Originally published September 11, 2012
"Attack on the Castle"
As for any person who knows this spell, he will be like Re in the eastern sky, like Osiris in the Netherworld. He will go down to the circle of fire, without the flame touching him ever! ~ A Coffin Text, the Dead Speaks
The mood in the castle was as dismal as the weather outside. It was starting to rain; it might even turn into a full-fledged storm. The Kyoshi Warriors dejectedly cleaned up the remains of Katara and Zuko's dinner. Suki wobbled down the stairs to speak with the other animated objects, particularly the ones Katara had grown closest to—Yue, Iroh, Arnook, and Aunt Wu. She couldn't find Aang or Meng.
"Katara said to tell you good-bye, from her," Suki said sadly.
"I just can't believe that she would leave so suddenly, when she seemed so happy here," Aunt Wu said.
"Maybe it would have been better if she had never come at all," Arnook said gruffly.
"How can you say that?" Yue said, looking crestfallen. "Did you learn nothing from Katara? Or from Meng on the solstice?"
Before Arnook could answer, Momo rushed in, making excited chittering noises. Then the footstool ran over to the window above a small table.
"Can it be?" Iroh said.
"Is it she?" Yue asked, as they vied for a view from the window. They all looked down, and were astonished by what they saw.
A mob of people, about half of them teenagers, wielding various types of weapons, was breaking through the gate entrance to the castle grounds.
"Cinders and ashes! Invaders!" Iroh exclaimed.
Arnook got a close-up look at the man leading them. "They have the magic mirror!"
"We're under attack!"
Suki, the fearless warrior leader, was in her element. "Yue, warn the Master. The rest of you, follow me. If it's a fight they want, we'll be ready for them."
While the others hurried about or headed toward the main entrance, Yue made her way to Zuko's rooms. The door had been left ajar; yet she still hesitated, knowing that if Katara's departure was hurting her and the others, it must be many times harder on Zuko.
Yue peeked into the room. Zuko has his back to her, leaning over the table that held the bell jar and the enchanted fire lily.
"Excuse me, Prince Zuko …"
"Leave me in peace."
"But Zuko, the castle is under attack!"
Zuko glanced at her in vague surprise. Yue noticed that he was wearing his mask again, though he hadn't worn it earlier in the evening. Then he looked away, resuming his despairing position. "Let them come. You and the others can flee if you want. Just leave me."
Yue's voice was soft and pleading. "Katara wouldn't want you to give up your life."
"I'm not. I'm already dying. It makes no difference if they kill me. Either way, it's not suicide."
Yue stared at him. "I can't believe that you, of all people, would give up."
Zuko's hands gripped the edge of the table. "You don't understand."
Feeling at a loss, Yue turned away sadly and went back downstairs. She found the others bracing themselves with their backs pressed against the door; Suki was doing most of the work, trying to keep the intruders from breaking it down. They could hear fists and clubs banging on the other side, threatening to beat down the barrier.
"This isn't working!" Iroh panted.
Aunt Wu looked uncharacteristically anxious. "Iroh, what will we do?"
Suddenly the candle that made up Iroh's head lit up. "Wait – I've got it!" he exclaimed.
"Break it down!"
"Come on!"
"Take whatever booty you can find; but remember, the Blue Spirit is mine!" Jet ordered.
Then it happened: the doors finally gave in. The crash of the doors on the floor was followed by an eerie silence.
The foyer was empty of any living thing. But on either side of the entryway looked like an antique shop, lined with furniture and household items and curios.
The mob entered cautiously, looking around with suspicion, as though suspecting the Blue Spirit to emerge from behind a piece of furniture at any moment. Longshot picked up a lit candelabra from a table and held it up, trying to light up the way.
"NOW!" Iroh shouted.
Chaos ensued so suddenly that the people didn't know what was happening; everything around them was moving; it took them a minute to process that it was the household items that were moving. Cleaning supplies, kitchenware, furniture of every kind came at them, moving of their own accord.
Once they realized what was happening, the Freedom Fighters didn't hesitate to fight back. Daggers clashed with animated pots and pans; arrows pierced pillows; someone chased after the footstool like a hunter after an animal.
Yue had joined the cups and bowls among the Kyoshi Warriors. Each of them stood poised on the landing of the stairs, filled to the brim with boiling hot water.
"Now!" Arnook called out; the liquid containers leaned forward, spilling their contents on the attackers below. The Freedom Fighters screamed in pain as they were splashed with the boiling liquid.
Jet could see that fighting was a waste of time. The Blue Spirit was somewhere else in the castle. These abnormalities were just distractions.
Smellerbee started to run past him; Jet grabbed her shoulder to stop her. "Smellerbee, give me some of your knives."
She scowled but handed over two daggers. "This better be worth the trouble, Jet."
"Trust me; it is," Jet promised. And with that, he headed up the stairs. The objects were too preoccupied with fighting to notice him.
There were a few close calls, such as when Sneers chased Iroh with a torch, until the candelabra was cornered against a wall.
"Didn't your mother ever tell you not to play with fire?" Sneers said, holding the torch out close to Iroh. "It's a tool, not a toy." Iroh thought he could feel his metal skeleton melting.
"Hey! Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" Suki lumbered up behind the boy. Sneers glanced over his shoulder at her, his mouth forming a small O. Suki flung her right door open, knocking the torch out of his hands; then she opened her left door, slapping Sneers and knocking him aside.
Iroh breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you," he said to Suki, before running off to rejoin the fight.
The Duke had found a way to keep busy while staying out of the direct fighting: he was trying to pluck out all of Aunt Wu's feathers. Iroh gasped, and then rushed up in front of the boy. "Release her!" he ordered; when he exhaled, his flames leapt up a foot high, making him look like a small fiery monster. The Duke dropped the feather duster in terror and ran from the room.
"Oh, good show," Arnook said sarcastically. Iroh didn't notice; he was too busy embracing Aunt Wu.
Ty Lee pushed herself up the stairs, until she was about halfway up the stairwell. She surveyed the chaotic scene; it wasn't her ideal audience. Still, it was something.
"Looks like I'm getting a solo after all," Ty Lee murmured to herself, with a mixture of irony and self-satisfaction. "Take that, Azula." She sucked in a huge breath, held her nose, and let out the highest, most deafening note she'd ever played.
The people standing nearest to her covered their ears or held their heads in pain, before they had the sense to run away.
The Freedom Fighters were falling back.
"Where's Jet?"
"Who cares?"
It was a silent agreement: they were done taking orders from Jet. They retreated, fleeing from the insane, unwelcoming, inhospitable place.
"And stay out!" Suki shouted with finality.
Zuko waited, unable to hear the sounds of the battle that was waged in the lower levels of the castle. He hid, and waited to see if anyone would find him.
He heard someone close the door behind him.
"So I was wrong." Jet said this strangely, without any hint of apology or shame. "Sokka and Katara were right. What was it—a masked firebending ninja who imprisons unsuspecting travelers?"
The Blue Spirit merely glanced over his shoulder at the intruder. Jet pulled the magic mirror out of his belt and tossed it onto the floor, sending it sliding toward Zuko. "Do you like destroying families? Kidnapping innocents? Who knows what else you did to Katara …"
Don't speak that name to me. Zuko's instinct was to be angry; but those words had some truth to them.
"Well? Are you going to fight? Or do I have to issue a formal challenge?" Zuko turned sideways; through the corner of the mask's eyehole, he could see Jet pull out a knife. Then his eyes fell on the floor, on the sheath that held his broadswords.
It was not in Zuko's nature to give up. Perhaps that was why he had clung to hope that the spell would be broken. And now, not fighting … didn't feel right.
Katara wouldn't want you to give up your life.
He knew he wouldn't survive this battle. But at least he could go down fighting.
Jet threw the knife the way Smellerbee had taught him. There was a swish and a metallic sound; Zuko had drawn his swords, and the arrow was deflected by one of the blades.
Strangely satisfied, Jet unsheathed his hook swords, looking menacingly at the Blue Spirit. "No firebending?" he taunted.
"Maybe I don't feel like it."
Jet charged at him; Zuko held up his swords in a cross in front of him. Zuko was careful to move away from the table with the fire lily; even now he thought of protecting it. The two swordsmen crossed blades again and again, but Zuko's movements were mostly defensive, almost automatic.
Zuko raised his swords to block Jet's, leaving his chest exposed. Jet raised one leg high and kicked Zuko hard in the stomach, sending him reeling backwards and crashing through the window. It was only the protective black bodysuit that kept him from being cut or getting glass stuck in his flesh. But he did have a painful landing on the flat rooftop below. He lay there for a moment, not moving, his swords a few feet away.
Jet leapt through the broken window and landed in front of him, a manic light in his usually dark eyes. He wasn't smiling, but he was enjoying this; he felt exhilarated, righteous, and triumphant.
Zuko was alive, but he was done. What was the point of fighting, now that Katara was gone? The fire lily was about to die, but that hardly mattered. He didn't care so much about a lifetime as a demon than a lifetime without Katara.
"Give it up!" Jet shouted. "It's over!"
"NO IT'S NOT!"
The scream could be heard even over the howling wind. Jet and the Blue Spirit both looked down in disbelief and saw a hot-air balloon rising up toward the spires of the towers. Sokka was at the controls, smiling a dark, triumphant smile. Katara, however, wasn't smiling; her expression blazed with hatred at Jet, at the same time glowing with love for the Blue Spirit.
"Katara," Zuko whispered. He had thought he'd never see her again. But she came back – for him.
Jet noticed the Blue Spirit's distraction, and took the opportunity to strike another blow; but the Blue Spirit snatched his broadswords and blocked him, fighting with renewed determination.
"Go to him," Sokka urged his sister. Katara smiled at him gratefully, and then stood on the edge of the basket, holding on to a rope to steady herself. As they passed a tower, she grabbed on to a spire and got off the balloon. She carefully climbed down to the stretch of roof where Jet and the Blue Spirit were fighting.
She had to go across a slanted stretch of tiled roof, holding on to the top of the gable. Now she felt instinctive fear; she could barely find her footing; if she fell, it would be the end of her—and Zuko.
Katara stopped, holding onto the roof, trying to catch her breath. She was scared. She closed her eyes against the rain, against the battle, against her fears.
I can do this. I have to. For Zuko. Katara forced her eyes open, glaring through the rain with determination.
Do the brave thing, and bravery will follow.
She bent the water out from under her hands before moving them, so she wouldn't slip and fall from the roof. There, she could see them fighting, now appearing equally matched.
"Were you in love with her?" Jet said scornfully. "How could she love you when she had someone like me?"
Zuko's heart sank. So this was the man Katara had mentioned, who first tried to win her over.
"You took away her brother, her freedom, her happiness …"
The Blue Spirit couldn't argue, because it was true. His arms and legs went numb.
"It's over, Spirit!" Jet snarled. "Katara's mine!"
"No!" A water whip struck Jet painfully on the back of his head; he turned and saw Katara standing on the roof, bending the raindrops around her. "I'm not!" And with that, the real battle commenced.
Arnook was keeping a lookout through the window, searching the grounds for anyone from the mob whom they might have missed. When lightning lit up the sky, he saw something—not on the ground, but in the sky, coming closer …
"What in the Spirit World is that?" Arnook exclaimed.
Yue squinted through the telescope's eyepiece. After a moment, she backed away, gasping. "It's Sokka!"
"Sokka?" Ty Lee repeated.
"Katara's brother?" Iroh remembered.
"Is Katara with him?" Suki demanded.
Arnook hesitated. "I don't see her."
Outside, Sokka hurried to land the balloon on the grounds. The rain was starting to come down in sheets now. Once they touched the ground, Sokka stumbled out of the basket and rushed into the castle, not caring about whether he would be able to leave the place.
Sokka just had time to take in the ruined state of the foyer: scorch marks, puddles, broken furniture, and some chipped pottery hobbling about. And there were the objects who had greeted him when he first came here, accompanied by a dented piccolo and a disheveled featherduster whom he hadn't met before. "Where's the mob?" he blurted.
"We drove them out," Iroh reported.
"Not all of them, you didn't," Sokka said, running up the stairs. "Their leader is trying to kill Zuko."
"What?" Yue and the others followed after him as fast as they could.
"Katara's on the roof, trying to help Zuko."
"Katara's back?" more than one object exclaimed.
Something pushed open the flap of Sokka's bag, and Meng and Aang peeked out to look at their friends. "There's still hope!" Meng shouted triumphantly.
Sokka stopped at the top of the stairs, realizing that he didn't know his way around the castle. "Zuko's room is this way," Ty Lee said, taking the lead.
They burst into the suite, and ran over to the broken window, evidently the place where the duel had commenced. They looked down and could see the three young people fighting on a stretch of flat roof below them.
Jet knew he had to act fast. Katara would have the upper hand, surrounded by her element water. And now the Blue Spirit was newly invigorated, though bruised from Jet's initial attack. It was hard for him to use firebending effectively in the rain, but he still had his swords in hand.
Jet noticed that Katara's waterbending had improved during her time away. Add to that her flaring temper, her anger directed toward him—she was a force to be reckoned with. He moved between the two of them, trying and failing to fight them individually—they kept coming to help the other. All three of them were tired, and wanted it to end.
"Why can't you stop fighting?" Katara said, angry and tearful.
Jet lowered his swords slightly to look at her. "Because it's the only thing I know how to do. Because I have to believe there are things—people—worth fighting for."
Katara stared at him; she hadn't expected him to answer.
Hesitating was a mistake. No sooner had he finished speaking than Jet turned, rounding on the Blue Spirit; each of his swords hooked onto one of the broadswords, wrenching them from the Blue Spirit's gloved hands and tossing them down over the side of the roof. Zuko tried to throw some fire, but Jet avoided it, ducking behind Zuko and then holding one sword on either side of his neck.
For the first time that evening, Zuko feared for his own life.
Katara screamed. "No! Don't hurt him! I'll do anything?"
Jet looked at her with renewed interest. "Anything?"
Katara swallowed hard, knowing what Jet was thinking. Nevertheless, she nodded.
"If I let him live, will you marry me?"
Behind the mask, Zuko's mouth dropped open. He stared at Katara, waiting for her answer.
Katara looked from Jet to the Blue Spirit in anguish. There was no way she could let the Blue Spirit die. But marrying Jet would break the Blue Spirit's heart. What was the moral thing to do? What was the selfish thing, or the selfless thing?
"We have to do something!" Iroh cried.
"Sokka, throw something at them!" Meng said.
"Like what?" Sokka asked. "They took away my boomerang!"
They exchanged helpless, desperate glances.
"Throw me," Yue said suddenly.
"What? No!" Sokka exclaimed.
Arnook stared at his daughter. "Yue …"
"Father, please. They have to live, they have to love each other—it's so the rest of you can be human again!"
"Zuko?" Katara looked to him rather than Jet. "What would you have me do?"
The Blue Spirit was just as lost as Katara.
"Sokka, throw me NOW!" Yue shouted. Looking terrified, Sokka grabbed the teapot, held it up over his head, and threw it at Jet with all his might.
The porcelain teapot hit Jet's head with such force that it broke into several large pieces. The Blue Spirit moved away quickly as Jet collapsed onto the rooftop. Blood dripped from his skull, mixing with the rain that fell on him.
For a moment the only things moving were the rain and wind around them. Then the Blue Spirit crawled away from Jet's still form, slowly got to his feet, and walked across the platform toward Katara. She reached out for him, smiling passionately.
"You came back," the Blue Spirit said, reaching out to touch her face.
Katara's throat was tight. "Of course I came back," she said, feeling close to tears.
They embraced, clinging desperately to each other; Zuko thought he might never let go. "I thought I'd never see you again …"
Katara closed her eyes. "I'm sorry," she whispered into his chest. The cloth was damp against her skin, but she could still feel the heat radiating from the firebender.
Sokka managed to jump down from Zuko's window to the rooftop. "Yue!" Sokka rushed to pick up the shards of porcelain. No, Yue couldn't be dead—she wasn't human, she couldn't die like a human, porcelain could be glued back together—
Sokka looked up, glancing around in desperation. If there was no imminent danger, he had to take care of Yue. He spotted Zuko and Katara hugging each other on the balcony. He turned around to look at Jet—but he wasn't there.
"What the—?" Sokka shielded his eyes against the rain and look up. There—Jet was on his feet, almost at the other end of the roof, glaring at the couple hugging a few feet away from him. He was holding a knife in his right hand.
"LOOK OUT!" Sokka screamed.
Katara straightened and saw Jet over Zuko's shoulder. Katara screamed, but Zuko was already moving, turning so the knife stabbed him instead of Katara. He cried out in agony, a sound like Katara had never heard before.
Jet yanked on the handle, drawing the knife out of Zuko's stomach and pulling back to strike again; but as he pulled he lost his balance, sending himself falling backward. He tumbled down the sloped roof, until he fell off a precipice. They could hear his scream as he fell through the air, crashing into several lower-level rooftops, Then, finally, he landed on the cobbled ground, and the screaming stopped.
Disclaimer: I took a little inspiration from the hostage situation in The Phantom of the Opera.