Ok just as a couple of short words before starting the chapter that has been two years in the waiting. This is just a warning to say that I will be removing the author's notes within a couple of weeks, so if the chapter number drops dramatically, just know that that's why and not that I'm deleting anything!
There will be some short notes at the bottom as well to explain the horrifically long wait for this (my apologies, it was longer than I thought it would be), but anyway. Enough of me talking, chapter 3!
The rumble shook the Temple as it had for three years. Shyu gripped the nearest pillar frantically and hoped it was simply the volcano beneath them creating the earthquake. His senses told him that was not so. He glanced ahead where Captain Senin stood looking slightly dazed.
"Is that normal?" he asked, concerned unlike most of the visitors to the Temple. Even living on a volcanic island such as Crescent Island, earthquakes shouldn't occur this often.
"It is nothing." Another shake of the earth accompanied by a shriek as something threw itself at the ground beneath their feet. "Nothing to be concerned about," Shyu amended as the Captain gave him a doubtful look.
"I used to live in Caldera City. Earthquakes aren't exactly uncommon and there is still danger that it will erupt but I'm not a firebender. Even so, I could tell you that this isn't normal." Shyu winced at the Captain's no nonsense tone. That was the problem when army officials came to visit. To ask for a blessing from the spirits wasn't exactly unusual, especially from those who wished to take one for their entire crew rather than spend any longer than necessary away from the front but there was no fooling them once their prisoner really got going. The sound of a dragon, almost extinct as they were, was unmistakable. "What are you keeping here?"
"It is the Fire Lord's wish that that information stay secret," Shyu said, hoping Tadao was already down in the passageway trying to calm her down. He frequently wondered if the dragon was deliberately trying to bring the entire mountain down on top of them to get free. The Captain merely raised an eyebrow.
"Well, it's not my job to get in the way of the Fire Lord. If you would Fire Sage Shyu?" Senin gestured him forwards and, once certain that another quake was not imminent, pressed forward towards the inner sanctum. It was going to be a long enough day with the Winter Solstice approaching and the constant escape attempts of one very smart dragon –and why the Fire Lord wished for the poor creature to be locked in the magma chamber was anyone's guess- without the interruption of the various Captains, Generals and Admirals who were still spiritual enough to wish to drop by on their way to the front. He supposed he should be glad that they still had a use otherwise Fire Lord Ozai may have done away with them already. In fact, he got the feeling that the man only kept them around in case they got any more on the Avatar's whereabouts.
And probably he thought darkly as they rose ever higher in the Temple, to see if he can stop Crown Prince Zuko. He is not as subtle as he thinks as to whom he prefers as heir. Shyu had never voiced his dislike of their current Fire Lord. Fire Lord Azulon may not have been any better than Ozai, but at least he had the decency to keep family quarrels private. If people knew that the Royal Family were broken, then the country would be divided. No matter how much the people knew. And Shyu knew that Princess Ursa could not have disappeared without good reason. I hope that boy has found peace. Ozai would do anything to keep him from the throne. But Shyu, while the only one to his knowledge to question the Fire Lord's will, was not the only one to question his choice of heir. Azula may be a prodigy but neither was she sane. And if you couldn't trust your Fire Lord not to purge out all those who she deemed weak, you couldn't trust them with running the country. A sub-par bender with a brain was better than that.
But you've also heard the rumours he thought as they finally made it to the top of the stairs and Hitomu took the Captain the rest of the way. The rumours had been wild and strange. Stories of the Crown Prince's odd habit of taking to rooftops to get away from his sister and hiding out in the old palace. Shyu had only ever been there once to tame a supposed rogue spirit and had seen no one resembling a prince. Just a dirty, grubby boy disrespectfully climbing the still-standing column of rock that had pinned Sozin in place for hours. He'd lectured the boy for that and asked where his family was. The boy had merely scowled, shot off a few rude gestures and scampered off. Shyu was fairly certain no royal would approach an area frequented by such ruffians and so had dismissed them as nothing more than fiction. But over the years he had still wondered where on earth they had come from and whether or not they were true.
The earth shuddered again, with one last anguished shriek from below. A few minutes later Tadao appeared looking slightly scorched.
"She has been calmed for now. I would expect another attack in the morning."
"It's been three years since her imprisonment," Shyu said thoughtfully, raising a hand against Tadao's stuttering arguments. "You must admit that this is imprisonment. How are we protecting a creature of our very own heritage by locking it within a magma chamber to be killed by the volcano when it finally erupts? Why must we keep her there?"
"It is not for you to know Shyu, nor is it mine. Senior Fire Sage Hitomu has assured me that is it the Fire Lord's will she be kept here until we are ordered otherwise." Tadao's face softened slightly as he glanced behind him. "Besides, she has made herself quite at home. For a dragon, she is such a little thing." Shyu raised an eyebrow at that. A hundred-foot long creature was not his definition of small but it was not his place to speak out. It would hurt his reputation and if it came to what he thought it would, that would be the only thing which protected him from being killed as a traitor. He bowed and nodded.
"I trust to your superior knowledge and skill with the beast, Fire Sage Tadao," he said respectfully and, with a nod, walked away. There were things to prepare, as he did in the hopes that the Avatar would come every year at the Festival of the Winter Solstice and the preparation within the shrine of Avatar Roku. If the new Avatar came to visit, he had to be ready.
If there was ever a day that could follow as badly as today was going, Zuko would have traded places. He had had little sleep the night before, nightmares of fire and his mother had left him awake well before dawn and therefore sneaking practice in down on the one blind spot that the helmsman had yet to notice. Thankfully, since some moves of Water were so close to that of Fire, you could almost fake having practiced cold katas rather than having been waterbending, but that still didn't help. And now, he was facing the near impossible task of tracking down the Avatar when the sightings of him made no sense.
"He's been sighted here, here and here…" Jee stated, pointing to the three separate (and rather far apart) locations on the map. Zuko stared at them wondering how on earth he was supposed to manage this. The kid was on a flying bison which could move a lot faster than their, now fixed, antique warship. If it still hadn't been usable, Zuko knew that it would have been melted down for the scrap metal years ago and turned into one of the elite fighting ships, or new metal tanks or whatever other designs the Royal Engineers were coming up with.
"What is he doing in all these places?" Zuko muttered, staring at the different locations. An island here, a remote wood there and finally a tiny village heading towards Kyoshi Island. Zuko wasn't stupid to think that the neutral island would throw them out with the Avatar in their midst but he wondered whether or not the kid was clued in yet to how dangerous the world now was. That would explain all these different routes. "He must be a master at evasion."
"Oh, yes, Prince Zuko. Aang is a master of evasion if you count evading practicing simple forms" the spirit muttered in his ear and Zuko ground his teeth together to stop himself from flinching. He hated it when the spirit just popped up out of nowhere.
Go away he growled at it as he faced Jee with the map. The general pattern was facing north and, if these diversions were truly nothing more than the Avatar's eternal quest for entertainment, then he would be heading to wherever he deemed held something fun. And knowing Aang's sense of fun, probably something dangerous as well. Hopefully the kid knew about the Unagi in the waters outside Kyoshi Island, otherwise he would be one Avatar down in his journey home. Please let me be right he thought, lifting his gaze from the map.
"Set a course for Kyoshi Island," he ordered. If they couldn't keep up with the kid, then he could at least try and keep one step ahead. Despite Azula's clear prestige at firebending and tactics, she wasn't the only one who had inherited Sozin's keen eye for strategy. Zuko just simply used it with less ferocity and ruthlessness. Unlike his sibling, he didn't revel in the idea of wiping out an entire village just to find out the location of one over-excitable airbender.
Katara didn't know whether to laugh or cry at her brother's current predicament. Their arrival at Kyoshi Island had well and truly knocked her brother for a loop, what with men being far less important to women on this island. Back home, everyone had looked to Sokka as head of the tribe whilst dad was gone and, as a man and chief, Sokka pretty much had free rein over what they did. When they gathered food, when they went out hunting (of what they could do in any case), even when the children began their schooling. He wasn't a bad leader, especially with how inexperienced he was technically, but he was woefully behind in training as a warrior and with no one to teach him, he had a similar problem to Katara- they both simply had nothing to work off of and had been forced to train themselves. Gran had been little to no help since she had come from the Northern Water Tribe where it was said that women were valued only for their housekeeping skills and use as diplomatic tools. Katara was glad that she had grown up in the Southern Water Tribe when hearing her grandmother's tales of their sister tribe, however much she desperately wished to learn waterbending.
Aang was loving the attention they received on Kyoshi Island and she wondered whether this was in part to do with the fact that they acted like one big family, much like how the monks had to have done when they were around. She also suspected that it was a way of covering up the hurt that his entire people were dead and the realisation that he was the last airbender. Currently he was out and Sokka had just returned from the Kyoshi Warriors training hut in disgrace. Sokka was slumped in the corner looking thoroughly disheartened by the whole affair.
"I'll never be as good a warrior as dad," he mumbled as he played with his precious boomerang. It was the one thing that Sokka could use professionally as all young men of the Southern Water Tribe were taught how to boomerang a migrating bird or stun a seal from the moment they were old enough to handle a weapon. Sokka, having been naturally gifted with a keen eye, had picked up the weapons difficult skill with ease and had brought home a seal with their father on his first hunt, brimming with pride. But that had been a long time ago before mum had died and the world seemed to collapse around them.
"You'll be a great warrior Sokka," she said soothingly, knowing that he had to be frustrated. He had been beaten by a bunch of girls, those who were lower down the pecking order to him no matter that the rules of the tribe didn't work here. They were close enough to the Water tribes to be a mixed bunch and the fact that they were neutral in the war was even better. It meant that so long as the Fire Nation didn't get wind that they were here, they were safe from anyone. Then again, there was still that angry jerk who had nearly destroyed their village that Aang had said was called Zuko. How Aang had known his name she wasn't quite sure since he had been pretty vague about it but it didn't matter. Now she knew who to avoid. "You just need more training."
"And where am I going to get training all the way out here?!" Sokka half-shouted, throwing his hands in the air. Katara winced but the boomerang stayed safely in her brother's hand. She should have known by now that he had gotten out of the habit of throwing the thing when he got expressive, but after the first couple of times she had avoided Sokka's training with the boomerang as when he was little it had been a common occurrence. And the injuries involved by innocent bystanders had been rather extensive, although none had happened in a while.
"Well, you could try asking the actual warriors on this island?" she said slyly. Sokka's face coloured and she supressed the giggle rising in her throat.
"I did," he said sullenly.
"Well, try asking them without insulting them on the basis of their gender. And then maybe I'll fix your broken pants," she said, giggling as Sokka scowled. After she had refused to finish sewing them on Appa, he had attempted to do so himself but the stitching was clumsy and all over the place. How he managed to knot fishing nets, Katara didn't know. Suddenly, without warning, Sokka stood up and left. Katara blinked, wondering whether it was something she had said or whether he had finally come to his senses and was off to ask Suki properly. Hopefully with an actual apology in there.
To Sokka, being humiliated by a girl was a nightmare. He wasn't used to being bested by anyone except the warriors who had left nearly five years ago to fight the Fire Nation. He had been left with no instructor and only the most basic of training in traditional Water Tribe weapons. Instead he had been forced to improvise and train at all times of the day between caring for the tribe. To come here after being so thoroughly humiliated by the Fire Nation, being completely useless against the teenage leader of that stupid ship and now having been proved that all those hours practising and making up his own moves had been for nothing was one of the worst moments of his life. That the final nail in the coffin had been delivered by a girl was worse. In the Southern Water Tribe, women were not treated as property but they most certainly were not treated as equal warriors to men. It was supposed to be the other way around. The man hunted and protected while the women cooked, cleaned and knocked sense into the men. They could give their opinions and lead in some areas but they weren't trained to fight armies. Only to defend their homes and families from wild hunts or skirmishes. Mum had been able to do it, Katara would certainly be able to cope with the pressures of being the chief's daughter and head of the women of the tribe when she was old enough, but she knew to let Sokka lead in terms of fighting. Suki didn't. Suki fought on her own terms and she had wiped the floor with him. Twice. It hurt more than Sokka wanted to admit.
The training hut was much better than the ice floes Sokka had practiced on before. It also showed an impressive range of weapons from swords, to spears to a variety of weapons that Sokka had never seen before. The girls were currently practicing with the razor sharp fans that almost tricked you into thinking that they were harmless. It hadn't escaped Sokka's notice that most of the girls here were pretty, but he couldn't keep his eyes away from Suki. Perhaps it was because she was a leader like him, or perhaps it was because she impressed him so much that he had to get to know her. What he did know, was that he had to learn how to fight how they did. Perhaps next time he met the jerkbender who hadn't even bothered to lay a finger on him, he could get the upper hand.
It was one of the younger warriors who noticed Sokka. She giggled and whispered something to Suki who turned to look at him. He wasn't really sure what she looked like naturally as the make-up was laid on so thickly that the only thing he could be sure about was that her eyes were big and brown. She raised a painted red eyebrow at him expectantly.
"Come back for more?" she said, a touch of amusement in her voice. He supposed she thought he had come back for more humiliation and she was ready to put him in his place. But Sokka had already lost so much of his dignity that it didn't matter anymore. He needed to find a new way in this world that acted nothing like home. He should have expected that, should have known that other areas of the world would treat their people differently to the way that they treated their people, but for some reason it hadn't occurred to him. Now he knew to respect other's cultures and he was determined that he was going to learn to fight. Whether or not it meant he would lose some dignity along the way. So, sucking in the small amount of pride he had left, he knelt on the floor in front of her, the pupil to the master, took a deep breath and prepared to swallow all the traditions he had been taught on the ice.
"I'm sorry for the way I treated you," he said quietly. "I should have treated you as the master warrior that you are and not in the way I did. It was disrespectful. If you are still able, I would like you to teach me." Silence. He didn't dare look up but as the seconds dragged by into a full minute, he glanced up through his eyelashes and was surprised by the shocked expression on Suki's face. Clearly she hadn't thought that he would apologise for his behaviour. But why not? He wondered. While he had acted like a sexist cow-pig when he first arrived, surely she hadn't thought him arrogant enough to be above an apology. Finally she seemed to snap out of it as the eyebrow raised again.
"You want to be a Kyoshi Warrior?" There was a teasing smile playing around her lips while the other girls whispered amongst themselves. He wished that they wouldn't do that. He was fairly certain that they were either talking about him or Aang, and since Aang was currently trying to impress his little fan-club that stalked him everywhere around the island, it was probably him. "Well, if you want to learn, you'll have to train hard."
"I will!" Sokka stated quickly, wondering if this would get the girls to shut up. Suki blinked and then grinned.
"And you'll have to follow our traditions." Another sly smile. "And I mean all of them."
An hour later, Sokka was regretting his decision. The face paint he could handle. He had applied the traditional wolf war paint to his skin enough times to not shy away when someone bought it to his skin, and while the design was different (the wolf was a lot less girly) he could pretend for a moment that he was a kid again and dad was applying the wolf for their first hunt. But the dress… the dress was a bit much. Needless to say, he could barely understand why girls wore them in the first place. The material was thick and heavy and even though it had been designed with the idea of free movement in mind, Sokka still found himself tripping on the hem from time to time. He marvelled at how Suki managed to not fall over with every step, considering not even Katara wore this much material this close to the ground.
"Stop squirming," Suki snapped as Sokka tugged at the sleeves of the gown again (there was really no other word for it). "The green represents strength and the golden disks are for honour," she explained and Sokka blinked. He hadn't known that they stood for something.
"Strength and honour," he murmured, standing further upright. That sounded good. That was what a warrior should be: strong and honourable even in the midst of war. Maybe Kyoshi had had the right ideas in mind when she created the warriors. Even the dress didn't feel that bad, right up until Aang happened to walk by.
"Nice dress Sokka!" he quipped before running off from his fans as they gathered around the doorway.
And there goes the confidence I was just getting back he thought, slumping and blushing in embarrassment at the same time as Suki laughed.
Zuko was sure that the nightmares were getting worse. Except now, he really was dreaming about Junsuina. He dreamt that he was trapped within a volcano and it grew hotter and hotter as he tried to escape. He would batter himself against the walls and scream at the top of his lungs as the room became hotter still until the magma shot out of the ground and consumed him whole. He would wake sweating in the middle of the night, only to meditate to more dreams of fire and bloodshed by his great-grandfather's dragon. This has got to stop he thought as they approached the small neutral island. They would arrive sometime in the late afternoon of the next day, but for now he decided that practise was definitely on the menu. And since there was no-one around…
Waterbending was not as hard as people thought it would be for a firebender. If you were taught by the Academy then it would be harder considering they taught that the principles of firebending were based on anger. It wasn't. He had spent hours with Junsuina fixing all of the bad habits that the Academy had tried to teach him, not to mention Uncle when he had insisted that Zuko learn firebending properly no matter whether he could bend the other elements or not. It had taken until Lu Ten's death for him to admit that Zuko should bend the way he felt was right. After all, he was the one with the dragon. And so Zuko had taught his uncle that the main principle of firebending was passion. Passion for life, for truth, for loyalty and so the movements were far more graceful than the sharp staccato movements that Zuko had found jarring when in the Academy. It was probably this, more than anything, that meant that waterbending came easier to him than the spirit had thought, since it surprised even him with Zuko's prowess at the elements.
"It is almost as if someone has taught you these moves before" it said now, sounding curious as Zuko moved through the motions of a particularly complicated kata. It was so early in the morning that even the ghost watch couldn't stay awake that night. They were approaching Kyoshi Island with some speed and they would be there tomorrow (or technically, later that day) afternoon. Zuko mentally shrugged at the spirit, deftly swirling the water around before sending it in a graceful spiral back into the water.
You're the one with the connection to the spirits Zuko thought back at him. He could almost feel the spirit pondering this and resisted the urge to shudder. No matter how long he had had to get used to the idea that there was a spirit within his head, it never got any less weird. He sighed and turned to head back and started as he realised that he had been watched by Iroh, who was holding out a cup of steaming tea.
"Here, Prince Zuko. That looked like tiring work," he said, smiling softly. Zuko took the tea, noticing that he had fixed Jasmine for him again. Why his uncle felt the need to constantly make tea was a mystery but at least he made tea that Zuko liked (unless of course it was medicinal tea, which all tasted foul). He took a tentative sip as his uncle came to join him. "You should not practise so much so soon after your accident." Zuko paused in taking another sip and glanced at his uncle who was looking at him in concern. It was one of those rare quiet moments when they were able to both look at each other and Zuko didn't feel the need to shrug off his uncle's affections just to keep up the image of stoic angry prince.
"I couldn't sleep," he murmured quietly. "Too many nightmares."
"About the Agni Kai?" Zuko tried to pretend he didn't hear the strain in his uncle's voice, the pain and worry and horror of the events that day. And it was true that Zuko had been having plenty of nightmares in the three years away from home of that fateful day but now he simply shook his head.
"No. About Junsuina." He didn't mention that other recurring nightmare, of his great-grandfather's dragon and the Avatar's fighting over the world, the Avatar always losing, always falling, always burning… He shuddered and pushed the image away. His uncle blinked, staring out over the ocean waves.
"I am sure that she is fine. After all, she was able to survive the wilderness as a new-born," Iroh pointed out, but his voice was subdued and Zuko had the feeling that it had been quite a while since Iroh had thought about her. It wasn't his fault really, with everything else that had happened in the past few years that his uncle would forget a dragon. He was still grieving, no matter how insistent that he wasn't, over Lu Ten and worried about his nephew not only for himself but for the conspicuously absent Ursa. Zuko couldn't blame him, after all, he too had his own worries and sometimes forgot about some of his uncle's as well.
"You would know if she were in danger, Prince Zuko" the spirit murmured and Zuko wrinkled his nose in distaste as he finished the last of his tea, hiding the expression from his uncle with his tea cup.
Regardless this is a private conversation he snapped back at it and felt it recoil slightly to the back of his mind. Good he thought. He hated trying to keep two conversations going at once.
"How long until we reach Kyoshi Island?" he asked, even though he knew the answer. There was a faint calling of earth somewhere in the distance ahead of them and the closer they came, the stronger the pull got. That, and there was also the distinct feeling of something else, something close to the spiritual world ahead of them and he knew it had nothing to do with the Unagi which had snaked its way a couple of times under their ship, as if trying to sense if they were edible. The one time it had poked its head above the waves however, it was met with a face full of fire and had yet to show itself again.
"We shall be there by evening," Iroh said, his eyes downcast. Zuko got the feeling that he had wished for their conversation to have continued in a similar vein as before but now was about the time that the crew started to wake, and soon, too soon, they would be moving about the deck on their usual business of keeping the rusting wreck moving smoothly. It meant that times like these, tiny precious stolen moments to be just a boy and his uncle were too short and often cut short by an approaching crew member and they were forced to continue to be a Prince and General. No matter what they wanted on the inside. Zuko knew this and Iroh knew this, and yet, somehow, it never made the decision any easier.
Aang was thoroughly confused by Katara. All day, and much of the previous day as well, she had been constantly griping at him for them to move off of the island, when she had been perfectly content before. But this was somewhere that they were actually wanted, not like her stuffy little village that was falling apart- not that he would ever point that out to her- or the Southern Air Temple with its ghosts and skeletons. A part of him never wanted to leave this place where he was wanted and loved by everyone, where he wouldn't be left alone again. But Katara was constantly upset by something, annoyed when he brushed off her queries for help and downright moody at the suggestion that he was going to ride the Unagi. Honestly, he had only suggested it in an attempt to impress her, not any of the little girls who had taken to following him. Sure, he wanted to help Katara, but the fan club had taken to pouncing on him at random moments and he had spotted a few out of the corner of his eye just as Katara had asked for help. He had resolved to help her next time but she didn't ask and refused any of his advances.
And so, he found himself floating in the middle of the bay, waiting for the mysterious Unagi to show up and allow him to entertain the now dwindling audience that was waiting for him on the shore. He remembered the last time he had done this, waiting for the elephant koi to come out so he could impress Katara but she had turned away and run off, just like the rest of them were doing- although he had found out later that she had simply been trying to get Appa to not eat a rather poisonous looking plant that had turned out to be completely harmless anyway. He sighed, watching as the last of them left, with a slight feeling of relief. Maybe now he could get out of the freezing cold waters that felt almost as cold as the iceberg he had woken up in.
"Aang!" He blinked and looked up to find Katara smiling at him from the beach. She looked both relieved and worried at the same time, probably wondering whether or not he would have survived a second meeting with the Unagi. "What are you doing?" She seemed well aware that the water was freezing, her smile beckoning him to come to shore. Internally sighing in relief he grinned and began swimming towards her.
And that was when everything went wrong.
The first thing he noted was the dark shadow, just as before, when a torrent of water shot over his head, practically burying him under the water. Not again, he had time to think before the world seemed to collapse in on itself, and not in a way he recognised as the Avatar State now. I'm sorry Katara he thought as what felt like a pair of arms wrapped around him in the water.
The next thing he knew he was coughing and spluttering, freezing cold but alive. Katara was holding him close and for a moment he felt a strange sense of déjà vu; he had awoken like this when he had been released from the iceberg. Cold, wet and in the arms of the most beautiful girl he had ever known. Katara however, did not look as happy as she had back then though. She was crouching down, holding him close while staring over the bunch of rocks that they were hidden behind. Far off he could hear the groaning of komodo rhinos and the heavy crunch of the sandy shore beneath their feet. An eerily familiar voice was shouting faraway and Aang felt a chill go through him.
Zuko had found them once again.
The village was too quiet. That was the first thought that ran through Zuko's head as he and the rest of his crew that had come ashore marched into the ramshackle village on Kyoshi Island. It was not Zuko's first time here, either as himself or a wandering refugee, but not once had it ever been empty. They were planning something, that was for sure. The sun was setting behind the main hut and Zuko narrowed his eyes as he pulled up his mount, alone on the only three komodo rhinos available to them. The rest of his crew were fanned out behind him, grumbling under their breaths where they thought he couldn't hear them, bunched as they were on the remaining rhinos but now was not the time for reprimanding them.
Zuko scanned the area, noting at least three moving shadows behind huts, one bounding behind a roof, but none that could be the airbender. Did he leave before I got here? He wondered, ignoring the few frightened faces behind windows. There was a soft shing from behind a house as the two rhinos holding his men moved forward, shadows chasing them. If he has, why would they be… Before he could finish that thought, four figures in green jumped from rooftops, knocking at least half of his men off their mounts and surprising the others into complete inaction. Idiots he thought for a moment as another figure in green ran at him. Zuko scowled, bending a few flames in her direction, trying to find where the little airbender might be hiding. The Warrior avoided the flames bent in her direction, opting to attack head on. Zuko growled at the distraction, flicking the reins and causing his own rhino to turn, flinging her in the opposite direction. Disoriented, the warrior stayed down, dizzily reaching for her fans as Zuko bent new flames at her as one of her sisters jumped in front of them. Wait, isn't that...?
"It is" the spirit confirmed in an amused tone as another warrior jumped him, distracting Zuko just enough that he almost instinctively shoved her away with air. Now is NOT the time he snapped in its direction, flinging the girl- this one being definitely a girl- away from him as her two fellows caught up with her. Time to fight off the rhino. His men seemed to be regrouping, so perhaps not as stupid as he had first thought, and the Kyoshi Warriors were not exactly a group to be trifled with.
Dismounting the rhino, the faint echo of earth calling up to him, Zuko regarded the few warriors ahead of him. One headdress of a leader, two lieutenants and one inexperienced Water Tribe boy Zuko noted, eyeing them carefully. It didn't look as if the boy (Sokka the spirit gently reminded him, which Zuko ignored) had brought his boomerang with him so there was no chance of strange flying things coming at him from the blind spot that was peripheral vision on his left side. The warriors, however, seemed quite happy to attempt to take advantage of this.
"Where is he?" Zuko demanded, a hint of anger in his tone. He didn't want to burn anything in the neutral village. If Kyoshi Island wanted nothing to do with the war, then he sure wasn't going to bring it to them. All he needed was the Avatar and they would be gone. Surely, they would have the sense to-
"You won't get your hands on him!" the leader stated, charging at him, another warrior leaping from his left. Zuko internally growled and slid ever so slightly right, twisting in a way to avoid her sister warrior and the leader herself. One flame punch later and a spinning kick sent the warriors down around him. He saw Sokka gritting his teeth, rising…
"Looking for me?" Zuko turned to the high octave of the Avatar's voice, painfully young and naïve, to where the boy stood behind him, shadowed by the setting sun. He's got no staff on him, probably with the bison, but where's the waterbender? Not that it mattered too much- one untrained waterbender was hardly going to stop him, last meeting notwithstanding. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the warriors being distracted by the rest of his crew, having finally managed to bring themselves back into some semblance of order and keeping the rest from getting in the way of this rematch. From what he knew of Aang's bending, they would only get in the way and be unintentionally hurt. And where have you been? He thought about demanding but the spirit decided to answer for him. "Down at the beach. Aang cannot resist the attempt to ride something so dangerous."
"You tried to ride the Unagi?!" Zuko shouted, amazed at this boy's idiocy. And then realised that he had just shouted that out loud at the Avatar's surprised flinch, hands half raised as if waiting for an attack. Clearly, he wasn't expected a scolding. Well, I got this far, he might come with me if he thinks I'm a friend. "Are you insane?"
"Ummm… it seemed like fun?" the Avatar seemed very confused, as did the waterbender who had just caught up with him.
"Don't pretend to be concerned! You're not going to get your hands on him!" she shouted, water wavering from a water skin hung at her side. At least she's practicing. It wouldn't be honourable to fight a non-combatant and after all he hadn't been the one to involve all these people. No one had to get hurt.
"Concerned is the least of my worries," Zuko growled, slipping into a bending stance, hoping that he wouldn't give himself away. At least none of his crew seemed to have noticed his slip up and Uncle was back on the ship to have heard. "I'll make you the same offer again. If you come with me, no one will get hurt." Aang looked conflicted but the Water Tribe girl scowled, giving her answer.
"No! I won't let you!" Water whipped towards his face and Zuko dodged to the left, ignoring the internal want to throw it back in her face. Fair enough, if that was what she wanted…
A foot hit him in the back sending him to the floor. Blinking dust from his eyes, Zuko cursed himself for forgetting the Kyoshi Warriors. Never turn your back on an enemy, you should know this!
These women are not Azula the spirit started, before Zuko growled at it both internally and externally, spinning on his hands and kicking out his opponent's feet from under them. Shut up! Assailant on the ground, new opponent jumping towards while someone shouted, "Here Aang!" Ignoring the Water Tribe warrior in the dress for the moment in favour of the leader, to exchange a flurry of fists and fire. Where the hell is Jee? That thought got cut short as just as the leader was defeated, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up as he was blown off his feet yet again. The world spun dizzyingly and Zuko landed, disoriented, on wood. Wood…? Swallowing back nausea from that horrific tumble, internally checking for major injuries, Zuko pulled himself to his feet to discover that not only had the Avatar thrown him into someone's house, having gained a pair of war fans from someone, but he had also just added fuel to any fire leftover from him or his crew. Before he could get back into any kind of fight, the Avatar's bison landed, just long enough for the three to clamber on and took off. Internally sighing, Zuko attempted to judge the amount of flames that would need putting out. If I can get Jee and a few of the others to help, Kyoshi can keep its neutrality and Uncle might be able to help put towards the cost of rebuilding...
Water splashed down on him, soaking him through but also snapping him out of any residual dizziness. What the…?
"I believe Aang has just given you one less job to do." The spirit sounded oddly amused as the idiot of an Avatar, stood on the top of a not-so-happy Unagi forced the darn thing to spit water over the town once again. Scowling at the end to a horrific day, Zuko ignored it.
"Jee! Move out!" Fine, if the Avatar wanted him to ignore this mess, then he would do just that. "Follow the Avatar!"
Ok, so reasons that this was late. First of all, I have to say that this chapter was giving me a hard time, two years ago and basically the last couple of months when I felt ready to return. The reason for this is pretty much because it's more of a filler chapter which had little to do in my planning for the entire story and I just could not get an ending that I was completely happy with. Even now, I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it but it was the best that came up, and after working on it for about three months, I got sick of trying to rewrite the end over and over again, with poor Zuko swinging around in his reactions to show Zuko and my story version of him that I finally got fed up and stuck to this ending. So, hence the three month wait while I tackled how this should end around the stress of everything else that decided to go wrong (don't ask) and uni starting again, narrowing down the time I had to work on the darn thing.
Anyway, the next chapter will not leave you waiting two years, in fact I'm literally starting on it right now and should be significantly longer than this one so no promises that it will be up within a few weeks. Hopefully (fingers crossed) by Christmas, but again, no promises. Uni, this behemoth and generally just life likes to get in the way of me being able to write. But within the year I promise ;)