I Want to Live
Disclaimer: Avatar is the property of Nickelodeon.
Chapter 2
The plan was to move out tonight, as soon as the moon hit the middle of the sky, when it cast the deepest shadows. This would provide them with enough coverage to hopefully not get caught.
With the assistance of Zuko in case of an attack, Katara had ventured out of the cave to a nearby stream, to wash all of the blood out of their fire nation cloaks. He tried to make small conversation to keep her mind occupied.
"Isn't it amazing how much we've changed? You guys accept me as a member of the family, I never thought that would happen in a million years," he said to her softly with a smile.
Katara looked up at him from her crouching position next to the river and smiled back.
"Yeah, if someone had told me back when we first started traveling 'hey guess what, the guy currently hunting you is eventually going to end up on your side and help you fight, but even that won't be enough because the avatar is still going to die,' I would have laughed."
Zuko caught the slight trace of cynicism and depression in her voice and sighed. He crouched down next to her and put his hand reassuringly on her shoulder.
"We will avenge Aang's death, Katara. We will defeat Azula and my father, and free all of our friends and family. Just because Aang died doesn't mean that we have to stop fighting, you know he wouldn't want you to give up like that." He watched a tear fall from her eye down her cheek, and Katara quickly went to brush it away. "Why don't you head back to the cave and try to get some rest, I'll finish up here."
Katara nodded, and stood up, and began to walk away, but turned around to face Zuko, who had now taken her position at the riverside, and was scrubbing the cloaks together in his hands.
"Hey Zuko," he looked up at her as she spoke, "Thank you."
He nodded to her, and she gave a small smile before walking back toward the cave a few feet away. He watched her back as she walked, and his eyes darted around her to make sure she wouldn't get ambushed walking alone. When he saw that she was safe, his attention turned back to the river and his own reflection in the water.
"If someone had told me the same thing Katara, I think I would have laughed too," Zuko mused, remembering when he had first joined their group.
It had been rocky at first, Aang being the gentle soul that he was, accepted Zuko, and Toph accepted him as well since she could feel his heartbeat and knew he was sincere about wanting to make up for what he did. Sokka half-heartedly accepted him and took every chance he could get to poke fun at Zuko. Katara was the last to be won over, and she too would tease and torment Zuko.
"Like brother, like sister," Zuko said to himself, as he laughed at the trouble the two of them would often cause him.
Zuko immediately took a liking to Toph, perhaps because she never put down any of his ideas, and was always willing to help. He had atoned for his burning of her feet by carrying her around on his shoulders, which he countered by calling it "a new form of exercise and strength training to prepare to fight the fire lord."
Zuko's true test had been to prove himself to Katara. This finally occurred when their gang had been jumped by a group of renegades and Zuko threw himself in front of Katara just in time, when one of the renegades had flung a dagger at her, and Zuko took the dagger to the shoulder for her.
"Zuko, you're such an idiot, what do you think you're doing running around letting yourself get stabbed in the shoulder, when you're supposed to be teaching Aang firebending!" Katara exclaimed, as Zuko dropped onto his knees, grasping at his shoulder, after he had taken the dagger for Katara.
The renegades had run away upon seeing the rage in Zuko's eyes, after he had been the recipient of their attack, so he and Katara were now alone in the clearing.
Zuko's hand gripped the handle of the dagger and he gritted his teeth in pain. Katara crouched down in front of him and inspected the protruding handle.
"It doesn't look like it hit anything vital," she said upon inspection.
"Oh gee, fabulous, well it still hurts like it hit something vital!" Zuko yelled at her.
Katara looked around for a moment, before her eyes settled on Zuko's belt, which she untied from around his waist.
"What are you doing?" Zuko asked, shocked at this sudden approach.
"Oh shut up and stop thinking like a boy," Katara replied, giving him a blank stare. Zuko just shrugged with a slight smirk in response to that one.
Katara proceeded to rip off a piece of the belt, which she tied into a thick knot, and held up to his mouth.
"Bite down on this," she instructed. Zuko looked at her, slightly confused.
"Why," he began to ask, until realization dawned on him, "Oh crap-"
He immediately shoved the knotted cloth into his mouth and bit down hard, as Katara's hand grabbed the hilt of the dagger and she pulled it, as quickly as she could, out of Zuko's shoulder. He screamed in agony into the cloth, the biting didn't help much.
He spit the knot out, once the dagger was pulled out, and gasped for breath, waiting for the pain to subside. Katara took the rest of the cloth and tied it around his shoulder like a tourniquet.
"I'll heal the wound when we get back to camp and I have some water," she said. Zuko nodded to her, the pressure from the fabric wrapped around his shoulder was helping with the pain. "Are you going to explain to me now why exactly you dove in front of the dagger?"
Zuko just looked at her and grinned.
"Well, you're too pretty to be scarred by a dagger."
Katara stared at him, before giving an exasperated sigh and thwacking him in the head.
"You're an idiot, Zuko. Do you know that?"
But he knew from the tone of her voice that she was only joking, and he realized at that moment she had finally accepted him.
Zuko peeled away his shirt and examined the small white scar which had remained, even after Katara's healing session. He remembered the look of shock on everyone's faces when the two had returned to camp laughing together.
Toph's reaction stuck out in his mind the most.
"Aw man, it was actually entertaining listening to you two beating the crap out of each other and fighting. Now what am I going to do around here for fun?"
Zuko sighed, hearing Toph's voice play over in his mind. He definitely missed her. The two of them had developed a bond quite like that of Sokka and Katara, and part of him definitely felt empty without her constantly around making her jokes or making up nicknames. He knew more than ever that they needed to get back to the capitol and rescue her; there was no way he was leaving the fire nation without his shadow by his side.
Zuko quickly finished getting the cloaks as clean as he could, heating the water with firebending in the hopes of making the process quicker, and the heating the cloaks with firebending as well, in order to dry them.
"Eh, good enough," he said to no one in particular, before standing up and returning back to the cave.
Sokka was still bent over his maps, writing notes in the margins and circling and tracing out different parts on the scrolls. Katara was lying on her side, her head resting on her folded arms, and she appeared to be sleeping peacefully. Sokka looked up at Zuko when he entered, and Zuko used this to nod in the direction of Katara.
"I don't think she's dreaming this time," Sokka said, in reference to his sister, "she's been peaceful since she went to lie down, fell asleep almost instantly too."
Zuko smiled, glad that Katara was finally getting some rest. He took her cloak, which was still warm from his firebending, and placed it over her sleeping form, pulling it up to her shoulders, before taking his spot across from Sokka.
"So what do have so far for us, boss?" Zuko asked, calling Sokka by the nickname he had given him, since Sokka was usually the one to plan out everything for the trio.
"Well, the fire nation prisons are outside of the imperial palace, in a separate and remote part of the city, that will help us out a lot because then we stand less of a chance of running into Azula, and I fully intend on avoiding her at all costs." Sokka said, pointing on the map to the distance between the palace and the prison.
"Yeah, pretty sure she would torch me to a crisp if she saw me," Zuko replied, to which Sokka laughed.
"Yeah, then we'll have to call you Crispy, and that just sounds like some sort of a snack, and then I'll end up taking a bite out of your arm in the middle of the night."
Zuko stared at the boy.
"Well then," he said, still staring at Sokka's grinning face, "Note to self, do not fall asleep anywhere near Sokka."
"Ok but seriously, you've gone into the prison before, when you went to visit your uncle right?" Sokka asked.
"Yeah but, I was still the prince of the fire nation at that point, so I just walked through the front door, I don't think that will work this time."
"Damn, good point. But, according to my map, there is a special secret entrance right here." Sokka said, circling in red a spot on his map.
"Oh no, no way, I know what entrance that is and I am not going through there." Zuko replied, standing up and backing away from Sokka.
"What entrance is that?" Katara asked, from her spot on the floor, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. "By the way, you two talk very loudly."
"Sorry." Both boys muttered together.
Katara walked over to where the two boys sat, hugging her cloak tightly around her for warmth. Zuko noticed that and tossed a fireball into their fire over in the side of the room, making it a bit bigger.
"So, what is this special entrance that Zuko won't go through?" Katara asked, trying to make sense of the boys' scribbled on map.
"The garbage chute," Zuko replied, furrowing his brow. Katara wrinkled her nose in response but then shrugged.
"What needs to be done has to be done," she said. "If that's the best way to sneak in and rescue Toph then I say let's go for it." Zuko sighed, realizing he had lost this battle.
"You need to learn to disagree with your brother more often." Katara laughed.
"Disagreeing with my brother is what I do best."
"Right so, continuing on with our discussion, please children let's stay on task," Sokka said.
"Sokka, I'm older than you," Zuko replied.
"Gah! I don't care! Plan! Discussing! Zip it!" Sokka sputtered, smacking the map in Zuko's face.
"Fine, fine, go on," Zuko said, swatting at Sokka's hand.
"Ok then, so, we'll travel when the moon is in the middle point of the sky, it'll cast the most shadows on the ground, providing us with the most cover. If we wait for the moon to get too high, everything will be illuminated too much and we won't stand a chance of sneaking in." Zuko and Katara both nodded, the idea made sense to them. "Not to mention tonight is a full moon, so you'll be at your strongest Katara, and even though I know you don't want to, but if it comes to an emergency, you can bloodbend." Katara shook her head at that one.
"We won't need my bloodbending, the moon spirit will protect us," she said quietly. Sokka's eyes immediately dropped low and his voice darkened.
"Even though it was supposed to be the other way around." He muttered.
Zuko had learned of the story behind the moon spirit during the first full moon after he had joined the group, when Aang told him the story of Sokka and Princess Yue. Since then, Zuko knew that full moons were always a bit emotional and depressing for Sokka, so he made a point of never bringing it up to him.
"So we'll sneak in, grab Toph, and then haul out of there. And then we get out of the fire nation. Deal?"
"Deal," both Zuko and Katara replied together.
"Good. Now the sun's just getting ready to go down, so we should get in a few hours of sleep now while we can because who knows when we'll sleep again. I'll take the first shift, then you'll take one Zuko, and then I'll do one more, and that should be enough for us." Sokka said, folding up his maps and putting them in his pouch.
Shifts were one hour intervals in which one of the two boys would sit awake while the other slept, and after each hour they would switch, allowing Katara to sleep the whole night. Sokka took his place against the wall not too far from the mouth of the cave, and Katara and Zuko went to lay down on the pile of grass bedding that they had built for themselves.
It had become routine that Katara would lay on her side with her back to Zuko, and he would in turn lay on his side behind her and place his arm over her as a means of protection. Sokka did the same, and it had just become a custom between the three to sleep in that way. But tonight, Katara decided to turn herself inward and face Zuko, which he immediately found awkward.
"Do you think this rescue plan will work?" She asked in a hushed tone that Sokka couldn't hear.
"Honestly, I don't know, I hope so." Zuko replied, brushing back his hair away from his eyes. Katara sighed.
"I hope so too, I miss our family." Zuko couldn't help but feel a pull in his heart from the look in her eyes. He knew she didn't just mean Toph, but Aang as well.
Since they had lost Aang in the battle, it had been hard to carry on, sometimes they were flat out ready to give up, and just forget about saving the world, but they always picked themselves back up. It was just very hard to do so.
"See you in a few hours," Katara whispered to him, before curling up and closing her eyes.
Zuko pulled the cloak up over her shoulders, and rubbed her back a bit in order to lull her into sleep just before falling asleep himself.
The hour seemed to go far too quickly, and soon Zuko and Sokka were exchanging places. Zuko stood at the mouth of the cave and stared up at the stars.
"We really could use you right now, Aang. Why the hell did you have to go and get yourself killed you fool!" He yelled up to the sky, but not too loudly, so as not to wake up Katara and Sokka.
He sat down on the ground and dropped his head onto his knees, his fingers burrowing their way through his hair.
"How am I supposed to hold everyone together, when I can barely keep myself in one piece?"
"The same way I'm trying to keep myself together, by knowing that Aang would hate us forever if we just threw in the towel and gave up," said a voice quietly from behind him.
Zuko turned to see Katara standing a few feet from him, her hands rubbing her upper arms for warmth, since she had left the cloak behind to cover Sokka. He motioned for her to sit down next to him.
"So what are you doing up? Couldn't sleep?" He asked her, his eyes still fixated on the stars.
"I can never sleep well during a full moon, gives me too much energy." Zuko nodded his head in acknowledgement. "You really miss Aang, don't you?"
"Yeah, I guess I do." Zuko replied, turning his head to look at the girl seated next to him. "I mean, joining you guys, and teaching Aang firebending, and helping him to defeat Azula and my father, was my purpose, my destiny, and now two of those things have been knocked off the slate and I don't know what to do with myself."
"Not necessarily," Katara replied. "You did teach Aang firebending, and you did fight alongside him during the Battle of Sozin's Comet, it's just up to us now to follow through and defeat the Fire Lord. And then hey, that title goes to you," she added with a laugh.
"That'll be a fun name to live up to," Zuko muttered sarcastically.
Katara reached out and put a hand on his arm.
"You'll be an excellent Fire Lord, because you'll be the one responsible for restoring peace and balance to the nations. Not to mention that you'll have Toph running around all over your palace." Zuko laughed at that last part.
"I can't wait til we rescue her."
"Me too," Katara replied softly.
"Well then what are we sitting around for? Let's go!" The pair turned to see Sokka, standing and grinning, with his cape drawn around him. "We're awake, might as well head out now."
Katara and Zuko nodded, and donned their own cloaks as well, and all three pulled the hoods down over their eyes.
Zuko lit a fire in his hands, and set it to the inside of the cave, allowing it to burn away any traces or remnants of the trio ever being there.
"To the fire nation capital," Sokka said, pointing his hand forward.
"To save Toph," Zuko replied.
A/n: Ok, not exactly where I wanted to end this chapter, but it was getting a bit long, so I'm just going to drag out the Toph rescue by another chapter longer than planned.
And yes, I did decide to rescue her. Oh and I also decided to keep the title, it's growing on me.
I apologize for spelling issues; I wanted to upload the chapter so I didn't bother to proofread. So now, I'm going to sleep.
Major thank you to those who have already reviewed, and to those that haven't, get on with it and push the purple button already!!