Chapter 9: Brother's Pain

"I know I've got a face in me,

Points out all my mistakes to me

You got a face on the inside too and

Your paranoia is probably worse

I don't know what set me off first

But I know what I can't stand

Everybody act like the fact of the matter is

I can't add up to what you can."

From "Papercut" By Linkin Park

"...up."

Zuko's senses strained for a second. There was someone standing over him. He could feel they're gaze and could've sworn they spoke. He didn't care though, they couldn't do anything but hasten his end anyways.

"Get up."

Man. Authoritive figure. Zuko brain supplied from the voice. Use to a people snapping to do whatever he wants.

"Get up!"

With a grunt one gold eye cracked open to glare up. Zuko had every intention of telling this man to leave him to die in peace.

The man wore a long red robe and his hair was bound up in a tradition top knot like many fire nation men did after they reached a certain age. White shoulder length hair blended in well with his beard.

He looks familiar...where have I seen him before?

The man snorted in mild annoyance. "Prince of the Fire Nation you will get up!"

Zuko snorted right back. "Leave me alone...let a man die in peace."

"It's not your time to die yet Zuko." The man stated. "You lived though a temple coming down around your ears you can survive this."

The comment made it all click in Zuko's mind. Now he remembered where he'd seen the old man, or more correctly the old Avatar. He stared at Roku with a dumbfounded look.

Roku gave a long suffering sigh and grabbed the Prince's arm pulling the boy up with surprising strength.

"Come on now. You got a long way to go and not alot of time to get there."

Zuko frowned. "If I'm seeing you, I must be dead already."

Roku simply gave a grin. "When a mortal is close to death sometimes they can see spirits around them. Your not to die yet, you have things left to do here."

"But I won't make it. I can't run fast enough to make it before Azula kills everyone." Zuko hung his head hating that once again he wasn't good enough to manage things.

"You are the descendant of some of the greatest warriors and firebenders to ever live. You simply must remembe two basic things about firebending."

"What's that?" Zuko asked giving Roku a puzzled look.

"First, that firebending comes from emotions. Not only anger and rage, but all emotions. The stronger the emotion, the stronger the fire."

Zuko nodded. "That's one."

Roku smiled. "Also remember, to breathe."

Zuko closed his eyes and took a breath.

When he openned his eyes he wasn't standing before the old Avatar. He was standing right where he had fallen. Looking down at his feet was Katara's necklace.

He bent and retrieved it from the dirt surprised that he felt no pain from his wounds. The blood was still sticky and he was almost positive he was still bleeding, but he felt nothing from it.

Instead he stared at Katara's necklace. There an odd feeling in his chest that seem to be wanting to explode out of him.

Just breathe...

Zuko swore someone was standing next to him whispering that but he couldn't hear anything but the wind.

Taking a breath Zuko closed his eyes and concentrated. He needed a way to get to Katara fast...

He remembered a firebending move he'd seen Azula do. She had roughly shot herself across the ground at an alarming speed. If he could keep that up long enough he might reach the group in time.

Pointing arms and feet behind him he concentrated on that odd feeling he got in his chest when thinking of Katara and pushed it outward.

Flames shot out and a startled Zuko flew forward faster then he had thought possible.

Unfortunately Zuko had forgotten that Azula had been in an open space while he was currently in a forest.

Tripping over a tree root, he landed face first into the forest floor.

He groaned as he sat up again. Blood was running down the scarred side of his face from a cut on his forehead.

"Maybe if I did that but put up a fire sheild in front of me..." He muttered to himself as he got up and tried again.

This time he started out slower and pulled some of the fire in front of him to burn away things in his path. Soon Zuko got the hang of it, but he needed more speed, which required hotter flames.

Firebending comes from emotions.

The first lesson any firebender learned was restraint. Emotions were considered bad because they caused a lack of control, which caused fire to go wild.

It had never occured to Zuko that the firebending masters might not realize emotion was needed. Azula's drive and hunger for power were her biggest emotions, which played into her firebending. Zuko realized this now. It wasn't that Azula was without emotion, it was she was always in control of them.

Zuko had supressed his in an effort to control them. He'd locked every emotion he'd had away except those he'd been taught to use. He'd kept up a wall for years, now he had to tear it down.

The stronger the emotion, the stronger the fire.

His fist tightened around a braided fishing line.

The flames around his snapped and crackled, their temperature started climbing.

Roku smiled quietly after the fireball that tore through the forest like a dragon on a rampage. "He will get there in time won't he?" He asked his companion.

The woman brushed a lock of steel hair away from her face. "I don't see the future Roku you know that."

Roku kept his thoughts about that to himself. He knew she saw immediate futures sometimes. "If I may ask, why are you participating in this particular area?"

"Oh but Roku, I'm supposedly behind every major happening. Don't you know the legend?"

"Not all legends are true, and the true ones have a habit of vanishing into fantasy." The old Avatar stated.

The woman simply nodded and then turned as if to walk away.

"I simply wonder if your interfering to make up for past mistakes."

The woman stopped cold. For a moment she slouched and looked just as ancient as her eyes declared her to be. "My mistakes may stay in the past. It's the future that concerns me."

Roku simply stood looking thoughtful. "And what do you see?"

The woman looked back at him. "I see nothing." She stated flatly and walked off leaving Roku to ponder everything with a frown.

"Katara?"

The water girl blinked at the hand waving in front of her face. "Hmm? Oh sorry Sokka I'm not done with your pants yet."

Sokka scowled. "Katara your not even mending my pants right now! You been hugging that dagger all since we got up this morning. Where did you get that thing? I don't remember seeing it before."

Mental curses ran through Katara's mind. She hadn't been able to concentrate all day, it was like she was in a fog. She'd been clinging to Zuko's dagger because she felt she had to. Even though carrying any kind of weapon aside from her water was not something she normally did.

"I got it from Mari." Katara stated quickly. Mari was out of hearing range talking to Iroh and Toph was off with Aang perfecting his earth bending skills. Sokka couldn't have picked a better time to question Katara about the knife.

"Why is Mari giving you weapons!? Your gonna hurt yourself with it unless you have proper training!"

"She just wanted me to have something in case I can't water bend for whatever reason." Katara told her brother. It was partically true, Zuko had made the comment about her having something besides water to defend herself with.

Before Sokka could question further Iroh came over.

"Ready for another bout there Sokka?" Iroh asked with a grin.

Iroh had offered to give Sokka some more pointers of being a warrior as well as more pratice against a fire bender. To date Sokka had yet to beat the old general in a duel.

"Sure, let me just grab my gear." Sokka answered. He mentally made a note to corner Mari and ask about given his sister a knife. It never occured that his sister could be lying but he wanted to know Mari's exact reasons for giving that blade to her.

Katara started to breath a sigh of relief as Sokka walked away.

"Now, if might ask young water bender. What are you doing with my nephew's dagger?"

Katara looked at Iroh in alarm. The old man simply stood patiently waiting with one eyebrow raised. He didn't look angry about her having the dagger, he looked more curious and hopeful then anything.

"Are you sure Iroh? I'm sure there's plenty of daggers that look like this one out there."

Iroh's lip twitched mischieviously. He heard Sokka coming back towards them. "We'll discuss this later without unwanted ears."

"Who's got unwanted ears?" Sokka asked pulling on his own self consciously.

"Come along young warrior." Iroh said quickly pulling the boy away from his sister and his questions.

Katara sent a grateful smile to Iroh as they walked off. Shaking her head in vain hope to clear it she stood up and tucked the dagger into her obi where it was almost completely hidden.

"What was your brother screaming about?" Mari asked while she was sorting through their supplies.

"Oh nothing important." Katara stated, hoping Sokka would forget about the knife and not question Mari about it.

The black haired girl made an annoyed sound. "We're starting to run low on supplies. Have to find a market in the next couple days or we'll be going without some meals."

Katara nodded. "We should be nearing an Earth Kingdom fort soon so there should be some villages around."

"I'll keep that in mind when we conquer this area."

Mari and Katara wiped around. Azula sat on her mongoose dragon grinning evilly.

"A water bending fool and a useless traitor. Where's the rest of your little crew?" Azula asked.

"We're not telling you anything." Katara snapped.

"I got something to tell you Azula." Mari said with a smug look on her face.

"I'm not interested in your pleas for mercy freak." Azula stated with contempt.

Mari ignored her and started sucking in a large breath. Bigger then Katara had thought possible. Then Mari held the breath a moment as the enemy started advancing toward them. She nudged Katara and clapped her hands over her ears, Katara took the hint and did the same.

Azula blinked in confusion. "What are you..."

The scream from Mari's mouth brought the firebenders and Dai Li to their knees. The men ripped off helms and hats trying to plug their ears against the horrible noise. Azula was also on the ground covering her ears in pain. She wondered for a moment if her ears would simply explode.

Mari's scream reached other ears as well.

"What is that noise?" Sokka asked in confusion.

"Mari's latest move." Iroh replied in concern. "Azula has probably caught up with us."

"Katara!" Sokka yelled as he spun on his heel and took off back toward the camp.

Aang and Toph had already been heading back to camp when they heard the scream.

"Katara!" Aang said in concern as he took off into the air.

Toph growled a bit. "They started a fight without me! How rude!" With an angry stomp the earth rose up and propelled her forward.

All was in chaos when they reached their camp site. Mari's scream had kicked up a lot of dust hiding everyone from each other's sight. They could hear Appa roaring, men screaming, Momo chattering, metal striking metal, and faintly there was the snap of a whip.

Sokka looked about deperately for his sister. "Katara!" He yelled. If Katara could hear him over the commotion he'd be lucky.

"She won't hear you, we'll have to find her." Iroh stated. Then the two plunged into the fray.

Aang and Toph arrived from another direction. The sight was the same save for the added sound of Sokka yelling for Katara and occasionally choking on the dust that was flying everywhere.

"Guys!" Aang yelled and reached out to settle the dust cloud.

Toph suddenly reached out and grabbed his shirt, yanking him to the side as a rock hand shot out of the dust.

"There's alot of them. Dai Li and firebenders. If your clear the dust we'll be at a disadvantage" She stated.

"Where is everyone?" Aang asked.

Toph concentrated as blast of fire shot out of the dust. It missed her but made Aang jump.

"Iroh and Sokka are to the left. Mari is to the right of us some. Katara is on the far side of the camp."

Aang smiled. "Great! I can fly over the fight and..."

Before he could finish his sentence a stone hand shot out of grabbed his mantle. Startled Aang lost his grip on his staff and was pulled into the fight.

With a gung-ho cry Toph charged into the fight to find her friends.

Katara knocked out another soldier and looked about. She'd lost track of Mari in the dust and had lost her sense of direction. She could faintly hear someone yelling for her but she couldn't tell who it was.

A bolt of lightning shot past her making Katara duck. The thunder rang in her ears as she looked up at Azula.

Katara straightened up slowly not taking her eyes off Azula.

"I must remember to take a lock of your hair back for Zuko to cry over." Azula stated. "It'll give him a little something to look forward to after his execution."

Katara paled. "Your going to let your brother be executed?"

Azula laughed. "Let him be? I'm been trying to get him out of the succession line for years. I had hoped that him being banished for the rest of his life would cause him to just end it all. He's proven to be alot more stubborn then I thought."

Katara snapped a whip at Azula's face in anger. "Zuko is a person and your brother! Not an enemy!" She yelled.

Azula sneered. "People are tools or opponents to crush. It's the way things are in any society. Look at your own people. Women are nothing but servents and objects to own."

Katara shot out a series of icy daggers from her water pouch. Azula melted them all away with a wall of flames and kept advancing.

Finally Azula decided it was time for the game to stop and shot a powerful blast at Katara. While she used her water to shield herself from it she was knocked back into a tree.

The water girl groaned as Azula pulled her up to her knees by her hair. Her back had struck the tree full force, meaning that her water pouch on her back was empty.

"All out of water. What are you going to do now?" Azula sneer as she pulled her arm back, intending to punch Katara in the face while she unleashed her blast.

Katara's finger brushed something cool and hard in her obi.

"It'll give you something besides just your water to defend yourself with."

Katara pulled the dagger out of her obi and with the point facing out pushed herself up and forward with all her strength.

She felt a jerk but she held on and kept pushing. Warm liquid covered her hands and she heard Azula scream in her ear.

Katara openned eyes she hadn't been aware she'd closed and stared at the Fire Nation princess.

Azula had seen the flash of metal and had started to pull away. This had manage to keep the knife from digging into her chest.

Her hands covered her face as pain seem burn through it. By the spirits it hurt!f

Pulling her hands away Azula could see them covered in blood. Her own blood. She could've swore someone was whispering in her ear.

"You will know your brother's pain."

Azula glared murder at Katara. A fresh gouge cut horribly across her face. Katara could tell that without a water bender healing it, it would never heal cleanly and would likely forever leave a scar.

The impact on Azula was obvious. Her face twisted in rage and the fires in her hands lost their blue hue as they burned uncontrolled. Azula's control forgotten in the face of being forever scarred and never perfect again.

"I'm going to rip your apart for this!" Azula screamed at her. She pulled a fist back intending to blast this impudent peasant to pieces

Before Azula could act a distant roar reached her ears. It sounded familiar but she couldn't place it.

Katara too started looking about for the strange sound. It was getting louder. She looked at Azula in confusion to see the girl staring past Katara with a look of horror on her bloodied face.

The roar reached a deafing level. Katara turned around to see what Azula was staring at.

There was a blur of white as something hot shot past Katara and descended on Azula like a dragon from the sky.

Azula barely got a shield up in front of herself. She was knocked down and mildly burned in spots from the blast. Shaking her head, she glared up into eyes the same color as her own.

"Get away from Katara!" Zuko snarled at his sister, his fists burning bright white.