So, a taste of the action I promised you all. Finally. I don't really write action packed fight scenes very often, I'm afraid, so if you see anything in there I can improve on please let me know.
Also, managed to work in so ethical banter. Keep an eye out for ideas from the writings of Sun Tsu, Immanuel Kant, John Stuart Mill, and David Hume. Take notes, there will be a test at the end.
Lastly, a bit long. Decided not to split it up so the beginning scene isn't just left hanging there. Hope you all don't mind.
Ohh yeah, I don't own Avatar.
--
"So, when did they say they'd be here?" Zuko sipped from the cup of tea as the morning sun finally finished breaching the horizon to peer in through the eastern windows. He was not afraid to admit his anxiety at seeing Katara for the first time in years.
Fire Lord Iroh, on the other hand, was preparing himself for fireworks. He did not, as yet, know how they would start, but no meeting between his nephew and the daughter of Chief Hakoda of the Southern Water Tribe ended civilly. "They said to expect them here yesterday, actually, but you know how Jung gets sidetracked."
"In other words, we'll be lucky if they're here by the end of the week." They laughed and continued to drink their tea.
A sudden crash alerted them towards the door in time to see an unexpectedly very awake Sokka crash through the entrance, pausing to pick up a helmet and apologize to a guard that he had run over.
"What are you doing here so early?" Zuko asked sounding a bit shocked.
"Well, awake because of all this time in the Fire Nation. You guys make way too much noise in the morning to sleep through, and Suki refuses to let me use the earplugs I made for her." Approaching the table Sokka dropped a scroll onto the table. "I'm here, however, because I have some great news from the prison camp on Ember Island. Who would think that a little paradise like that would make somebody spill so much secret information."
Zuko chuckled a bit before responding. "Yeah, who knew?"
--
"They're still down there, aren't they?" Jung sighed. It was starting to become obvious that she'd need to head down to the ship to find out what was going on.
"Yeah, we need to do something… soon." Katara said, leaning over Appa's side and peering down at the water tribe ship on their tail.
The airbender hopped gracefully back into the saddle to retrieve her staff from its place next to her father's. "I'll be right back."
She stood erect on the edge of the saddle next to the older woman for a second and jumped off into a swan dive. Leitha clung to Katara's shoulder in fear watching her friend descend a thousand feet in free fall. When the airbender got to a spot a mere forty feet off the surface of the water she flicked her glider open and drifted directly over the main deck of the ship where a group of five water benders stood in a circle waiting for her to land. Deciding not to make them wait too long, Jung snapped the sails of her glider back into the solid iron staff, and landed in a three point defensive stance. She slowly rose to her feet, and shifted into a stance eerily similar to those held by the benders encircling her. "I don't want to hurt you guys," she spoke clearly but gently. "I'm just here to ask a few questions of whoever is in charge."
One of the waterbenders failed to hold in a chuckle at the threat. The others seemed to take the tall lithe figure a bit more seriously. "Ask away" a gruff tenor voice resonated from the stairs, preceding the appearance of a short, thick, dark-skinned man climbing onto the deck.
"So, you the same guys that have been following me since I left the Earth Kingdom?" In her peripheral vision, Jung took in all she could of her surroundings. No motor to speak of. The ship was propelled entirely by sails.
"Yes, we are." The man seemed relaxed, as though confident that the teenager in front of him meant no harm.
"Who would tell you to do such a thing to an innocent little teenager?"
"I think you already know the answer to that. After all, not many blue uniformed men in this world chasing after you, are there?"
Jung took this as all the confirmation she needed. "You have any friends keeping out of sight? I'm sure it gets lonely, need some other great and mighty captain to talk to out here, don't you?" At this point Leitha had finally caught up, and she perched herself on the airbender's right shoulder.
The ship's captain didn't seem to be surprised by the new little visitor to his vessel. "Aww, but that would be giving up a bit too much. We might as well tell you the whole plan if we were to tell you that."
"I guess I should probably ask you to stop. You wouldn't want to endanger your crew." Her eyes focused a little higher for a moment to take in the sight of the large wooden wheel placed on a slightly elevated platform.
"I assure you, my crew is in no danger here, and, you shouldn't make threats like that. Rather unbecoming of a lady of your heritage, isn't it? Heiress to both the air temples and the Bei Fong estate and all."
"I wouldn't exactly use the word 'lady' in reference to my heritage," planning complete, she knew what needed to be done, "but to be honest, I'm getting tired of this conversation." Her smile stretched across her face as she swung her staff forward and blasted the ships captain back down the stairs he had only recently ascended. Leitha took this as her cue to attach herself to the face of the closest waterbender she could find.
Battle cries could be heard as Jung leapt into a front flip, landing behind the ship's wheel right back into a waterbender's defensive stance (once again wondering how she'd get anywhere if not for being trained by an Avatar). Spinning to face the circle of blue-clad benders on the deck below she found a tentacle of water heading straight for her, the other end of which attached to the arm of one of the men. Swinging the staff around, the water was knocked harmlessly aside. Jung continued through the swinging motion with her legs, deftly lifting off the ground and kicking the top of the wooden wheel hard assisted by a slight amount of bending, setting the sails above them into motion. As she finished the motion, pulling her torso back around, another blast of air came out in a semi-circle in front of her.
The bender to her far left was the only one still standing. The only other one that remained on deck was busy fighting a flying lemur, that would not stop badgering the poor man. Jung, meanwhile, switched into a narrow, quick moving airbending stance, and allowed her adversary to approach. As he got closer he pulled a whip out of the sea beneath them and aimed straight for the light-footed nomad, who easily spun to her right to avoid the attack. As the water rose from the deck to form a wave, Jung leapt over the waterbenders head, landing and pressing her back against his. After struggling in vain to face the tattooed girl, the soldier began lifting another wave over the side of the ship. Before he could bring it forward to freeze the nuisance on his back, however, Jung flung herself into the air once more, back-flipping over the bender and thrusting him over the side of the ship with a strong gust of wind.
She hurried back to the wheel, which had come to rest, with the sails all pushed hard to the right. Positioning her metal staff as a lever through one of the openings the wheel gave her, she went down into a horse stance and lunged at the long, protruding end. The torque tore the wheel from its position just as her large furry friend was landing on the deck below her. Thinking the job done, the teen flung the wheel off her staff into the water and waved at Katara.
Katara, however, was already jumping off the bison screaming "Look out!"
Turning to her right, Jung noticed the captain had recovered from his trip down the stairs, and had managed to sneak up on her blind side. Jung attempted to jump out of the way of the attack heading her way, but barely managed to leave the ground before a long tentacle of water tripped her up, sending her tumbling over herself out of control towards the deck below. Hitting the ground hard on her head and left shoulder, Jung lost consciousness. Her broad toothy smile finally left her face.
Katara made quick work of the captain before grabbing Jung and her staff and climbing back onto Appa. After the obligatory "yip, yip!" the group was back into the air and on course for the fire nation. Leitha caught up quickly once her airborne companions were a safe distance away. The ship below them spun hopelessly in circles, like an air bison chasing its own tail.
--
"Whoa! What happened to your face?!" Sokka was the first one out to greet the palace's guests as they climbed down from Appa. Katara gave her brother a good slap on the back of his head. "What? I wasn't even talking to you, sis." Leitha perched herself softly onto her master's right shoulder, her normal resting spot.
"That's no way to greet a woman, and you know it." Katara was trying hard to defend her young friend's ego, but Jung really didn't need it. She merely giggled at the scenario playing out before her, and whispered something incoherent into her lemur's ear.
"Well, I was curious. If you haven't noticed, something's obviously happened to her face. You know, the large bruise. I swear I think it might be pulsating." Sokka leaned in closer as though checking to see if the skin around the airbender's good eye was moving. This garnered the warrior another swat from his sister, and another hearty laugh from the smiling Jung.
"Ahh, our guests are here! It's great to see the two of you again: Master Jung, Master Katara." Iroh walked leisurely out towards the newly arrived benders; his nephew in stride next to him. The Fire Lord was dressed, as usual, in dark, regal, flowing robes. Zuko, however, wore his armor as proudly as ever.
"We weren't quite expecting you two so soon," Zuko commented.
The airbender looked quizzically at the handsome general. "Didn't the message say we would be here yesterday?"
A flicker of a smirk appeared on his face. "My point exactly. It said that you would be here yesterday. That's usually a good four day's notice." The group broke out into a small chuckle, except for Jung, who stood there shocked for a moment, only to join in the laughter upon realizing how true the words were.
"Well, I'm sorry, but sometimes you just see the Unagi, and it looks way too fun to pass up, am I right?" The laughter at the words told the girl she was wrong. Apparently not everybody found it fun to ride sea monsters, or any other fun, mountable animals most likely.
"Well, let us avoid any more side-tracks and head inside, shall we? We have much to discuss with the two of you, and it appears that you have a bit to inform us about as well." Iroh made it clear by his expression that he was talking about Jung's bruise.
The group started moving into the palace while Sokka held Katara back to say, "Why does he get to mention it without getting physically assaulted?"
"For one, he's much more subtle than you. Plus, I can't slap him, he's not my annoying big brother." Katara smiled big and went to catch up with the rest of the group.
Suki was waiting in the throne room for the group to arrive. As they walked in she looked shocked at the state the world's last airbender was in, and ran up to express her sympathies. "It's alright," Jung assured her, "just a little surface damage. I'm fine. We'll explain later. You guys have some news for us first, though, right?" The girl looked around at her friends questioningly.
"That we do, and wonderful news at that. Zuko, it is your accomplishment more than anything, care to let them in on the discovery?"
"I'd be honored." They all sat around the large table in the center of the room, a map of the world sprawled out on its surface. Iroh sat at the head of the table, rather than on the dais which had, for the most part, gone out of use under the current ruler's regime. Zuko sat to his right, Katara, to his left. Once everybody was settled, the prince continued. "We have word from our prison on Ember Island that one of the war criminals has given up some vital information. Namely, we may have discovered the location of Toph's prison cell."
This was just the news that the air nomad had been waiting to hear for three long years. She leapt up from her seat with joy, frightening her poor friend sitting on her shoulder, and did a quick lap around the room on an air-scooter. Having finished her display, she sat back down into her chair, resuming her composed posture, but with a much happier look on her face. Leitha, however, decided it wiser to commune with Suki for a little while instead.
Katara, meanwhile, held the hint of a scowl on her lips as she mulled something over in her mind. She kept quite for the moment, though.
Sokka, however, spoke up. "They're holding her inside the walls of the capital city. From the description we've been given, the prison is situated directly adjacent to the palace. We've been able to devise a plan to get you beyond the walls, but from there –"
"Wait, wait…" Katara couldn't stay quiet any longer. "When you say he's, 'given up some vital information,' how exactly do you mean it?"
Zuko knew this wasn't going to be pretty immediately. "This is important information, Katara. How it was retrieved is not the important part."
"Not the important part? Just tell me, how did you get him to talk?"
The room went quiet for a while. The prince took a calming breath. "Katara, this is war. We did what we had to."
"And what, pray tell, did you have to do?!" The waterbender made no attempt at calming herself. The Northern Water Tribe, though the enemy in this situation, was still close to being kin.
"What do you want me to say? We never hurt him, if that's what you're thinking."
"I want you to tell me the truth. How did you get this information out of him?"
"Alright, you want the truth? Here you go. For the last week, we've been keeping the prison awake, allowing him only two hours of sleep a night. We've used threats, we have had him stripped down to his underwear, and we have kept him tied up whenever he was given water and during the full moon. We've kept him alive, and we haven't put a single mark on him. Now can we get back –"
"No, we can't get back to the plan. This is insane! How can you treat another human being like that?! Do you feel no compassion for this man? How can you not feel sick?!"
"Like I said, this is a war. That information may just save our friend's life, not to mention the world could really use its best earthbender right about now to help protect the balance that we have all been fighting to achieve."
"That doesn't make it right, and you know it. You can't just treat a man as though he is nothing more than a means to an end! I don't care what that end is."
The two benders were now standing, directly across from each other. At any moment the argument may become a full on bending fight. Jung spoke up loud enough for everybody to hear. "I'm getting a bit hungry. Can we take a break to get some dinner?"
The group agreed, especially Sokka, aside from the two furious benders that were apparently oblivious to having an audience. The four others stood up and started moving towards the door. On the way, Jung whispered to Fire Lord Iroh, "Why can't they just calm down and fall in love already? I can't wait much longer."
"Ahh, you underestimate the differences between them. They are natural opposites."
"Yeah, but so were Aang and Toph. They got along fine."
"Tell me," the sage-like man in fiery red robes spoke to the airbender. "When your parents got into a fight, if your father was wrong, how would the fight end?"
"He would break down and admit that he was wrong, and my mom would forgive him."
"…and if your father was right?"
"He would break down and admit that he was wrong, and my mom would forgive him." They laughed heartily before starting out towards the dining room, along with Sokka and Suki (Leitha still latched onto Suki's shoulder, confused and shuddering from the loud noises).
--
/end.. Alright, I lied about the test. I'm sure you're not disappointed.