A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed! This chapter is up quicker than I though it would be (my writers' block was temporaily lifted), but still may be a bit before the next chapter is up. Please R&R and Thank you everyone!
Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar
Chapter 11
Zuko and Katara raced through the corridors. He pulled her aside into side corridors as soldiers passed them several times. When they neared the area where he knew the cells were, he slowed them down. He heard a door open and Katara backed into a side corridor as Zuko jumped up to press himself against the ceiling.
He saw Mai exit from the third door down from where he perched, looking irritated. She paced outside the door for a minute before walking in the opposite direction from where the two hid. Zuko waited another minute. Katara gestured to go out, but he shook his head once, trying to tell her to wait. Thankfully, she took his advice and waited, though Zuko could tell she was getting impatient when he saw her foot tapping just outside of her robe.
He jumped down and landed quietly, gesturing her to follow him and walked to the door. He was about to ease it open to take a peek inside when two soldiers turned the corner from where Mai had disappeared to and saw them. They were about to shout out when a water whip appeared and covered their mouths.
Zuko drew his swords and rushed them as another water whip shot out to grab hold of one of the soldiers' arms. Zuko went after the other who had drawn his own sword. He parried the soldier's thrust and continued twisting his sword, sending the man's sword flying. He then spun around and hit the man's head with the hilt of his swords, knocking him out.
He was about to turn to the other man, but when he looked, he stopped and stared. Katara had the man in the air by two ropes of water connected to his arm and leg and abruptly knocked him to the ground on his head. Zuko flinched at the dull thud that sounded, and knelt down to examine the man. He was alive, and a large bump was already appearing on his head.
"Help me get them out of the hallway," he hissed at Katara as he started dragging the man he had examined back to the side corridor where Katara had hid from Mai.
She sighed, but bent the water into a thin platform under the other man and moved him easily to where Zuko had dragged his soldier.
"Are you sure she's in there?" Katara asked him in a whisper as they rushed back to the door.
"No," he whispered back. He was sure Katara was scowling at him when he heard her sigh.
He held his swords in one hand and pushed the door open as hard as he could. He saw Ty Lee go flying backwards as he rushed through. When she landed, he was there, and already had one arm pinned behind her back. Katara quickly bent more water and covered Ty Lee's mouth, as well as pinning her other arm.
Ty Lee continued to struggle until he hit her on the head with his hilts. He was sorry he had to do it, but she was too agile and dangerous to leave conscious. He saw a wooden cell in the middle of several metal ones and saw Toph jump to her feet and face them with a black knife in her hands. He chuckled as she stood there, ready to fight.
"She can't 'see' you on wood. Idiot," Katara said, irritated.
Toph suddenly relaxed and grinned at them. "Katara?"
"Stand back," Zuko told her.
She nodded and stepped back as he easily sliced through the wooden barrier with his swords.
"C'mon, we need to go. Aang's waiting for us," he said as soon as there was room for her to get through.
Toph molded her knife into a bracelet and placed it on her arm, then held her hand out in front of her as if waiting to touch the barrier. Zuko grabbed it, and squeezed it gently. He lowered her hand and she ducked through the barrier. She grinned up at him as they turned to hurry out.
Zuko stopped at the door and peeked out, looking down the corridors. No one was there, so he hurried out, leading Toph. Katara took up the rear as they retraced their steps. When they went to turn the first corner, Toph pulled Zuko back. He took her cue and backtracked to duck into a side corridor.
"What..?" Katara started to ask.
"Shhh!" both Zuko and Toph hissed. They squeezed back into the wall as two soldiers passed them in the hallway.
Zuko waited until they turned again before he led them out. "How well can you see?" he asked Toph in a whisper.
"Not much. Everything's still fuzzy," she whispered back. "Why's your voice weird?"
Zuko smiled as they turned another corner. "I'm wearing a mask," he said.
He felt Toph squeeze his hand as they continued on. She stopped them several more times before they arrived at the engineer door. Zuko led Toph through and to Aang who promptly hugged her.
"Easy Twinkle toes," Toph said, laughing. Aang just laughed along with her before turning his gaze to Zuko.
"I'll start with Toph, and then come back for you guys," he told them.
Zuko and Katara nodded as Aang directed Toph to hold onto the glider and took off into the darkness. Zuko shut the door behind them and looked to the ground as they waited for Aang to return.
"Katara."
"Yes?"
"They know."
"What do you mean they know? Zuko…?"
He pointed to the ground and the soldiers who were running everywhere. He couldn't see Azula anywhere, so that meant she was probably still on the balloon. Katara looked down to where he had pointed, and gasped. At that moment, an alarm sounded in the balloon.
"Damn!" Zuko said as he turned to the door.
He cracked the door open and saw several guards running through the corridors. He quickly shut the door and pressed his hand to the locking mechanism. He prayed some of his bending had returned as he tried to heat his hand. Slowly his hand heated and the metal started glowing slightly He smiled as he tried the unmoving door and turned back to Katara who had backed up to him.
"They're searching the forest," she said with a hint of worry in her voice. "And firing at anything that moves."
Zuko looked down at the swarm of soldiers a hundred feet below them and saw that most were actively searching the forest. Aang had not returned and Zuko was thankful that he saw no sign of the Avatar. He spotted a rope about three feet from the ledge that was used to hold the balloon down. It led to the plateau about a hundred yards from the forest. Only ten guards were in the rear area where the rope led to and five of those ten stood directly under the rope near where it was tied down to an old tree stump.
"Katara."
"What?" she asked, irritated as she her glanced at the soldiers below them.
"I see another way out, hold onto me."
She looked at him as he walked towards the rope line and stared in shock as he turned back to her.
"You have got to be kidding."
"Nope," Zuko said as he felt a wry grin cross his face. "C'mon, we have to hurry before more soldiers go back there."
"I'm going to regret this," she said in a low tone to herself as she walked over to him.
Zuko just smiled under his mask. "Grab around my neck and hold on. Just not too tight, I still need to breathe."
He heard her sigh behind him before she wrapped her arms securely around his neck. He braced himself as he unsheathed his swords before jumping the few feet to the rope. He caught the rope easily under the hilts and they started to slide down. They were almost there when a soldier from the group looked up just as they were about to go over them and started to open his mouth.
Zuko separated his hands and dropped the last twenty feet onto the man and three of his comrades. Katara rolled away as they landed. He lashed out as soon as he rolled up and was able to disarm two and knock out another besides the one he had knocked out with his fall before they started shouting.
"Help! At the rear, two sp…"
Zuko turned as the man stopped shouting abruptly and saw Katara filling the man's mouth with water while she held two more at bay with water whips. He ducked and rolled as one of the soldiers shot a fireball at him before turning to rush the firebender.
Two more shot at him, but missed as he continued to rush the first firebender. He quickly ducked under another shot and came up hitting the man's chin with the palm of his hand, sending the firebender backwards. The man's jaw cracked as he went flying, and Zuko was sure it was broken. He ducked again as another firebender shot at him, but when he turned to face him, water was holding him in the air.
He spotted Katara and nodded before heading to fight a sword wielding soldier off behind her. They slowly made their way towards the forest as they fought, knocking out as many as they could, and were only a hundred feet from the forest edge when Zuko saw another fifty soldiers heading their way.
"Run," Zuko hissed at Katara when they came back to back as they fought.
She glanced over her shoulder and saw the soldiers. "Not without you," she hissed back.
Zuko was about to whisper directions for a diversion when he saw Azula walk calmly their way from his right, right out of the tree line a mere seventy feet away. The soldiers arrived a moment later and surrounded the two, stopping their attacks and keeping their distance as Azula approached the two.
"Well, this isn't what I expected at all," the princess said in her usual sarcastic tone. "Two spirits when I expected an Avatar, a peasant, and a traitor."
She laughed and Zuko flinched at the sound. He glanced around without moving his head much. Katara stood a foot away from him and she was the closest to Azula, meaning Azula would probably attack her first. The princess was fifteen feet away from Katara, and the soldiers another twenty feet behind her.
"Oh well," the princess continued in a bored tone. "I guess two dead is better than three right now."
Zuko saw his sister start to create lighting as fast as he had seen his father create it after the eclipse and jumped to Katara, pushing her down as he got in the line of fire. The bolt left Azula's hand just as he got in position and he used his swords to draw it in and down, just as his uncle had taught him.
Azula stared in shock as the power sent him sliding back and crackled all around him. He felt the power of the lightning go down his arm and into his stomach before rising back up again, missing his heart.
"No!" Azula screamed, anger on her face. "You can't!"
"No more," he whispered as he pointed his right sword at the war balloon and the lightning followed his direction, striking the balloon. It struck the metal in a magnificent explosion and set the balloon aflame.
Azula screamed as the balloon started to fall and turned back to Zuko with fury on her face. Before she could do anything, the ground under Zuko and Katara dissolved and they fell through the earth.
