself to nod back at her.
"Go," she insisted, her voice barely more than a whisper, and tears welled in Katara's eyes again as she glanced down sadly at Aang, still limp in her arms, before bending a twisting current of water to carry them upwards and out of the cavern. Rinzen hoped she would find a peaceful, quiet place to bury Aang before retreating with Sokka and Toph into hiding somewhere on Appa until the solar eclipse.
The moment Katara vanished out of sight with Aang's body, Iroh ceased his attack, surrendering silently as the Dai Li bent several crystals around him to encase him in a prison. Zuko took a step forward, his mouth opening as if to say something, but Iroh pointedly turned his head away from his nephew, closing his eyes in disappointment. Zuko closed his mouth again, his teeth sinking into his lip hard as he glanced at Rinzen. She purposely turned her face away and shut her eyes as well, unable to look at him without seeing Aang laying dead in Katara's arms, the direct result of Zuko's betrayal.
"Take them away," Azula said dismissively, waving one hand at the Dai Li agents that held Iroh and Rinzen captive. "We'll need to keep them in prison until we arrange transportation back to the Fire Nation." She placed a hand on her brother's shoulder, squeezing it lightly. "You did well, Zuko. Father will be very pleased."
As the Dai Li dragged Iroh and Rinzen out of the cavern, Rinzen wished she hadn't opened her eyes just in time to see a torn expression on Zuko's face again.
"I'm supposed to tell you we're leaving for the Fire Nation at the end of the week," Mai said as she leaned on Rinzen's open cell door with her usual bored expression on her face as she studied her nails. When Rinzen didn't respond, she looked up from her nails. "Did you hear me?" she asked, sounding a little more annoyed now. "Or are you deaf as well as a homewrecker?"
Azula had tried to gloat once soon after Rinzen had been taken prisoner, telling her how Zuko had kissed Mai the moment he had seen her and how Mai was such a better fit for him, being of Fire Nation nobility, and how they had been childhood sweethearts before Zuko's banishment. If nothing else, it explained why Mai kept given Rinzen dirty looks constantly. When Rinzen hadn't reacted to Azula's taunts, too tired from grieving to care what she had to say, the princess had huffed slightly and left, muttering that the airbender was no fun.
"Is that what all the hostility's about?" Rinzen deadpanned in response to Mai, her voice hoarse from lack of use as her throat ached. It was the first time she had spoken in the week since she had been taken prisoner. "You can relax, he's all yours." It didn't even hurt to give Zuko up so easily, especially after what he had done. "Although fair warning, he's really good at betraying people," she added dryly and Mai scowled back at her, a small knife glinting between her fingers in warning.
"Watch your tongue before I cut it off. And stay away from Zuko."
"No problems there, I don't even wanna see him," Rinzen answered with a humorless smile. Zuko had tried to come down to the cell block on the first night she and Iroh had been imprisoned, but he had quickly changed his mind and turned around when a Dai Li agent had asked him what he was doing. She had heard the whole exchange, but hadn't bothered to get up and try to see him.
"I mean it," Mai insisted, pushing herself off the wall to face Rinzen properly as her grip on the handle of her knife tightened. "You stay away from him or-"
"My brother is dead because of him!" Rinzen interrupted harshly and to her surprise, Mai's eyes widened slightly. "Do you honestly think I care about Zuko at all after what he did?!" She knew it was a bad idea to turn her back, but she did so, anyway, facing the dull gray stone wall of the prison cell. Her eyes burned as tears welled in them, but she refused to give Mai the satisfaction of seeing her cry. She had already shed enough tears over the past week while she had been locked up in solitude.
She heard Mai shuffling slightly in the doorway, hesitating before she muttered quietly, almost guiltily, "Sorry for your loss." To Rinzen's surprise, she sounded genuine. Her footsteps retreated into the hallway and the door slammed shut and locked behind her.
After a beat of silence once the last of Mai's footsteps faded in the distance, Iroh spoke quietly from the cell beside Rinzen's. "I was beginning to think I'd never hear your voice again." He tried to sound a little cheerful for her sake, but Rinzen could hear the heavy grief in his voice at the loss of his nephew. She couldn't quite see him from the angle their cells were at, but his voice was still clear.
"Yeah, well. Had a squirrel-frog in my throat." Rinzen couldn't find a better excuse than a feeble joke as she shuffled as close to the cell wall as she could to better hear Iroh's voice. When Azula and the Dai Li weren't nearby, it was a comfort just to listen to him talk, even when she couldn't form words of her own. The cuffs on her wrists keeping her chained to the ground stopped her from reaching the wall properly, but she did her best to settle as close as she could. "How're you doing?" she asked, finally realizing it was the first time she had bothered to even consider how Iroh was feeling as a pang of guilt settled in her heart.
"Don't worry about me," Iroh reassured her quickly. "I'll be alright."
"Hey, um, I'm sorry about what I said," she apologized, feeling even more guilty when she realized he had heard her conversation with Mai.
"It's not your fault that he hurt you," Iroh insisted and the reassurance felt like a balm on her aching soul. "You're welcome to feel however you do about my nephew."
The truth was, even as much as Rinzen wanted to hate Zuko for what he had done, it was impossible, especially when she had seen how happy he had been before. It couldn't have been an act, and that was what confused her the most about his sudden betrayal. Whenever she closed her eyes, when she wasn't seeing Aang lifeless on the cavern floor or falling from the sky, she saw the soft smile Zuko had given her when they had woken up together that morning before she had left for the Eastern Air Temple. It felt like an eternity ago, but had really only been a little over a week. Whatever his feelings for her were, he had been genuinely happy, at least in that moment.
So why had he thrown it all away so quickly? She didn't know if she would ever get the answer, or if it even mattered anymore. What was done was done, and Aang was dead because of it.
The journey across the sea to the Fire Nation was uneventful. Azula had brought several Dai Li agents with them, which kept Zuko from sneaking down to the prison cells where Rinzen and Iroh were being kept, to Rinzen's relief. She didn't know how she would feel if she saw Zuko again, and she didn't want to deal with the conflicting emotions it would bring. Being on a ship again already reminded her of being captive on Zuko's ship months earlier, when they had first met.
She hardly got a moment to appreciate the fresh air when they docked at a harbor in the Fire Nation before she was ushered into a prison wagon separate from Iroh. He was headed straight to the prison while Rinzen was to be taken to the royal palace instead. She knew why; Azula had told her the previous day that the Fire Lord wanted to keep her close by rather than with the other prisoners, and she would be spending the rest of her life imprisoned beneath the palace.
The trees weren't as leafy and the grass hardly seemed to grow in the Fire Nation, the landscape composed of dull browns and reds as Rinzen looked out the tiny window of the prison wagon and watched the fields roll by. The air was warmer, too, and sticky with the humidity of the end of spring and beginning of summer. Farmers and villagers stopped to watch the royal procession enter the capital city, the carriages ahead holding Azula, Zuko, Mai, and Ty Lee while the prison wagons holding Rinzen and Iroh separately held up the rear of the procession.
People stopped in the streets to stare at the carriages, pointing to Rinzen through the tiny window, and she ducked out of sight, although she wanted to keep looking out at the capital city. The smells of spices and cooked meat from food stalls on the streets wafted in and she instinctively wrinkled her nose to try and block it out until they reached the courtyard of the palace. It was both eerily similar to the wide structure of the palace in Ba Sing Se and yet so different at the same time. While everything had been in shades of tan and green in the Earth Kingdom, the Fire Nation palace was all red and black and trimmed with gold, looking far more menacing with the spiky towers and arched doorways.
Rinzen was shoved out of the prison wagon by a guard and pushed towards the main steps of the palace. She did her best to not peek at Zuko when he climbed out of the carriage in front of her, but failed miserably when she caught him faltering slightly out of the corner of her eye. She glanced over her shoulder, unable to help herself, and found him staring at her, his eyes wide like he was seeing a ghost. Then again, she had been imprisoned for almost two weeks in the dark, and her skin was so pale that she probably did look like a ghost to him. He, on the other hand, seemed to look more alive than he ever had, dressed in robes of dark red and gold and his hair long enough that it was pulled back in a topknot. A small crown in the shape of a flame was nestled in the topknot and, for the first time since Rinzen had met him, he looked like the regal prince that he was.
The moment vanished as Azula stepped out of the carriage after Zuko, her lips curving into an automatic sneer at Rinzen, who scowled back at her. Unable to look at Zuko anymore when Azula was right at his side, Rinzen turned her head away again, focusing on her feet and forcing them to move up the stairs of the palace. She was led down the hallways of the palace, trying not to bother looking around at the lavish dark red interior and the priceless vases and artifacts surrounding her. None of that mattered when she would be spending the rest of her life imprisoned beneath all of it anyway.
She was led to a large ornate golden door and Azula shoved past her to enter the room, making sure to knock her shoulder into Rinzen's as hard as she could as she passed. Rinzen was tempted to stick her foot out and trip Azula, but resisted the urge as Zuko passed by her next, glancing over his shoulder briefly at her with an unreadable expression on her face before focusing on the room ahead of him, pressing his lips together firmly as he slipped inside. Rinzen caught a peek of the massive throne room inside and a shadowy figure sitting behind a wall of flames hidden from view. As she registered what she was looking at, she realized she was about to meet the Fire Lord. Dread and fear settled into her stomach as she clenched her fists behind her back, wishing she could somehow airbend and escape with her hands bound.
Before she could even wrap her head around what was happening, the door was opening again and she was frog-marched inside, stumbling a little over her own feet and then shoved onto her knees against the marble floor, cold despite the roaring fire surrounding the throne room as well as the throne in front of her. Zuko and Azula sat on either side of the throne, Azula's smug smirk firmly in place while Zuko's expression was carefully blank, his fists clenched on his knees. The shadowy figure between them stood, walking easily through the flames, and Rinzen looked up as his face came into view.
Fire Lord Ozai was far less horrifying in appearance than she had always imagined him to be in her head; if anything, he looked like how she imagined Zuko might have looked in several years' time if he didn't have a scar marring the left side of his face. He had a beard and his hair was long enough that it fell to the middle of his back, an elaborate flame-shaped crown nestled in his topknot much like Zuko's crown was.
"I've heard a great deal about you, girl," he spoke at last, and Rinzen was surprised to hear how rough and harsh his voice was despite his relatively young appearance. "How does it feel to know that you are the last airbender in the world?" She clenched her fists behind her back, doing her best not to react to the jab, but Ozai must have seen something in her face that revealed how much it had hurt, because he smirked.
Rinzen now knew where Azula had gotten that infuriating expression from as she let her temper get the better of her. "Yeah, well, how does it feel to know that millions of people's blood are on your hands?" she snapped back and almost instantly, Ozai's amused expression morphed into one of rage.
"Insolent girl!" He raised a hand, clearly about to strike her. Reacting instinctively, Rinzen took a deep breath and blew out a gust of wind as hard as she could, shoving Ozai back across the marble floor as he collided with the raised dais of the throne. His hair fell into his face as Azula rushed from the dais down to help him up and he shoved the messy strands out of his reddened face, shaking with anger. "Get her out of my sight and make sure she never sees daylight again!" he shouted at the guard holding Rinzen, who dragged her quickly out of the throne room. Before the door shut behind her, she caught a glimpse of Zuko's shocked and bewildered expression as he climbed down from the dais to help his father to his feet.
"Why would you do that?!" Zuko burst through the door as Rinzen started, having not expected the sudden intrusion as she sat up from where she was laying on the dirt floor. It had been hours since she had been dragged below the palace and tossed into the cell she would be spending the rest of her life in, and she presumed it was past dark by now, which was why Zuko must have felt it safe enough to sneak down to see her.
"What, knock your dad off his feet?" she deadpanned. "Well, for one, it was funny. And second…" She made a show of thinking, mildly entertained by the look of frustration on Zuko's face and how disheveled he looked, with his hair no longer in its neat topknot and instead hanging messily over his forehead and eyes. "Actually, no, that was it. It was just funny." She shrugged one shoulder.
"He could've killed you!" Zuko protested.
"Well, what about you?" she pointed out dryly. "Aren't you gonna get in trouble for coming down here? The guard's gonna tell on you." She nodded to the guard standing just outside the cell.
"Who, Sora?" Zuko glanced over his shoulder at the guard, waving slightly, and to Rinzen's surprise, Sora waved back, removing his faceplate to grin at them. He was surprisingly young, about Rinzen's and Zuko's age, with bright golden eyes and a crooked smile that would have made any other girl's heart flutter. "I've known Sora practically my whole life, we went to school together," Zuko explained as he turned back to Rinzen. "It's why I made sure he'd be the one assigned to guard you. He's not going to tell anyone I'm here."
"You couldn't pay me nearly enough to talk to your crazy sister willingly," Sora grumbled goodnaturedly from the hallway, causing Zuko to shake his head fondly, a small smile tugging at his lips. "Did you seriously knock the Fire Lord on his butt?" Sora added curiously as he turned his attention on Rinzen, the first time he had ever spoken to her since he had taken post outside her cell, and she nodded tentatively.
"Uh, yeah. I did."
"Cool, we're cool, then." He gave her a thumbs-up and she managed a tiny smile back at him. Maybe spending the rest of her life imprisoned wouldn't be so bad if her guard was at least kind to her.
"It's not funny," Zuko insisted, giving Sora a pointed glare before turning his frown on Rinzen. "Don't upset my father. I mean it."
"You know, telling me what to do is only gonna make me not listen to you," she pointed out wryly. "I don't even know why you're down here at all. I have nothing to say to you."
"You don't understand." He ran a hand through his hair in exasperation, messing it up even more. "I did what I had to in Ba Sing Se. And now I've got my honor back. My father actually wants me at his side."
Rinzen wanted to protest that he had never needed to regain his honor in the first place, but the raw longing in his voice made the words in her throat disappear before they could come out. She dropped her gaze to the ground instead, biting her lip hard.
"You have to understand," Zuko repeated weakly, sounding far less sure of himself than he had even a moment ago.
"My brother's dead because of you," she managed to say at last, keeping her eyes fixed on the ground so that he wouldn't see the tears welling in them. "Understanding why you did what you did won't bring him back."
She heard Zuko swallow hard before he knelt in front of the bars, pushing something through them. She blinked back the tears in her eyes before looking up to find that it was a soft dark red blanket.
"I thought it would help," he said quietly. "If it gets cold."
"Airbenders can warm themselves with just their breathing," she answered stiffly, shoving the blanket back through the bars at him. "Or rather, I guess only I can, since, y'know. Last airbender in the world and all."
He winced at the implied accusation. "Keep it anyway." He pushed the blanket back through the bars and she didn't bother shoving it back, no matter how much she wanted to. "Just in case." He got to his feet, leaving the small prison cell and shutting the door behind himself, and Rinzen made sure not to touch the blanket until he was long gone before finally unfolding the blanket and sliding it around her shoulders. It was softer than she thought it would be, almost as soft as Appa's fur, and it smelled like smoke and incense - like Zuko. She pulled it further around herself to try and envelop herself in the scent.
"Thought airbenders could warm themselves with just their breathing," Sora said curiously as he peeked through the small window in the door.
"Where'd you hear that nonsense?" she asked innocently and he grinned.
"Relax, your secret's safe with me." He winked at her before returning to his post outside her cell. "I'll let you know if anybody's coming so you can fold it up and hide it."
"Thanks, Sora." Rinzen wished that it hadn't been because of Zuko that she had such a nice guard, because she hardly wanted to be indebted to Zuko after what he had done. She settled on the hard ground, the blanket acting as a cushion as she slowly allowed herself to drift off into an uneasy sleep, prepared to spend the rest of her life like this.
Can you tell I've been playing too much Kingdom Hearts? lol
Honestly, I chose Sora as the guard's name because his name is actually Japanese for "sky" - or so Google says - and I thought it'd be fitting for him to get along with an airbender if he had a name associated with air.
I know I've been saying this for the past few chapters, but this entire plot point is the one I've really been looking forward to writing, so I hope I can crank out more chapters like this, but work is definitely going to be getting in the way for some time. I'll do my best to keep writing in the evenings, though!
I hope you enjoy!