Force of Iron
Chapter 13
The Heat Rises
Ozaian awoke the next morning to find his head pounding and his sight blurred. Every light seemed too bright and the smallest noise rung in his ears. He grunted painfully and rubbed his eyes trying to recall what had happened the night before. As hard as he tried he couldn't recall anything except Katara not obeying him.
He grunted angrily as a guard walked in to deliver him the daily status report, he took it and carelessly tossed it onto his desk.
"Make sure that Mistress Katara doesn't leave her room, until further orders from me," he commanded as he sat up stretching out his stiff limbs.
"Yes, sir," said the guard as he saluted and left the room.
Katara awoke a few hours later, to find herself completely at ease, as if she wasn't in the lions den, and her love didn't live behind bars. She ate her breakfast slowly and quietly savoring the taste of the food as if she hadn't eaten in a long time.
As her food digested she took a nice long soak as she bathed, washing all the dirt and sweat from her body. She then dressed in one of her red gowns; her only regret was that she wished she was wearing blue instead.
She stared in the mirror and noticed how messy her snarled hair was. She picked up her brush and untangled the mess that was her hair to replace it with her regular neat curls. She had no ornaments to decorate or place within her hair, not even the bands to create her hair loopies that she wore when she was younger but still had a taste for. So to her distaste she left it plain.
She figured she would go and visit Zuko and see how he was holding up, but once when she opened her room's door she was surprised to find a guard standing right outside. She tried to pass him several times but each time he blocked her way, closing every gap that had opened. Finally, slightly frustrated, she said, "If you'll excuse me, I'm trying to leave my room."
"By orders of Ozaian you are not allowed to leave your room until further orders from him, so consider yourself under house arrest for the time being," the guard said through his mask, before slamming the door in her face. Katara was annoyed by his rudeness, and felt somewhat sad as she felt her peaceful morning slip away.
Slightly stunned she sat on the edge of her bed, trying to brainstorm a plan of escape, but it wasn't long before hopelessness sank in and she let the tears fall down her cheeks.
Zuko kept on reminding himself to thank Elsa for the interest she had taken in his health. He wasn't entirely healed from his little epidemic, but he was better then before. Better as in survival was in plain sight, and it was all thanks to the healing herbs and the extra food she had been bringing him.
He could feel his strength slowly returning to him. He wasn't sure if it was his recovery from his sickness or the extra time he had spent in his cell working on his fire bending forms, he eventually came to the conclusion that it was both.
The minutes of the day passed slowly as if they were hours as he waited for Katara to visit. Over the past few days he had become reliant on Katara's visits. It was his limited way of making sure that she was safe. He knew that it was his duty to make sure she was. Ever since he had mentioned his plans to her father, Hakoda had made him promise that he would look after and care for his daughter, knowing full well of the number of enemies that Zuko had as Fire Lord. Zuko who of course promised not just Hakoda but Katara as well and spirits help him because he would stop at nothing to prevent it from being broken.
The hours of the day passed as the sun moved higher in the sky. Zuko could tell by his bending abilities that it was later then when Katara usually visited. He began to worry. 'What ifs?' soon began to fill mind. He sat down on the floor of his cell, hands in his hair as he began to fear the worst.
Out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of a glinting piece of metal lying beyond the bars of his cell. He lifted his head from his hands to find that it was a pry bar. It had fallen out of one of the cargo boxes when the lightening had struck the ship.
With the key to his escape in sight he reached an arm through an opening in the bars, stretching to reach the piece of metal that would he his escape. He stretched every muscle in his arm from his shoulder to the tips of his fingers. He stretched until he felt like his arm would grow in length. But no matter how hard he tried the tips of his fingers fell mere inches short of the pry bar. Upon realizing that it was useless he sighed defeat and pulled his arm back through the bars, realizing that all he could do was keep himself from going crazy and wait until Elsa arrived later in the day.
Ozaian clenched and unclenched his eyes several times, trying to clear the blurriness of his memory from the previous night. He was hoping he could recall that Katara had finally given in to him, but after being unable to recall anything of that sort he dismissed it as a fantasy. But as his headache died away and his other senses returned to normal, pieces of the memory of last night slowly fell back into his grasp.
Upon recalling the memory he pushed his breakfast aside and headed straight for the room of his brother's fiancé.
He knocked on her door rather nonchalantly despite his irritable mood. After waiting outside for a few moments and hearing no response he entered to find her reclining on her bed, with her sad eyes staring into space.
He leaned upon the door's threshold and crossed his arms as if he didn't have a care in the world.
"So why did you leave me last night?" he asked out of the blue. Katara broke out of her trance upon hearing his words and stared at him as if he was crazy.
"So why did you?" he asked carelessly once more.
Katara considered her plan of action, taking into account that he was drunk last night, and being a healer she was well aware of the effects of a hangover when one goes to sleep drunk.
"I don't know what you're talking about," she said playing dumb, while feigning anger.
"What do you mean you don't know what I'm talking about? You were there last night in my room. You have to remember something?" he said as slowly as he could while his anger grew.
"I was never in your room last night. I'm afraid your love of whiskey has caused you to witness things that you only wish would happen," she said still feigning anger as she turned her gaze from Ozaian to the ceiling of her room.
Ozaian scanned his memory of the day before to see if what she said was true. Most of the night was a blur, but he could recall very strongly his quarrel with Zuko in the brig and the effects of it. He touched his torso to feel for the bandages that were wrapped around his chest. He felt them through his clothing as well as a hint of pain from the wound he had received just barely above his heart.
"So you mean to tell me that you never came by to heal me when you were ordered to do so?" he said through clenched teeth.
Katara shot up from where she lay on her bed, not realizing that she had forgotten that small detail. She silently cursed herself from being so foolish.
"Well, did you?" he snarled.
She said nothing but just stared at the foot of her bed, fear of what he would do slowly overpowering her.
In two long strides he crossed the room, grabbed her arm yanking her off the bed, and delivered a sharp backhand across her mocha colored cheek.
Katara still refused to meet his gaze, knowing that at the moment it was her only way of fighting back.
Elsa had heard everything from outside Katara's room. Minutes earlier she was walking down the hallway towards Katara's room to check on her since she had heard that Katara was placed under house arrest. When she saw Ozaian standing in the threshold of Katara's room she froze where she stood, listening to every word that would reach her ears from the room.
As seconds passed she crept forward as quietly as she could, still listening intently. By the time Ozaian had crossed the threshold she was standing right outside the door, yet hidden from sight.
She had heard everything that was said, even the sharp slap that was delivered across Katara's cheek. With her heart pounding in her chest she knew what she had to do. Katara and Zuko had suffered long enough from Ozaian and his wrath. It was time for true action to be taken, as in no more sneaking around.
She left her hiding spot beside the door to Katara's room and scurried off toward the brig as fast as her elderly limbs could manage.
Less then an hour had passed and Zuko was at the end of his nerves. He didn't know how much more he could take of this. Katara was in trouble and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. He needed the assurance that she was safe, and soon or else he would unintentionally pull his hair out by the roots.
As if his prayers were answered he heard footsteps scurry down the stairs toward the brig. He prayed it was Katara. But his prayers weren't answered this time when Elsa appeared out of the stairwell, and judging by the stricken expression on her face he knew that whatever news she brought wasn't good news at all.
"You need to get out of there Zuko, Katara needs you," said Elsa as she made her way through the cargo boxes.
Zuko, now standing and gripping the iron bars of his cell said, "What happened? Where is she? Do you have a key?"
"Its Ozaian, I'm not entirely sure of the situation, but I have a pretty good hunch of what will happen soon, and no unfortunately I don't have a key," said Elsa as she neared his cell.
Zuko couldn't, no, wouldn't let whatever was about to happen, happen. Hoping that it would work he stepped back from his cell door, and delivered a swift kick to the door. He fell to the floor humiliated and defeated with a 'humph.' While in the midst of standing up he caught sight of the pry bar that he couldn't reach earlier. Slightly humiliated at his failure to kick the door down he asked Elsa to hand him the pry bar that lay on the floor. He didn't have time to think about why the door opened for his brother and not for him, mostly because he didn't want to.
He regained his composure by the time Elsa was able to hand him the pry bar through the bars of his cell.
Positioning it at the lock of the cell door he was stopped by Elsa. With impatience and worry taking control of him he only heard theses few words, "Please do not let Katara end up like your mother she deserves better then your mother's fate."
The words gripped his heart, did Elsa really now what really happened to his mother after all these years. His father refused to tell him before he died and his uncle had no knowledge of the subject, due to the fact that he was far away in the earth kingdom when it happened. He had always assumed that his mother had left the Fire Nation after that one night years ago. He always hoped that she would return ever since he was crowned Fire Lord, but she never showed, not even a simple letter or news report concerning her appeared on his desk.
Pushing the sad thoughts aside for a later date he gave the pry bar a swift tug and the door to his cell swung open in his hinges and for the first time in days he was free from the forces of iron.
Giving Elsa a quick thank you he dashed up the stairs away from the brig toward Katara, hoping he wasn't too late.
As Elsa watched him leave she considered what she would do to cover Zuko's escape. But not a lot of thought was given to the subject when a sharp blow was delivered swiftly to her head. She fell to the floor loosing consciousness. The last thing she could recall seeing was a shadow moving across the room towards the stairs, after the true Fire Lord Zuko.
A/N: Hey!! I hope your not too mad at me for taking so long to update. I've been busy and this chapter was challenging for me to write. But I promise i'll add chapter 14 around Christmas or New Years. and in other news it is my duty to inform you that we have entered the last of the chapters to this story there will be almost 20 chapters total maybe less but this story will end around that number. I just hope that the ending is too your liking when it comes around. So please feel free to review, let me know what you think of this chapter. I'll love you if you do!!!
Thx 4 reading
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