I am SO sorry I did not get to post this earlier like I had planned. I had Internet issues and there was no way for me to update.
Thank you to everyone who has already reviewed or favorited this story, or put it on story alert. It means a lot and makes me feel good to see those messages. I was amazed at just how quickly I got responses on this story. I hope you will all enjoy it. A few nights ago I was unable to sleep, so I wound up pulling an all-nighter writing out an outline for this entire story.
I think I will mostly write this story in Katara's perspective, maybe with occasional bits from Zuko or others characters. She felt easy to write to me. BTW, I will skip over certain parts of the canon storyline if I feel they aren't necessary. If you don't see it here, assume it happened as in the cartoon canon, unless I say otherwise.
This chapter takes place during "The Southern Air Temple" and then, following "The Warriors of Kyoshi". The Gaang was at the Southern Air Temple but did not stop in Omashu and see Bumi.
ARGGH! Did I forget my disclaimer again? But you guys know I don't own ATLA, right? Otherwise this is what would have happened.
A week had passed since the Avatar had escaped. There'd been nothing left to do but turn around and head north, hoping they could catch his trail. At least there was hope now. With the Avatar having returned, it meant a chance for them all to go home. It had been four years now, four, futile years of chasing rumors and legends around the world.
His men were as tired and disheartened as he secretly was and it wasn't fair to them. He knew he was sometimes a little too harsh towards them, especially when he was angry or frustrated, which was often. He'd never say it out loud, but he was grateful none of them had mutinied or left him yet. They weren't even paid for this work. All of the men on this ship, save for Uncle, were being punished. They had all been accused of one crime or another. All of them were good fighters, good men, but they'd done something wrong. Sometimes it was insulting an officer, sometimes it was refusing to obey an order, which was often an insult itself to the one who gave it. Some of them weren't considered good enough for the military and were discharged before they ever got a chance to prove themselves. So, rather than be punished in the usual way, they were sent away to serve the banished prince. "Failures can work together" people said. "Yeah, and get nothing accomplished" others would agree. No one believed in them.
They'd stopped at a port near the Southern Earth Kingdom to restock on supplies and fuel for the ship. The Firelord, out of "kindness" for his son, had the treasury, up until the past year, provide them with just barely enough money to feed themselves and fuel the ship. Their warship was considered small by the Navy's standards, yet it still consumed a mass amount of coal needed to burn and power its engines.
There were thirty men on board, including himself and his uncle. That was thirty mouths to feed, not as easy as it sounded, especially when one of them was a seventeen-year-old still-growing boy who, despite his lean frame, had the appetite of a Komodo Rhino, and another was tea-obsessed old man, who wouldn't survive if the world's crop of tea leaves went bad.
Zuko's thoughts returned to one of the main things on his mind: the Avatar. That child had lied to him. Said he'd come if no one got hurt and then had the nerve to break that word and run away. Zuko ought to have turned around, slaughtered those Water Tribe villagers, and burned what there was of that pathetic village, leaving nothing but a mess of blood and ash mixed with the snow, in order to teach that boy a lesson. One of his father's ranking officers would have ordered that to be done, if they'd been the one in charge of this mission. But going back would have wasted time and make them lose his trail even more. Zuko had never killed a woman or child before, and he didn't really want to. He didn't want to shed anymore blood than absolutely necessary. Killing them probably wouldn't have done anything; the boy was gone and wouldn't be around to see it.
As Zuko and his Uncle were about to step off the ship some soldiers from another came up the gangplank. Zuko sneered as he saw who was in front.
"Zhao" Zuko greeted the man through gritted teeth.
"It's Commander Zhao" the man replied haughtily. "To what do I owe a visit of the Firelord's brother and son?"
"We're simply here for some supplies" Zuko said, his tone making it clear he wanted to stay no longer than need be.
"You such come to my ship and join us for lunch and tea. I'd love to hear all about your search for the Avatar. Have you found him yet?"
"No. If I did, don't you think I'd be on my way home, not hanging around here?"
"Zuko, show some respect" Iroh hissed at him. To Zhao, he said, "Thank you for the offer. We would be honored to join you for lunch. Do you have any jasmine tea?"
Zuko growled as he followed the men into the base.
It was awful; of course, a lot of that could have simply been because Zhao was there. He'd given a "toast" to Zuko, mainly to inform the crew of what a worthless failure Zuko was, while he, Zhao, was a great leader, etc, etc.
Zuko could only take so much. He clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white and the flames reacted to his emotion. He stood up, made his way over to Zhao, and informed him, as polite as he could manage of course, to shut up.
Zhao must have missed his politeness, or was able to see through its fakeness, because he snarled back an insulting comment. Iroh had to step in before any blows were thrown.
But Zuko wasn't letting this Commander get away with speaking to, and about, him the way he had. Much as it would be to his Uncle's dismay, he knew, he challenged the arrogant, older man to an Agni Kai.
Zuko stood across the room from his opponent and pulled of his shirt, trying to ignore his uncle's pleas, that he didn't need to do this, that he would get hurt.
The last comment hurt. Uncle saw him train for hours every day. Didn't he have any faith in him?
There was no time to ask as he stepped into the area. All around them his crew, as well as Zhao's men, watched eagerly. For a moment, Zuko wondered how his crew would react if he won or lose. No, when he won. He wouldn't lose to this slime.
There was no more time to let his mind wander as the gong sounded. Zuko attacked first, shooting a stream of fireballs for his opponent to dodge. He'd hoped to go on the offensive, wear the older man down, then come in for the final blow.
It wouldn't work, he realized. Zhao was older than him, maybe twice his age, but was still fit enough to put up with Zuko's aggressive attacks.
It was Zhao's turn to be offensive as he sent a stream of fire towards the prince, trying to knock him off balance. Zuko backed up, getting away from the fire, but managed to stay on his feet.
Zhao sent another, fiercer blast towards him. This one just barely did the job of knocking him down. Zhao lunged forward, ready to blast at him again, but he was ready. In lightning speed, he spun his entire body around, with his arms on the ground, and used a sweep of his legs to knock the commander on his back.
Zuko could have sworn he heard gasps coming from the crowd, but didn't stop to look at any of the faces. Zhao had managed to stagger to his feet, but before he could attack, Zuko was on him. He sent blasts of flames from his feet, forcing the other man to back up. Zuko continued this until there were halfway across the arena, until Zhao fell back and crashed onto the ground.
Zuko stood there, poised, one arm drawn back in a fist, ready to deliver that final blow.
He didn't. There was just no point. The man was already knocked down, humiliated in front of his colleagues and soldiers, and by the banished prince no less.
Instead, he put a blast of fire next to the man's face, as a warning. To make it clear he stated, "The next time you get in my way, I won't hold back."
He turned and began to walk away to where the crew was. They were actually applauding his efforts and victory. Zuko felt the heat before he even turned around. But as he moved to block it, he saw there was no need. Uncle had somehow gotten between him and Zhao. The old general stopped the attack with ease and shoved the commander away.
"So this is how the great Commander Zhao attacks in defeat?" Iroh asked, loud enough for everyone to hear, the disgust in his voice obvious. "Disgraceful. Even in exile, my nephew has more honor than you." Stiffly polite, he added, "Thanks for the lunch and tea. It was delicious."
As they left for the ship, Zuko looked at his uncle in amazement. "Did you really mean that?"
The old man chuckled. "Of course. You would have known it was good if you'd actually eaten some. And they had ginseng tea. My favorite."
Zuko grinned and followed him. "Uncle, all tea is your favorite."
This was bad and it was all her fault. They'd been moving along the Earth Kingdom coast until they reached the North Pole to find Aang a waterbending teacher. But it seemed that would have to wait. They'd had a run-in with a boy caught earthbending and some Fire Nation soldiers hot on his tail. She'd thought she could help him by freezing the men in place and giving him a chance to escape. Her skills were unfortunately, only rudimentary, and she wound up freezing Sokka instead. Now, they were all headed for an Earthbending prison.
"I'm sorry, Aang", Katara whispered.
"Oh, yeah?" Sokka interrupted Aang's response. "What about me? I'm the one you froze."
Katara smirked and looked away. "I'm sure you deserved it for something."
"So, uh, we are we going exactly?" Aang asked.
"A prison. Like those soldiers said they were taking us to." This was the first time the little boy spoke up. He gives Aang a funny look. "Weren't you listening?"
Katara hid a giggle and had to hand it to the kid. Sometimes Aang wasn't the most attentive to things.
Like that they had just walked into what Katara assumed was the prison and Aang, who was staring at the boy and trying to hold a conversation with him, nearly stepped into the wall surrounding it. One of the soldiers reached over and yanked Aang by his shirt, sending him sprawling forward.
"Leave him alone!" Katara cried.
"What are you gonna do about it, waterbender?" the soldier snarled. He grabbed her by the forearm, making her cry out, and dragged her forward. "You're a pretty thing. I bet we could find a good use for you."
"You'd want a savage for that?" another of the men asked. The soldiers, including the one holding her, all laughed.
"Why not? I've that some of these water tribe women can be very…feisty." He turned and addressed some other men. "Take those two boys and put them with the others. Tie the girl up in the barracks. Make sure there are no liquids anywhere near her."
Katara screeched in protest as two of the men tried to drag her away. As another few soldiers came towards Aang and Sokka, Aang blasted two of them away while Sokka threw his boomerang at the other, striking him in the side of the head.
The leader of the soldiers shouted, "That boy's an airbender! He must be the Avatar! Get him!"
The remaining soldiers pulled out their weapons or made balls of fire in their hands and circled towards Aang.
The airbender didn't even break a sweat as he blasted them away with a few sweeps of his staff. Apparently, firebenders weren't the best fighters as they were flying through the air. It also seemed apparent that the Fire Nation's best soldiers weren't posted here.
Getting blasted once or twice was enough for a few of them, who broke rank, and ran off. Their leader growled and sent a blast a fire towards Aang, who dodged it. The man prepared for another attack, only to feel something smack into the back of his head. He turned and saw the young Earth Kingdom boy standing there, levitating a small rock in the air with earthbending, preparing another strike.
The leader sent him blast of fire towards the boy, who panicked and dropped the rock, instinctively throwing up his arms as if they might shield him from the blazes.
They wouldn't, but the rock shield made by another man, clearly the boy's father, did. Everything became a whirlwind after that. Flames were being shot in different directions, rocks were being thrown about. Aang had blasted away a few guards who'd charged in to help their comrades and out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sokka beating a soldier to the ground.
Clearly, these soldiers had enough sense left in them to know when enough was enough. They gave up on the fight, turning tail and fleeing, erupting cheers from the once captive Earth Kingdom prisoners.
There would be less rejoicing for Katara, Aang, and Sokka. Three tall figures entered into the prison just then, wearing travel-worn Earth Kingdom clothing, their heads covered by the cloak hoods.
The one in front, the tallest of them, removed his hood. Katara gasped as she realized it was the same boy that had taken Aang from their village. Had he really followed them all the way from the South Pole?
There would be no time to celebrate with the Earth Kingdoms villagers and no time to ask questions. Now it was just time to run.
Whew! That chapter was longer than I thought it'd be, but oh well. I hope you enjoyed it. BTW, I'd never written an action scene before so I hope that it was alright. Any tips to make it better would be greatly appreciated.