Chapter eleven
It was early morning on the third day of travel when Zuko encountered the naval blockade surrounding the Fire Nation waters. He was standing on the bridge, and from behind the glass he watched in silence as his vessel came close to it. He knew he was about to do something stupid, and he knew there would be consequences for his foolish action, but that wasn't weighing heavily on his mind as his ship neared the blockade.
Today was the Winter Solstice. He had to get to Crescent Island as soon as possible if he wanted to catch Aang, if the Airbender would even be there. If he wasn't... Well, Zuko had other things to worry about rather than what ifs.
"We're going to be passing the blockade in five minutes." The man steering the ship said, "Are you sure you want to do this?"
"Yes. Proceed." Zuko said, trying not to let his nervousness get the best of him. His uncle had been heavily against the plan, to the point of yelling at Zuko when he tried to explain things to his uncle. Unfortunately, his mind was set, he had to be hopeful, and he knew that meant not dwelling on that. His crew had thoughts along the same line as Iroh, but unlike his uncle, they decided not to voice their opinions. For the better, if Zuko had anything to say about it.
It didn't take much longer for his ship to come towards the blockade. He looked grimly at the larger ships as his smaller vessel squeezed through to the other side of the Fire Nation, heading to the island. Oddly enough, passing the blockade wasn't as bad as he feared, and he blinked a few times when they safety sailed pass it five minutes later. Zhao must not have been in charge that time. He mused to himself, before he excused himself from the bridge.
In the hall, his uncle stood, "We're in the Fire Nation now." Zuko told the man.
"I know." Iroh said, "I still believe it's a very unwise idea, but I will stand by you on it."
"Thank you uncle." Zuko said, smiling at the man.
The two walked silently through the hall until they reached Zuko's door, and the two entered the room. Zuko groaned in annoyance at what he saw, while Iroh coughed, hiding his amusement. Katara was sitting up healing herself slowly.
"Why do you keep doing that?" Zuko sighed.
She realized she had an audience, and let out a small yelp as she but her robe back on covering herself. She glared at Zuko blushing a little, "because I don't want to lie down in bed all day! I want to walk around, do normal things, and be able to wash myself!"
"You're too hurt to do any of that! You can barely sit up without crying in pain!"
"I can do them! I am sitting up right now aren't I?"
"And you're too proud to show your pain." Zuko pointed out, "Look, Katara, please. Just go back to bed. Healing yourself won't make it go away instantly. Burns take a long time to heal."
"And it'll leave a scar." She sighed dejectedly.
Zuko blinked, "Why does that bother you? You never seem to care about how you looked before."
She let out a long winded sigh at that, and Iroh laughed as he patted his nephew's back. Zuko looked confused as he tried to decipher an answer out of what they were doing.
"Just because I'm a fighter doesn't mean I can't be a little vain about how I look you know." She huffed when Zuko appeared not to get it.
"But you had that one scar going all the way up you arm in the future, and it didn't bother you."
"That was the future."
"What difference does it make?" Zuko said, getting to the point where he wanted to shout, "Urgh, never mind! If it'll make you feel any better, I don't think Aang is going to care at all about that. In fact, knowing him he'll think it's really awesome… After he stops beating himself over it." He cringed as he thought aloud the last bit. Stupid, stupid…
"Do you really think he blames himself?" She asked.
"It's Aang." Zuko said, as if that explained everything, "If anything happens to you, you know how he acts."
Iroh decided to come in between the two of them, knowing if the conversation was veering in the direction it was going, things wouldn't go very good for long, "Katara, allow me to reapply your bandages for you."
"Ok." She said after a long moment, and then she looked at Zuko, "not with him here though."
Zuko felt his eyes twitch, "You never had a problem with this before."
"Just leave!" She said, causing Zuko to roll his eyes and walk out of the room, closing the door behind him.
Iroh looked up at the girl as she pushed her braided hair aside and sighed. "You seem different from the last time I saw you." He said off-handedly.
"Really?" She asked, "I feel alright."
Iroh shrugged, "You seemed to inherit a lot more from your past self than Zuko did."
"You know about that?"
"Zuko told me." He confirmed, "Tell me, do you still love the Avatar?"
"Of course I do!" She said, feeling anger wash over her at the man's accusing question.
"Good." He smiled, "I was just making sure that it wasn't solely your past self having taken over your body."
She sighed, "I don't know, I - eh, she was so innocent, she hadn't seen the real pains of war other than losing a loved one, what the future holds… It's just, now I feel like I really am a kid again for the first time since I came back in time, you know what I mean? I embraced that about her, and I guess it really rubbed off on me when we merged into, well, me," She said, "I'm not making any sense am I?"
Iroh laughed, "I understand completely. Zuko chose to embrace his future self's personality more so than his past, and I guess you did the opposite. There are some positives and negatives to both, but I won't judge you based solely on that. You're you, there's no future you and past you. You made yourself how you are now, and you will forever be this way. I will always accept who you are."
She smiled at that, "thank you."
"Now, let's reapply the bandages," He said, kneeling down next to her bed. She took her robe off, and he examined the wound, "Your water healing is speeding up the healing process, but be careful. If you speed it up too quickly it will make the scar worse than it is."
"Really?"
"Yes. You need to give your body time to create more resources to patch up your skin. If you try to heal it without enough skin over a wound, for example, it will twist and contort until both sides patch together." She made a sick face, and he laughed, "It's not quite as gruesome as it sounds! I assure you!"
"But it makes the pain go away, and I can stand up for a little bit after I have done that."
Iroh looked alarmed, "You've been standing? With this?" He shook his head, "Don't do that anymore!"
"I hate being stuck in bed all day though." She mumbled, looking out the small window in the room.
"I know you desire to go outside, especially after being stuck inside for three days, but please understand that this is for the best."
She nodded, and sat up so Iroh could wrap a new roll of bandages around her abdomen. It still hurt her to sit up, but combined with three days of rest, and recently using her own healing powers, it was much less painful than it otherwise would have been. Once it was finished, she went back down.
"Don't you have anything to read?" She asked.
"I'm sorry, no. Next time we go to a market I'll pick something out for you though, I promise." He said.
"Where are we right now?"
"We're in the Fire Nation." He sighed, "Let's hope the Avatar is going to Crescent Island, otherwise this will be wasted, and make my brother very unhappy."
"What will happen if the Avatar is not there?"
"We need to get out of the Fire Nation as quickly as possible before something worse happens to us all." Iroh said seriously, and then smiled, "Now, please, get some rest. We're still sailing, and should be at the temple in a few more hours."
Katara leaned back down and sat there as Iroh walked out. She let out a sigh as she looked at the ceiling, unsure if what to do. She would like to heed Iroh's word, but she didn't want to be left out from going inside the temple. She finally just shook her head and tried to get some sleep. Thankfully, it wasn't as elusive as she feared, and she was sound asleep within minutes.
A few hours later Zuko and Iroh were both on the bow of the ship looking at the Island that was coming into their view.
"It's an hour before the Solstice Zuko, are you sure your friend is coming?" Iroh whispered over to Zuko.
"He has to come." He said back.
"And if he doesn't."
"I don't know." Zuko sighed, "I'm going to go up there though. Maybe he'll be able to pass all the sages by himself."
"The sages?" Iroh asked, "Aren't they loyal to the Avatar?"
"No." Zuko sighed, "They're only loyal to my father."
"Then be careful. I doubt they will be happy to see you come through."
"Duly Noted." Zuko said, "Stay here and watch the ship. Don't let anyone else come in, and make sure Katara doesn't do anything stupid."
Iroh smiled at that, "I'll do what has to be done."
"Good." Zuko said, turning back to the island as his ship loomed closer to it.
Once his ship was close enough, he had his men lower the ramp so he could walk to the island. Once there, he walked up towards the gigantic temple. He let out a small breath, and he continued onward.
The sun was going to be setting soon, and it lit up the water in a mixture of yellows and oranges. The sky was beginning to turn orange and purple as well. He knew he had less than an hour, so he had to work fast. With that knowledge firmly in mind, he opened the door to the temple and stepped in.
All that greeted him was silence, and he didn't dare call out, not knowing if the fire sages would attack him or help him, so instead of taking the chance, he just walked onwards, he thankfully knew the layout of the place well enough, having navigated the place in the previous life with ease, and so it didn't take long before he was standing in front of a large door, that required five Firebenders to open.
"Where is he?" He mumbled, looking all around. It was just mere minutes before the Solstice, and Aang was nowhere to be found. He forced himself to calm, and that is when someone shouted at him, causing his calming effect to be ruined.
"You there, boy! What are you doing?"
He looked over to see several old men in traditional red robes of the sages. He glared at that, These men willingly betrayed the Avatar. Shaking his head, he looked up at them, "I'm waiting for the Avatar to show up. He's supposed to be here, right?"
"Well, yes." One of the sages agreed reluctantly, "On the Solstice the light hit Roku's head, and allows the Avatar to converse with him." Realization dawned on his face, "You wish to capture the Avatar here then?"
"Yes." Zuko nodded, "Open the door, he might be in there now!"
The sages looked shocked, "But Prince Zuko, we would know if someone entered our temple. We've been following you the entire time."
Zuko was surprised by this, not knowing he had been followed, "Really?"
"Yes, no one has entered this temple today besides you."
Zuko was at a loss. Aang wasn't here. He had risked everyone's lives to go into the Fire Nation on a false lead. He growled, No, I won't give up – not yet!
"Open the door." He said, "He has to be in there. I won't take no for an answer!"
The sages looked reluctant, but they did as he said. Zuko sighed in relief quietly, so they wouldn't hear him, and he watched as the five sages got in their place and shot fire at the door. The device quickly began to move around, before shortly the door slowly opened, making a large creaking noise as the door continually slide open. The light from the chamber he was in lit the room up, and to his dismay, no one was in there.
He walked into the room, and fell in front of the statue of Roku onto his knees, "No!" He cried out, "He isn't here! I risked so much to be here! And now…"
"And now you'll be coming with us." The head sage said, "You've come in the Fire Nation knowing you were banished. You must be turned in."
Zuko stood up as he turned to face them. They were all masters of Firebending, and Zuko knew this would be difficult if they were as good as the sages were supposed to be. He dropped into a fighting stance, and glared at them as they began to inch their way into the room. Right before their feet were about to enter the room though, the door slammed shut, and the door locked. He could hear the sages moaning in pain from the door hitting them so hard.
The sages were now locked on the other side, while Zuko was stuck in a small room with only a ray of Sunlight about to hit Roku's statue. "What was that?" Zuko mumbled, knowing that the door shouldn't have closed like that. "Spirits?" He hazarded a guess.
He looked around the room back at the statue of Roku, and fell to the ground, "Damn! I shouldn't have come here! Why do I always make the wrong choice?"
He wasn't going to cry. He was far too proud to do something like that when something didn't go his way, and he refused to back down regardless. He looked up, noticing the beam of light was seconds away from hitting Roku's forehead, indication the Solstice.
"I wasted my time coming here, might as well see if anything is going to happen." He said, turning towards the statue and sitting cross-legged in front of it. Five, four, three… He counted down in his head, watching the light move slowly, two, one. The light hit its mark. Zuko held in his breath, waiting for something to happen. He sat there waiting a few more seconds, "It's not going to work is it?" He finally asked aloud, "I have to get out of here with five master Firebenders on my tail!"
He cursed as he stood up and paced around the room, trying not to burn anything in his sight. He knew that the mere action of coming into the Fire Nation would be a risk. He knew his father would hear about it, and he knew there would be repercussions. He screwed up bad, and he knew it.
"I shouldn't have listened to Katara." Even as he said that however, he disagreed with every word he spoke. It was their only lead, what else were they supposed to do? He let out a yell of frustration and hit a nearby wall as hard as he could, smearing it with black from his Firebending. Thankfully it was not wooden, and didn't get caught on fire.
He finally looked to the door, why haven't they entered in here yet? He could hear the sound of them Firebending, and he knew that they could enter the room, so it confused him greatly that they weren't entering the room. Is this room locked? He vaguely remembered something similar happening last time, but instead it was Aang in this room instead of himself.
"Hello?" Zuko called out, desperate now for anything to happen.
"Hello." Another voice whispered back, and Zuko stood ridged with attention. He looked all around himself to find the source, yet there was none that he could find. "I have been observing you for some time, Son of the Fire Lord."
Zuko felt his heart drop. Was Roku going to do something to him because of his status? "Roku?" He asked gently, "I'm working with the Avatar." He clarified, trying to make the man show himself.
"Is that so?" Zuko spun around and couldn't help but let a small gasp come out of his lips as he saw Roku standing there. The old man looked at Zuko, an his face emotionless, and his eyes lifeless. He towered over Zuko, and had a long flowing white beard, "I have difficulties believing you."
"As you should," Zuko admitted, "I hope you'll trust me enough, since I'm your great grandson."
Roku wasn't surprised to hear this, and simply nodded, "I suppose helping family out would be kind. We don't have much time however, and I must ask, where is Aang? He is supposed to be here so I can give him valuable information."
"We know about the comet." Zuko said, "Aang does, I mean."
"What? Does he really?"
"Yes. We know a lot of things Master Roku." Zuko said, getting on his knees in front of the man, hoping the extra length he was going would help calm the elder Avatar down and trust him, "The Avatar and I are good friends. We have fought the Fire Lord once, and we know about the eclipse coming, that is when we plan to invade the Fire Nation and try to defeat the Fire Lord again. We can't fail this time." Zuko said in a long breath.
He didn't know it was possible, but Zuko saw Roku's emotionless face break out of it, and the man was giving Zuko an odd look, "I would know if you had done any of those things."
"I know." Zuko said, "But I guess that doesn't extend to travelling back in time with us, does it?"
Now Roku was absolutely speechless, his mouth had fallen open, and he looked wide eyed at Zuko, "What?" He demanded, "You came to the past? When, how?"
"So the spirits don't know about it?" Zuko mused to himself, "you heard right. We found a scroll that could help us. It detailed exactly how to get back in time. Getting the items for the ritual wasn't an easy task. It took us seven years to find everything."
"Why would you come back?"
"We lost." Zuko said.
"Did Aang not use the Avatar state?" Roku continued.
"He couldn't. He died while he was in the Avatar state, and after that he was never able to use it. He was revived by spirit water." Zuko said quickly preemptively capturing Roku's next question, "He had to fight the Fire Lord during the comet, and lost."
"That must be why I couldn't get Fang to contact him." Roku thought aloud, "He was unable to make contact with his spirit."
"Yeah, he says he still can't go into the Avatar State."
"This poses a major problem." Roku said, "However, I know the Avatar State isn't broken. I can still feel it connected to me."
Zuko was surprised to hear this, "What?"
"Yes. If an Avatar dies in the Avatar State, the chain of Avatar's is forever destroyed, as you may know. However, I can still feel my brethren; I know the chain is not yet broken in this time."
Zuko was speechless, and his mind was working in overtime to try and figure out why that was. "I don't know why." Zuko said at last.
"I wasn't asking you to figure it out." Roku laughed at that, "What you told me is vastly important though. I must consult with the other spirits, for our time is nearly up."
"I barely talked to you though!"
"I apologize for that."
"Wait- can you figure out where Aang is for me?" Zuko shouted as he saw Roku's spirit begin to dim, "We got separated, and now I have no idea where he could be!"
Roku's spirit paused, "Fang could find out, but in the time it would take him to find your friend, I fear will be far too long. You lack the ability to converse with spirits outside of times like this, I apologize once more, dear grandson."
Zuko's ears lifted at that, and he smiled after a small bit, feeling good to be acknowledged by the Avatar like that.
"There is one last act I may do for you." Roku said, "I can sense the traitorous sages waiting for you behind the doors, I will get rid of them for you so you may escape."
Zuko nodded, "Thank you." He stood up off the ground, and then properly bowed to the man.
"Open the doors now, my time is short." Roku said, and Zuko wasted no time in rushing to the doors and pushing them open. The Fire sages gathered around and were about to attack when suddenly a large presence behind the boy made himself known.
"I am…" Roku looked at all the men around the room, pausing for dramatic effect, "Disappointed."
With that he thrust both hands downward, and the tower began to shake violently. The sages stared wide eyed at Roku, before the shock passed, and they realized that the building was beginning to collapse around them.
"Go now." Roku said to Zuko, before his spirit faded away.
Zuko nodded, and burst forth from the room, running pass the sages. He fled down the tower, the sages only a step behind him. However, instead of the sages chasing him, they were instead running for their lives. Zuko didn't even look back as he burst out of the tower, the doors simply falling forward, having been unhinged during the eruption of the nearby volcano that Roku had caused. He saw the sages running off to a boat that they used to get to the temple and to go to the mainland, and then he looked forward, seeing his ship off in the distance.
"Just got to run to my ship on an island that is erupting, nothing too hard." Zuko muttered under his breath as he ran as fast as he could to his ship.
"Get ready to leave!" Zuko shouted up to the crew, though they didn't need Zuko to tell them that, they were way ahead of him. Zuko rushed up the ramp, and finally took time to take a small breath. He felt the ship shaking, and his thoughts momentarily went to Katara, I bet she's not happy with this. He snapped out of it, I don't need to think of that right now! With that understood, he rushed up to the bow, and watched as the tower fell down into itself. The top floor collapsing into the floor below it, and then it repeated so on and so forth.
The island was getting covered in lava now, coating the surface Zuko just ran across moments ago with the fiery substance. He shuddered at the sight. "Come on! Let's get out of here!" He said after looking at the island for a small bit, "It was a false lead; we need to get back to the Earth Kingdom, immediately." Zuko said.
His uncle walked up to him, "Nothing happened?"
"No. He wasn't there." Zuko sighed, "But I did meet Roku."
Iroh was shocked by the news, and was about to say something more, but the boat lurched back, meaning that it must have hit a sandbar and just recently got free. Zuko growled at that, knowing his crew could have easily avoided such a deadly trap. He let it drop though, knowing that it was done, and that they were escaping the island now.
"What do you mean you met Roku?"
"Exactly as I said."
"What did you talk about?" Iroh sighed.
"I told him I was his great grandson, and things went off from there. He also didn't trust me because I was the Fire Lord's son, but I convinced him not to worry about that. I told him everything – about the future, and such to get him to trust me. All I got out of our conversation was that the Avatar state is not dead. It's still there."
"Oh?" Iroh said, "Does your friend know of this?"
"No. He said that it was still missing from him." Zuko sighed, "I don't know how he still has it if Aang claims to not have it."
Iroh nodded for a little bit, and looked thoughtful, "Do you suppose it could be his past self? The child present in his body before he took over?"
At that, Zuko went stiff. His eyes widened, and his jaw dropped at the thought, "That- that is…" He was speechless.
"It's wonderful news." Iroh finished for him.
"Wonderful?" Zuko echoed, "No, it's not just that. It's the best news I have heard in my life! We have two advantages now! The Avatar State and the eclipse, it's amazing!" He was trying to come up with more words, but he couldn't.
"Don't strain yourself nephew." Iroh said, grabbing his shoulder with a gentle smile, "Come on now, we're getting out of the Fire Nation, and you need some rest."
Iroh led Zuko down to his room, considering Zuko's own was occupied at the moment. At the very least, they got some good news out of all of this, even if undoubtedly it would cause trouble for Zuko in the long run.
The Fire Lord's throne room was frightening; there was a long red carpet that led up to a chair that was surrounded by fire on almost all sides, but most prominently the front. The carpet leading up to the throne had row after row of parallel pillars on either side, making everything seem so much larger than life, especially the Fire Lord, who sat elevated far above any of the men who would come to see him.
As of now, the Fire Lord was in the room, and one lone girl was kneeling in front of him, her head bowed low.
"You asked for me father?"
"Yes." Ozai said, looking down at his daughter. She was his pride and joy. She learned everything she knew from him, and was without exception one of the best things to happen in his life. She was his tool, a weapon, and he loved her for it. She received his affection when she did something right, and only then. Failure was never an option for her, and she knew this. She strived to be everything he envisioned her to be, no matter what the costs. Now she knelt down before her father, and he smiled gently down at her.
"I have a report from a day ago that says Zuko entered the Fire Nation."
At the mere mention of his name, the tension in the room went up several notches, and if possible, she leaned forward even more to hear what he had to say about him.
"He went to the Avatar temple on Crescent Island. Roku's temple, if you recall correctly from your texts."
"Yes, I know." She said immediately afterwards, her tone was cold, and she tried not to glare at the man she tried to impress on a daily basis.
"Very good." Ozai said, making her sudden hatred for him disappear, and be replaced with joy at the praise she received, "The temple is destroyed. The Fire Sages claim that Zuko went into the Avatar chamber of the temple, and then Roku came out with him and destroyed the temple."
"That's ridiculous." She said.
"It is." Ozai acknowledged, "However, your brother broke the agreement we had for his exile. He was not to enter the waters of the Fire Nation until he returned with the Avatar to restore his honor. For him to have such audacity to come in without my express permission shows me that my son has no loyalty to me, and I shall treat him in the same manner he has treated me."
The way he spat that out, as if it burned his tongue to mention his failure of a son, made her smile, and she nodded along. "What do you want me to do?" She asked, getting straight to the point.
"I have also received letters from Admiral Zhao about him as well." He held up a scroll of parchment.
She noted the new title Zhao had, but didn't comment on it. She had to force herself not to cry out in protest against the change – the man was an imbecile, but she wasn't going to tell her father just what she thought of him. Her mind turned to the letters her father had gotten from the man, and her eyes focused on them through her bangs.
"These scroll from Zhao claiming that Zuko is a traitor, and gives me several reasons." He cleared his throat and he opened the parchment and read them off, "For bringing a known Waterbender into a concentration camp that was soon after liberated."
She heard about that, though from the rumors coming in, it claimed the Earth Kingdom forces had done that. She couldn't determine if Zhao was exaggerating the truth to make Zuko sound worse, or if he just truly hated Zuko. After a little thought, she decided it was a little of both. She didn't care regardless, really.
"For saving this known Waterbender at the recently destroyed metal prison platform for Earthbenders." He continued to read.
She frowned at that. She had heard about another place being taken out, but out of them all, she didn't think that one would be it. The Earthbenders were almost useless without their element, and she couldn't imagine how a group of kids would be able to take out the guards stationed there. Was it yet again another lie from Zhao? She thought on it. It was likely.
"And for refusing a direct order to stop hunting for the Avatar from his superiors." Ozai finished.
She wanted to laugh at that one. It sounded like an afterthought, and knowing Zhao, it probably was an afterthought. After all, having two reasons didn't seem as good as three.
"Good reasons, don't you think?" Ozai asked, looking down at his daughter for any sign of a reaction.
She didn't give him any, her voice was emotionless as she replied, "Yes, father."
"Due to Zhao being busy handling the Avatar, I have decided that you should be the one for this task. I trust your abilities more than any other person, general or otherwise, I know."
She tried to hide her smile at the outright praise she was getting, and only achieved partly. Her lips went up slightly, but thankfully her emotionless disposition wasn't compromised, since Ozai couldn't see.
"That is why I ask you to go seek out your brother. I want you to observe him on his ship. Travel with him, and if you find any signs that he is a traitor, contact me immediately. After sending the letter, I give you the right to kill him."
Her initial shock was then replaced with another layer of shock. Her father gave her permission to kill her brother. Her older brother, who always had mother's attention. The brother that ignored her out of jealous hatred. The one she did everything in her power to show she was better than him. The thought of killing him had never crossed her mind, but… She looked up at her father for the first time, and saw him smiling at her.
"If you do this task, I will be very please."
That did it. She would kill her brother if she had to. She again bowed down to her father, "I will do as you ask right away."
"Very good Azula. Do not fail me."
Five days had passed since Zuko had been in the Fire Temple. The blockade again allowed him to pass back into the waters of the Earth Kingdom, which he was again very thankful for. He hadn't known whether he would be stopped, and the feeling of being free again was unlike anything else he had felt before.
He walked down the hall of his ship to his room, and let out a sigh as he opened the door, "Katara?"
She was sitting upward, the pain of doing so was now just a stinging sensation she could ignore now. She was leaning against the metal wall of the ship, her back would have been cold if not for Iroh's robe she was wearing. The oversized garment was very warm, and very soft. She was looking straight ahead, very bored as she looked over to him, "Hi." She replied flatly.
"We're docking soon."
"Where?"
"You probably won't like the name very much."
She shrugged, "I don't like a lot of things."
"It's called the Seedy Merchants Pier."
She paused at that, "Where we met the pirates?"
"What?"
"Yeah, I kinda remember." She said, "We met some pirates there and they had a scroll I stole from them. You were there. Remember?"
"When I stole your necklace?"
"Yeah!" She said, "You know, you got way too close to me back then. If people didn't know that we were against each other, they might have gotten the wrong idea. Actually you know-"
"Anyway," He said, bringing the girl back on track, "That's where we're stopping."
"Why?"
"Because my ship is running low on supplies, and uncle says he needs to mail some very important letters to his friends - letters involving the war."
She nodded in understanding at that, "Oh, ok."
"I just thought you should know." Zuko said, before turning to leave, "You just stay in here. We'll buy you something to read so you won't be as bored."
"No!" She said, standing, "I have had enough of this room. No offense Zuko, but spending all my time brooding about things isn't how I am! I want to go out to the town with you guys!"
"You're my prisoner, what do you think my crew would think." He said, trying to rationalize things.
"Please Zuko," She said, lowering her voice quite a bit, "I need to get out of here for a little bit. You can come up with something, right?"
He looked into her eyes before turning away and groaning, "Maybe."
She cheered, "Do you guys have something I can wear besides this?"
"We don't have many fourteen year old girls on this ship if you hadn't noticed."
"A simple no would've sufficed Zuko."
"I don't roll like that."
She blinked at that, "You've been hanging around Sokka way too much."
He shrugged, but had a smile on his face, "Come on, we can buy you some new clothes in town. Since your others were destroyed."
"Thank you." She said earnestly, "For everything."
"You're a good friend." He said simply.
He turned to walk out of the room, but before he even had a chance to get far she hugged him tightly, "You always try to simplify things. Of course you helped me because I'm your friend! I love you too." She said parting from him.
He smiled at that, "Come on."
"Help me walk." She said, and he put her arm around his shoulder. Though it had been eight days since she woke up, walking still hurt her after a while, and she still needed support for it. The two week old burn would was healing nicely, and she was able to do everything by herself again.
The two walked down the hall, the crew giving her an odd glance every once in a while, but they looked away when they saw Zuko walking with her.
As they walked down the halls, Zuko's thoughts wandered to Katara, and how she had changed so much in the past week. Before she was hurt, she wasn't nearly as… innocent, he should say, as she was now. She acted a lot more like a child now than she did before, basically she acted her bodies age. She still knew everything from the future, and still talked about it, the invasion, and everything with the utmost importance, but it was now layered with a new, more innocent girl.
He couldn't explain it, and he didn't know if he liked it very much. His uncle had tried to tell him about it, about how her merge was more with her child, whereas he was more with his adult side, but even then, he couldn't understand why she would chose to go the child route again if given the choice. Zuko acted more like a child now than he did before, but she was a lot different than he was after the merge.
However, to see that child-like innocence again in her, when she lost it so long ago was a nice feeling. He still remembered Aang trying to comfort her as she was uncontrollable sobbing when she had first killed someone to protect another. That was the moment her innocence was truly lost, and after that moment she was never the same. No one should have to go through that at the age of sixteen.
To see it resurface now though, he felt happy. Being around her brought a certain happiness that he had not felt in ages. He liked it when she constantly threatened him when she had to change, or when she told him to help her braid her hair, or when she talked about the future as if another person was there during it instead of her. It was refreshing, and he was truly happy for her.
However, that was what concerned him. He didn't like it very much because he knew that this Katara would have to reface those hardships over again if they had to occur. It wasn't exactly a good thing she was so distant from the future events. Whereas she could talk about it as if she wasn't there at all, Zuko remembered every detail. Every death was still finely woven into his mind. He was practically immune to all of it now, and that made him a powerful person in his own right.
He would have lost a lot because of his choice to merge more with his older self, but really, he had lost his innocence a lot earlier than any child had to. Thinking about to his father, his hand unconsciously reached up to his scar. He hated his father. He was sure not to let that be his drive for Firebending, but at times, it was very tempting. He knew it was Aang's destiny to fight his father though, so he just had to focus on the other tasks at hand.
His mind found itself wandering back to Katara, and he looked over to her. She glanced back at him, "Do you need something?" She asked.
"Just thinking."
"What a surprise." She said with a smile, causing him to smile as well.
I wonder how Aang will react to her. With that final though, the two were off the ship, and heading into the town.
"Uncle went with several other crewmen to gather the supplies. We'll be staying the night here, so take your time with finding something. Can you handle to walk with me not helping you?"
She nodded, "I think so."
He let go of her gently, keep his arms within reach of her should she fall, but none of that happened.
"Good." Zuko said.
"It feels so nice to be outside again!" She said, spinning around.
Zuko rolled his eyes at the dramatic display, "Come on, let's go buy you some new clothes."
The town they chose to shop in wasn't exactly that great, and there were a lot of shady vendors all around. However, it was still day, so they had nothing to fear. The place was also occupied by the Fire Nation, so they could ironically depend on the Fire Nation guards to defend them if something did happen.
"You might want to hide that necklace." Zuko said as a small patrol of Fire Nation men walked by, "You don't want to attract their attention to it."
She nodded, and raised her robe up higher to hide it completely.
They eventually found a shop to go in that had a lot of premade clothes ready. They started out by measuring her size, with her telling Zuko very sternly to look away, which he did. When the robe came off, the person measuring let out a gasp as she saw the burns and the scar that had formed on her abdomen; however, she quickly composed herself and went straight back to work.
It took almost an hour, and by that time Zuko was on the street sitting down, letting the sun in the sky beat down on him. He was very relaxed, and was beginning to doze off.
"Zuko! Water Tribe to Zuko! Are you there?"
He shook his head and looked up, "What?"
"Do you like my new clothes?"
"You got red." He said, "Not that I mind, but I figured you'd get blue."
"You look so nice Katara!" She said mimicking Zuko's voice, "Thanks Zuko."
"You're welcome." He said flatly.
She rolled her eyes, "They didn't have blue. It was either red or black. Something due to it being the Fire Nation's national colors or something, I wasn't listening by then. So it was basically asking me to choose my poison. I went with red because it was marginally brighter than black."
Zuko raised an eyebrow, "Choose your own poison? They're clothes. What difference does the color make?"
"You'd never understand." She decided to say after a very tense moment, "Now come on, there has to be other things we can do before it gets dark."
They began to walk through the streets, and Zuko finally did examine her new outfit. He had to admit she at least look pretty in it. Of course her Hair style with the braid and Hair loops, and the necklace kind of contrasted with it all, but overall she looked good. It was very similar to the clothes she wore when they went around in the Fire Nation, except the midriff was covered, understandably. He remembered seeing her in it a few times, after the failed attempt to kill the Fire Lord and they were running…
He shook his head, don't think about that. He told himself.
He was following behind Katara when she suddenly stopped and he almost ran into her.
"What are you doing?" He asked.
"We need to get this." She showed him a small whistle that was shaped like a bison off of a vendor's cart.
"Aang whistle." Zuko muttered, "You mean he bought that?"
"Yeah," She said, "Can I have a copper piece?"
Zuko reached into his pocket to get the money and handed her the coin. She bought it and immediately pocketed it, as if she thought someone would steal it.
"No one is going to want that." Zuko said, "It's a piece of crap as far as they're concerned."
She thought about it for a moment before shrugging, "Can never be too careful."
"I guess not." He conceded.
A little while later they arrived back on the ship, and saw a bunch of supplies littering the top of it, occasionally a crewman would come up and bring it down into the storage room. It went on like this for a little while, before Iroh walked up to Zuko, "I mailed those letters. We should be relieving some very interesting replies in the next few weeks."
"Good." Zuko said.
"You look stunning," Iroh said to Katara, "The Avatar is lucky to have you by his side."
"Thank you." She said, hugging the old man.
"Zuko!" One of the crew ran over shouting, interrupting the party that was going on, "There's another ship coming out in the distance!"
"So? Boats come here all the time."
"Not ones like this." He handed the telescope he was using to Zuko, and he looked out across the sea and out to the distance. Seconds later, the telescope dropped, and shattered. However, that wasn't a concern of Zuko's at the moment.
"Who is it?" Katara asked worriedly.
"It's a royal flagship." Zuko mumbled feeling numb, "And Azula is on it."
Katara could feel her insides freeze at the mention of that name, and even Iroh tensed up. The rest of the crew felt the tension, and knew it was something really bad.
"Uncle, take Katara and put her in my room for now, we don't need Azula to complicate things with her further. Men! Clear up the deck as fast as possible!" Everyone did his orders as fast as they possibly could, Katara glanced one more time back at Zuko before she allowed Iroh to herd her back inside. Zuko was just looking out in the distance, his heart beating like mad, and his mind tried to compose itself.
Azula always lies. He reminded himself.
In the future, Azula had become the most effective tool in the Fire Nation's arsenal. She had taken out the Avatar's group wherever they had gone, and was the most deadly person Zuko had ever met. She took over the position of Fire Lord, due to Ozai being called Phoenix King, and she ruled the Nation with an iron fist. Anything negative against her was met with swift retribution, and the people who were willing to talk against her rule were slowly quieted over the years, until it was just their own group.
She was driven to near insanity in her quest to kill them all, and she nearly succeeded quite a few times as well. She was the reason Mai and Ty Lee had died. She sent those assassins, and they knew their groups weaknesses by heart, and used that to their advantage. He felt an old hatred burning inside of him, and he glared at the ship as it began to draw nearer and nearer, ignoring everything else around him now.
It was slowly approaching, he didn't know if it were a mind game that Azula liked to play so much, or if the flagship was always that slow, but it was getting to him. His nails dug into his skin, and his breath began to pick up.
"Calm yourself Prince Zuko." Iroh said gripping his shoulder, knowing him out of his darkening thoughts. A lot of time must have passed if his uncle was back all ready.
"Thank you uncle." He whispered back.
For almost an hour the two stood there as the Flagship neared, and once it did, it was massive. Zuko's ship was but a mere fly compared to the magnificent ship that had come. Soon a ramp was lowered, and landed with a loud thud on Zuko's ship. Azula slowly walked down the ramp, several large men behind her.
She reached Zuko's ship, and the ramp lifted behind her, leaving only her and the four royal guards that had escorted her. She looked to Zuko, and then over to Iroh, doing it several times before she let out a sigh, "No greetings? I didn't think your manners would degrade so quickly."
"What are you doing here."
"Always to the point Zuzu," She sighed, "You've been bad, so father has appointed me to watch over you in whatever you do. I will be watching your every movement, so you've better not screw up."
The intense look in her eyes Zuko recognized easily from when she was trying to hunt him down in the future, she thinks I'm some kind of animal to be cruelly tortured. She'll have another thing coming if that's the case.
"Welcome to my ship." Zuko said, "You can pick any room you want. Make yourself at home." He turned around and walked away, not giving Azula any more time to play any mind games.
"I will Zuko!" She called to his retreating form, "This place will be exactly like home to me!"
Not knowing what she meant by that, and not willing to learn, Zuko wandered into his ship and shut the metal door right behind him.
Chapter eleven – End
A/N - I thought long and hard if I should cut out the part where Katara says she loved Zuko, because I was so sure a lot of people would take it the wrong way, but in the end I kept it in there. I tell my friends I love them all the time, and they know what I mean. So if you did take it the wrong way, it doesn't mean she loves him in THAT way, just as a really good friend.