Author's Note: Alright, here it is, the big finale you've all been waiting for! =P Thanks for sticking with all these chapters! Let me say one more time that I claim no rights to the characters from Avatar: The Last Airbender. They belong to Brike and Nickelodeon. Also, all places mentioned are fictional. Enjoy and Reveiw!
"So what now, genius?" Suki angrily asked the firebender.
"I don't know! We have to get back to the house."
"No shit Sherlock." Zuko angrily banged his fist on the dashboard. "Oh, I know. Let's ask your Daddy for a ride, I'm sure he'd be more than happy to-"
"Suki, quit it. I am not in the mood."
"Fine, fine, whatever." She said, waving her hand.
"Hold on, Suki, wait here with Katara. I'll be right back." With that, Zuko got out of the presently useless car and disappeared into the parking lot. Suki sighed, looking at her out-of-it best friend.
Soon enough Zuko pulled up in a nice sleek red corvette. "Get in." He called to Suki and he went to the back seat and transferred Katara to the black leather of the new car. Suki and Zuko shut the front doors and Suki, awestruck, asked him whose car he jacked.
"It's my Dad's."
"Ohhhh, that would explain it. Man, he is going to be so pissed off at you."
Zuko shrugged. "Nothing new, I'll just spend the night at the Jasmine Dragon with Uncle." He zoomed the car out of the semi-crowded parking lot and drove back to Katara's house in a matter of minutes. Zuko parked the car on the side of the street, "I'll be right back," he said to Suki before going to tap on Katara's window to try to get Toph to let them in.
Peering into Katara's bedroom window, he saw Toph sprawled dead asleep across Kat's bed. He rapped on the window, hoping that she would wake up and let them in. No luck. Zuko exhaled deeply, trying to think of what to do. He jumped back in shock as someone appeared on the other side of the window.
"Aang, open the window," Zuko mouthed to the young Avatar. Aang opened the window, a look of deep concern and anger plastered on his usually amiable face.
"Where is Katara?"
"She's right over there; I'll go get her… and Suki. Uh, just, wait here."
Zuko darted off back to the car.
"So, can we get in?" Suki asked.
"Yeah, but it's about to get ugly. Toph fell asleep, Aang opened the window."
"Oh crap. How is he?"
"Um, let's hope that he doesn't go too out of control in Avatar State."
"Shit."
"Yeah, c'mon, help me get her over there."
The trio all got into Kat's bedroom window with little problem, the real next issue stood facing them, arms crossed and scowling.
"Where have you been? What's wrong with Katara?" Zuko stepped up to answer Aang's furious interrogations.
"She's asleep. We..uh…went out. To Club Phoenix, it was Suki's final birthday present." He uncomfortably scratched the back of his neck as he tried to explain their disappearance.
"You what? Zuko! How could you guys go there! Without even telling me, I mean, you guys just take my girlfriend and go out partying, without letting me or Sokka know?"
"We couldn't tell you, Aang."
"Why not?"
"Because Katara didn't want to tell you," Suki intervened, "She knew that you wouldn't let her go, even if she wanted to, especially since there was no way we all could have gone. Sorry Aang, but you couldn't even pass for fifteen."
"Guys, you should probably hush it up a bit-" Zuko warned, but it was too late. Sokka came through the door.
"What's going on?"
"Those three snuck out and went out to Club Phoenix!"
Sokka's jaw dropped and eyes bulged to extents that seemed humanely impossible.
"What were you thinking taking my baby sister out to that-that-place? Do you know how many times A WEEK Dad has to do some police work that traces back there?" He paused for a minute. "Well, what happened? I mean, Aang, think about it, it couldn't have been that bad, at least they all came back in one piece…well, three pieces…"
Zuko and Suki both suddenly became very interested in the patterns of the carpet.
"Hellllooo, guys, tell us what happened."
"Well, in the morning, Kat's gonna have herself a major hangover," Suki said to break the ice. Sokka and Aang were apparently not amused.
"C'mon guys, just spill. I'd rather just know now that it's happened," Sokka declared.
"Are you sure?" Suki asked her brotherly boyfriend.
"Yeah, really. I won't be mad, I just wanna know."
Just then Zuko's cell phone rang unexpectedly.
"Hello?"
"Um, I'm on the way to Uncle's"
"Yes sir."
"Well-I- I understand."
"What are you talking about?"
"Your car?"
"No sir." Zuko held the phone about a foot away from his ear due to the yelling coming from the other line. After a minute of incessant yelling, Zuko deemed it safe to put the phone back to his ear.
"No."
"I said no."
Zuko sighed and hung up the phone. He turned to Suki.
"Yeah, he's pissed. But that's not the worst of our problems right now."
"Uh, then what is?" Suki asked, hesitantly.
"He followed his car."
"Oh fuck," Suki exclaimed.
"What, what's going on?" Sokka asked, detecting trouble.
"Who was that on the phone?" Aang asked, sounding defensive and almost threatening.
Zuko took a deep breath before going to explain the phone call. "That was my Dad. Um, he's outside."
"What?" Aang and Sokka asked simultaneously.
Suki interjected then, "He probably just wants to finish what he started with-" Zuko cut her off.
"With me!" Zuko said, elbowing Suki hard in the arm. "He probably wants to finish this thing he started with me…I'll be right back."
Zuko hopped out of the window. Suki, Aang, and Sokka piled up at the window to watch what was about to go down in their front yard.
Zuko bravely walked out to the street to face Ozai. It was no longer a secret to anyone that Ozai wanted to kill Zuko for a countless number of reasons. Just as everybody knew about all the healing sessions that went on between Zuko and Katara to fix the worst of what Ozai would do to him nightly. So naturally, even though Aang and Sokka weren't the happiest with their firebending comrade, they couldn't help but be concerned for his life at the moment.
"Why is he here?" Aang as Suki in a whisper.
"Uh, it's complicated." She replied.
At the curb of the street, Zuko had walked up to his villainous father.
Suki, Sokka, and Aang cringed at the FWAP of Ozai's arm coming into fierce contact with the back of Zuko's head.
Zuko stood stony and unresponsive as Ozai attacked him with angry words and bludgeons. Suki picked up on a few words of the one-sided conversation. Some of the recurring words were "car", "she", "where" and "you-little-shit".
Ozai struck Zuko across the face, then raised his huge fist and swung, hitting him square in the mouth. Zuko spat blood and what may have been a tooth in his father's face.
Back in the house, Suki was taking charge of the situation she anticipated.
"Um, we need to hide Kat. Don't ask questions, just do what I say, please, Sokka, trust me." She said after Sokka had begun to interject with a few bewildered questions and protests. Sokka looked his girlfriend in the eye and agreed under the condition of having everything explained afterwards.
"Sokka, Aang, help me put Kat under the bed. Hurry up, I don't think we have a whole lot of time."
"Suki, what's going on?" Aang asked as he helped with Suki's instructions.
"I'll explain later, Aang, I promise."
"Somebody drag Toph into the hallway!"
Suki yelled out as she peered out of the window to check on how things were going on Zuko's end. Oh no, she thought as she saw Zuko collapse onto the yard, falling unconscious after another head strike from Ozai.
Suki saw Ozai stalking toward the window. "Guys, go out in the hallway. I'll take care of this."
"Suki, no way. I'm not letting you out of my sight with that killer around!" Sokka exclaimed.
"Fine, uh, Sokka, go wake up your dad, Aang, please go hide in the closet. Don't come out, no matter what. If Ozai sees you and recognizes you as the Avatar that will just make things worse."
The two did as they were told and Suki perched herself on Kat's bed, in direct view of the window.
Ozai appeared at the window to see the redhead from earlier lying in a strikingly sexy way atop the bed.
"Where's your friend?" Ozai asked impatiently. Dammit, Suki thought, he's not gonna go for the bait. She shrugged in a quirky manner, not yet abandoning her plan.
"I dunno, not here."
Ozai sneered, "Then I guess you won't have a problem with me coming in and looking for her?"
"Nope, come on in," Suki said, rolling over onto her stomach and propping herself up on her elbows. Though she was by that time completely sober, she gave the intruder a drunken looking, ditzy smile. "You'll just waste your time looking for her. She's not here…but I am." She giggled giddily to reinforce her act.
Ozai stood considering his options. If he just took what the redhead was offering, he could most likely use her to get to the other one some other time, besides, It was better than nothing, and she honestly wasn't half-bad looking. Maybe she would prove even better than her friend.
"If you insist," he said, "now, would you like to go to my home? It would be much more appropriate."
Suki nodded, "Sure, I'd love to go anywhere with you," she said, adding an extra edge to her voice. She got off the bed in a swaying, mock -drunken way to keep up her act while also making sure to cleverly show off certain angles of her femininity. Yet just as she was walking over to let Ozai help her out of the window, the door burst open and revealed Sokka and Hakoda.
Police Chief Hakoda held out his badge, "You, Ozai Kasanji, are under arrest for trespassing, at the very least." Hakoda cocked his gun and Suki ran behind Ozai to slam the window shut and generally block that way out. Sokka stood in the doorway, his shoulders heaving from adrenaline. Ozai stood in the middle of it all and for a minute it seemed like they finally had him. Then he let that evil grin creep across his countenance just before he let streams of fire fly out of his fists. The felon then darted out of the room, throwing Sokka out of his way to skid on the carpet of the newly burning house.
"Aang, you can come out of the closet and get some liquidy-cool-water bending action so our house doesn't burn down!" Aang just about flew out of the closet and air-bender ran to the bathroom where he turned on the faucet and bathtub to get water to extinguish the fires. Suki leaned under the bed and dragged her best friend out from under there and tried to get her to come to. At that time Zuko ran in through the door, ready to help diffuse the fire with his bending.
Soon enough, the emergency fire fighters had the fire all under control with little damage and they had all gathered in the den for some hot tea and reluctant explanations. Katara had finally awoken with a massive headache and a confused memory.
Finally, Hakoda, Aang, and Sokka decided it was time to get some answers. Sokka stood out as the spokesman.
"So, somebody tell me what that was all about!"
The three troublemakers exchanged glances with each other, not sure how to begin their tale.
"Well," Suki started, deciding to get it over with "what had happened was…"