A/N: So, reviews have been slowing down a lot. I know there's a lot of you who read this fic and don't review, and I would greatly appreciate it if you did. I gladly accept any questions you have; I will answer them to the best of my ability without giving away any upcoming parts of the story. So to all you phantom readers out there…please review after you read a chapter! Reviews are really what keep writers going, they are what keep fics updated. If an author feels like you are losing interest in their story, then updates quit coming…
Blanket Disclaimer: I own nothing but any original characters you might run across (and the poem included in this chapter).
Also: There is also a new section in my profile regarding this story. It contains trivia, etc. Check it out!
Shaping Destiny
By: RupertLover09
Summary: Destiny is a funny thing, you never know how things are going to work out… Things change and people change.
Chapter Seven: Bear Island
The boat crunched loudly into the snow and ice and Zuko watched as Katara manipulated the ice so it jutted out of the ground. She anchored the boat there with a rope, tying the knots with vigor. He was reminded of their first joint adventure without the rest of their friends. Sokka had called it a secret ninja mission and had then proceeded to send Zuko funny looks for a few weeks. Funny looks that seemed to say he knew something was up because Zuko kept looking at Katara and Katara was being nice to Zuko. At first Zuko had thought that Sokka had known. Known that Zuko had been dreaming about the waterbender in ways he probably shouldn't have been. Known that Zuko was thinking that maybe he liked Katara more than he probably should have. Known that Zuko couldn't keep his eyes off of Sokka's baby sister. But then the warrior hadn't pulled him aside for any awkward conversations or tried to do away with him, so Zuko figured that he was just being paranoid.
Zuko stepped out of the boat and stood next to Katara on the desolate island. It truly was everything she had described and more. Not only was if freezing cold and lacking vegetation, but the place was just depressing. A sort of dark aura hung about the tiny island and Zuko could feel himself becoming depressed. It was like the island wanted him to be depressed. Or maybe it was the fact that Ozai had sent Zuko's mother here that was making the poor Fire Lord depressed. It was even worse than the village Katara lived in. At least there was food and people there. Here, it was nothing but snow and ice and cold.
The hood of Zuko's cloak flew back off his head as a gust of wind blew past, a high, piercing noise accompanying it. Zuko checked to make sure the dual Dao blades were in place on his back. It would be even harder to bend on this island when the sun went down than it had back with Katara's people. And the best he had been able to do there was light a fire for Kanna and keep his body temperature high so he wouldn't have to walk around in Sokka's old clothes! He sighed and Katara gave him a sympathetic smile.
"How big is this place?"
She shrugged. "I would guess that it's about a little over twice the size of my tribe's village."
Small, then. Small enough that they could cover more area if they split up.
Katara shook her head when he voiced this opinion, though, a frown crossing over her face. "I don't think so. If we split up, it gives any attackers more of an advantage."
Zuko almost laughed. "Katara, who would follow us to this place?"
She gave him a very sour look. "In case you've forgotten, Zuko, you're the Fire Lord. We've probably got people tailing us as we speak. I'm not about to risk your neck because you think it would be easier to split up to search this island. It's not even that big!"
"Since when are you so pessimistic?"
"Don't provoke me," Katara hissed, poking him forcefully in the chest with each word. "I'm watching your back."
"Is this about that uprising that happened four months ago?"
Katara's frown deepened.
"It is!" Zuko was surprised. The uprising had been little more than a small group of teenagers trying to start a rebellion in the name of Ozai. Zuko had almost taken a fatal blow to the head while out on a small trip to the market with Katara. She, however, had saved him, freezing the traitor and his buddies to a nearby wall. To Zuko it hadn't been much to worry about. He knew that he would be facing all sorts of things as Fire Lord, assassination attempts and uprisings in the name of his father were just a couple of things on that extensive list. But nobody had tried anything for months.
Upon Zuko's mention of this, however, Katara let out a shrill laugh, her nose wrinkling up. "Zuko, you're a lot of things, but I never knew you were so dense! What do you think's going on in your absence? You just disappeared with me and didn't even bother telling someone what was going on! None of your people know where you are, you're going to have a mess on your hands when we get back! The least you could have done was gotten someone to act in your stead."
Zuko blinked at her. "I did."
She stared at him. "You did?"
"Yes."
"Who?"
"Uncle Iroh."
"Is that allowed?"
"I don't see why not."
"Oh." Katara looked somewhat mollified before glowering up at him again, a fondness in her eyes that he had missed earlier during her rant. "We're still not splitting up. I'm watching your back."
Zuko flashed her a crooked smile and pulled her off to explore the island. "Care to tell me the other things I am aside from dense?"
Katara turned scarlet at the double meaning in his words.
Iroh stared at the two men in front of him in disinterest. The sages had called upon him for a meeting regarding his nephew's actions. The man found them nothing but faintly annoying as they insisted that Zuko was not fit for the throne.
"Iroh," one sage drawled, "the boy has seen fit to run off on some little adventure with a girl of the Southern Water Tribe. Please, see reason."
"I hardly see the fact that Fire Lord Zuko went to search out his mother should be considered merely a passing fancy," Iroh stated, frowning at the man who had spoken. The man was tall and extremely thin, the white hair on his head thinning worse than Iroh's was. Iroh believed the man's name to be Weizhe, and the man certainly was not living up to that name in Iroh's eyes.
"He did not tell anyone what his destination was," Weizhe said solemnly. "We believe the ship he was aboard took to the south."
"Perhaps he was interested in spending time with his lady friend," Iroh said, not at all interested in playing along with the sage's game. Zuko was, by far, the best fit for the throne and Iroh was not about to take the position from him. He was far too happy with the Jasmine Dragon and his life of peace and Pai Sho.
"His lady friend was Lady Katara of the Southern Water Tribe."
Iroh smiled pleasantly. "There is nothing wrong with that."
"The Southern Water Tribe was hostile during the war-"
"Only because they had reason to be. Surely," Iroh said, disdain leaking into his voice, "after a century of war you are not ready to provoke another merely because of who Fire Lord Zuko is friends with."
"We are not here to discuss the friends of our lord. We are here to bring to light his rash decisions."
"You have already done so. And now I would greatly appreciate if you would tell me the real reason behind your visit."
The sages exchanged looks and the second, a man by the name of Juro, stepped forward to speak.
"We believe that Fire Lord Zuko is unfit to govern our nation. We ask you to step in until we deem him ready."
The Dragon of the West frowned deeply. "I will not."
"General," Weizhe stepped forward and Iroh held up a hand to halt the sage's words.
"I have no desire to hear what excuses you may come up with. Thus far, you have accused Fire Lord Zuko of rash decisions, poor choices in friends, and wrongly searching for his mother. You cannot blame a boy for wanting to find his mother. Nor can you wish different friends upon him when the ones he has have done so much good for our nations.
"Fire Lord Zuko is an excellent ruler for the Fire Nation. He is a young idealist with a pure heart, and he has been helping to lead our nations into a time of peace and order. Peace and order that we have not seen for a hundred years. He is doing a fantastic job of succeeding where others such as myself would fail. I am old and set in my ways. You do not want me to fail our great nation."
Weizhe and Juro exchanged glances yet again before bowing respectfully to Iroh. "We shall talk to Fire Lord Zuko upon his return," said Weizhe as he and the other sage backed out of the room, their crimson robes rustling as they walked.
"You will have a hard time convincing him," Iroh warned, knowing very well that there was a slim chance the men heard him.
Zuko sighed and kicked a chunk of ice off the edge of the island. It fell into the water with a pitiful plop! He and Katara had already covered most of the island, and their search had turned up nothing. After a few minutes of flirtatious conversation that had stained Katara's cheeks a delicate rose color, the pair had lapsed into a companionable silence. They were crossing the back side of the island now, and the temperature seemed to constantly decline. All Zuko could do with his firebending was raise his body temperature when he and Katara stopped walking in order to warm their bodies up a little bit.
The middle of the island rose like a hill. It was covered in ice and snow like the rest of the land, and Zuko was beginning to think it was all just a tiny ice berg. His hopes dropped with each step he took.
I just want to know if there was a chance that Ozai lied.
Zuko frowned. Ozai had lied. He was a pitiful excuse for a man and an even worse one for a father.
Katara suddenly stopped walking and tugged on his hand. Zuko started. He hadn't even realized they had been holding hands as they walked.
"Zuko, look!"
The waterbending master was pointing toward an icy staircase that led to a dark rectangle in the side of the hill that was the center of the island. She tugged him forward, her blue eyes lit up with something akin to glee, and he stumbled a bit on the ice as he briefly lost his footing.
It was a wooden door. Zuko and Katara stared at it and the firebender could feel the knots in his stomach loosen. "Somebody's been here," he said quietly, not daring to voice his hopes that it was his mother. He reached out to pull the door open, but Katara stopped him.
"We don't know what's behind that door," she said in response to the curious look he gave her.
"Oh. Right." Zuko pulled out his swords. "I'll go first." He nudged the door open with his foot. The dark, weather-beaten wood swung into the side of the hill easily and silently, revealing what looked to be a small, make-shift house carved directly into the snow and ice. Behind him, Katara let out a soft gasp.
It was really just one room cut in half by a curtain of furs, its ceiling and walls supported by beams of wood that matched the door. The front half of the cramped space was what looked to be a living area. It held a small table with one chair in one corner and an armchair in the other. Parts of the ice were more transparent than others, serving as small windows. Despite the fact that the place was carved into an icy island, it was cozy and warm.
Spotting a book on the dining table, Zuko placed his swords back into their sheath and picked the book up. He smiled at the title. "It's her."
"What?"
Zuko held the book out to Katara and she took it, raising an eyebrow at the title. "It's a book of Fire Nation poetry."
"And the only one of its kind. It belonged to my mother. I would know this book anywhere. She used to read one to me every night before I went to sleep." Zuko's smile widened and he turned the pages of the well-worn book to the poem he remembered. "See? Here."
Katara read aloud from the page:
"'Until I Am With You Again'
"'Tired and weary from a fight you may be'
"'Soon your heavy heart shall be free'
"'Worry not and sate your fears'
"'Nothing comes from unshed tears'
"'Keep your strength, your noble heart'
"'If you stumble, you can restart'
"'Bear in mind, I'm never gone
"'Look to me when you're not strong'
"'I love you now, I loved you then'
"'I will be in your heart'
"'Until I am with you again.'"
Silence settled over the little room and Katara smiled softly at Zuko. "Your mother must be a wonderful person."
The smile Zuko returned was sad. "She is, but she's not here. Nobody's here."
It dawned on Katara then just how quiet the space they were in was, and how nobody had come from the opposite side of the partition upon hearing intruders. Zuko was right; nobody was there. She gathered the firebender into her arms as his face crumpled. "We'll find her, Zuko."
"Thank you for coming this far at least."
"You don't have to thank me. We're a team, now. I'm with you every step of the way."
His arms tightened around her. "You're far more than I deserve."
She snorted in a way that was decidedly unladylike and made him chuckle. "I really doubt that."
Toph glowered darkly in Aang's direction from her place in Appa's saddle. She couldn't see Aang, but she could hear him. He was breathing rapidly and muttering things to himself. Toph didn't get what the airbender's deal was. First, he got a letter from Sparky saying that he and Katara had gone off on an adventure. Then, he packed up camp without warning, threw Toph into Appa's saddle and had taken off in search of Sokka. When they had landed on the ship Sokka was on, Aang had pestered Sokka for about two hours (time which Toph had happily spent with the sailors who had taken a liking for her attitude). Toph had happened by the room in which Sokka and Aang were talking to hear Twinkle Toes telling Sweetness's brother that Sweetness had been kidnapped by Sparky. Kidnapped!
And now here they were again, riding Appa to the spirits knew where.
Toph yawned and stuck her pinky in her ear, something that was more of a habit than a cleaning ritual. "So, Twinkle Toes, where're we goin'?" she asked.
"The Fire Nation."
Toph leaned against the side of the saddle, placing her hands behind her head and crossing her ankle over her knee. "Didn't we just come from there?"
"Yes."
"Then why are we going back?"
"To wait for Zuko to bring Katara back."
Toph scowled. Baldy sure was getting snippy with her. "Look, as much as you want to believe it's true, I highly doubt that Zuko would just kidnap Katara. She'd kick his ass if he even tried." She could practically hear Aang's scowl.
"I'll believe what I want to believe, Toph."
"Ya know, for a goody two shoes monk, you sure are mean."
There was a good deal of silence during which Toph kept digging in her ear. She could almost hear Sugar Queen nagging at her for it, could almost hear her saying it wasn't ladylike. Toph really could have cared less. After all, she was with Aang and a huge, stinky, flying bison thousands of feet up in the air. They weren't watching her and she doubted they would care if they were. Toph's digging raised a question in her mind.
"So, is it true that you have abnormally large ears, Twinkle Toes, or is that just a rumor?"
Preview
Zuko was pacing the study off of his chambers when Katara slipped into the room, shutting the door firmly behind herself. She gave him a sheepish smile when he looked up at her, curious as to what had taken her so long.
"Sorry," she said. "Aang wanted to talk."
The Shaping Destiny Playlist
Theme Song: "Everything" by Lifehouse
1. "All You Wanted" by Michelle Branch
2. "The Diary of Jane" by Breaking Benjamin
3. "So Close" by Jon McLaughlin
4. "So I Thought" by Flyleaf
5. "Faint" by Linkin Park
6. "Just Friends" by Jonas Brothers
7. "Lovebug" by Jonas Brothers
8. "You Had Me From Hello" by Kenny Chesney