Me: well, here it is people! The closing chapter of this fic. I'm sad to see it go, but theres a sequel so that's good. I'd like to thank all the people who reviewed and story alerted and favorited and all that crap :)) you've been a really good help to me to continue this story so COOKIES FOR YOH ;D
So now, onto the chapter!
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What Was The World Coming To?
Chapter 19
Sour Candy Ending
Zita woke up feeling stressed and….sad. She never thought she'd say this to herself but she'd miss little ol' Willy. But she couldn't worry about him; she had to get down to the courtyard at the palace soon so she wouldn't be late. Azula hates people who are late.
Lately she was really attached to Azula- not the lovesick puppy kind of attached- but the one she usually felt when she was around Nadra and the twins. Heck, maybe even Will.
Through her open door she smelt bacon. She jumped out of bed and ran to the washroom to do her thing. After taking the shortest shower imaginable, she jumped there steps at a time then smoothed her hair over and entered the kitchen coolly. "I guess you went ahead and made bacon as I said so the night before."
Will chuckled, "Yeah, I'm going to work today, I'll escort you to the courtyard." Zita like that offer but she knew Will didn't go to work until lunch. "Naw, it's okay. I'll escort myself." She told him as she picked up some bacon and took a bite.
Will mentally cursed, she knew his schedule which totally sucked so now they couldn't go to the palace together and like just chill.
Will nodded without objection. "It's going to be really quiet without you here." He muttered as he finished cooking the eggs then letting them slide off the pan and onto a plate. Zita looked at him, "Don't get sentimental man. I'll visit every two days if I can, okay?" Will chuckled, "Right, right. I forgot." Zita put an egg on her plate and sticks of bacon, "Truth be told, I'll miss ya' to Will." Will stopped mid chew then swallowed, "You said my name."
Zita froze and shrugged, "Don't get used to it, Fredward." She smirked. The younger boy rolled his eyes, "Figures."
After breakfast, Zita did some more freshening up, changed into her usual Fire Nation clothes and left the house with some hair ruffling.
Zita walked down the same dirt path she took every day through the bustling crowds of people. Strangely she'd never run into a cabbage merchant. She thought about her life back home. That life was like….in the garbage by now. She had a new one now and she actually didn't mind it. Sure she doesn't have her family or her childhood friends, but she could always make more. The good thing about starting over, is that you can forgot about your faults from before, no one would know them and no one could hold them against you. You could completely re-do your life in a whole different place. Of course Zita wasn't going to change herself, but maybe do things different if a similar scenario ever arose.
A breath of relief escaped as she ended up being the first on in the courtyard. Yah….it was nice to have a new life.
OoO
That morning Cindy woke up to the birds outside her window. She didn't mind this since that's how she was woken up when she was at home with her parents. There were always little chirping birds outside her window to help her get up.
Cindy rolled over with her hair splayed all over her pillow, she yawned and rubbed the crust from in between her eyes and lazily swung her legs over the bed. Hey, the birds helped her get up, but she wasn't so enthused about it. Slowly she gained some consciousness and got her upper body off the bed. She cringed at the cold iron beneath her feet and she shuffled her way to the washroom attached to her room.
She pranced in and splashed her face with cold water to wake her up. Cindy sputtered for a bit then looked up at the glass mirror, "Well, todays the day." She said unenthusiastically. Cindy did her thing and took a shower and such and changed into some clothes Yew-Ta gave her before they split ways.
She brushed her wet hair and excited the bathroom then slipped on her sandels before quickly leaving her room to find Zita or someone. Cindy wandered the silent halls with her sandels slapping against the sole of her foot, she didn't see any servants pass by. Perhaps it was their day off? Do servants even HAVE day-offs? She shrugged the topic off and recognized the big door to the dining room.
Cindy approached the door and yanked on the brass handles and open it just a crack- she saw a girl who was about Azulas' age sitting with her hands folded on her lap.
Cindy took a step back then decided to just introduce herself. She slipped through the crack in the door and hesitantly approached the sitting girl. "Hi." She quietly said. The girl jumped and swiftly turned her body to look at her.
She cracked a grin, "Hey! Not to be rude….but who're you?" she said sheepishly. Her hair was mid back length and the tips frayed outwards and flipped. Her bangs were like Mei's straight down covering her forehead and right above her eyebrows. She had an earthbenders tan, probably meaning she had spent a lot of time out in the sun in the Fire Nation or she was from the Earth Kingdom. She wore the tradition garbs of the Fire Nation, which consisted of loose maroon pants with bright red cuffs at her ankles and a matching sash that tied at the side of her waist. Her shirt was a simple long sleeve dark red shirt- the sleeves were puffy but not extremely so, one of the sleeves only went to her elbow then it cuffed around her elbow, and the other went down to her wrist and cuffed. The top of the shirt slid off her shoulders. Her shoes were pointy, just like Azulas. The most intriguing thing about her though was her eyes were violet. Cindy heard of grey eyes for airbenders and brown or green eyes for earthbender and gold ones for firebenders then blue ones for waterbenders but violet? Where was she from?
Cindy bowed her head, "I'm Cindy." The violet hued girl stood and bowed her head, "Charolette. I'm a friend of Princess Azulas, she told me to wait here then when she'd come back, she'll lead me to the courtyard since I'm not so familiar with the palace."
Cindy 'oh'd. A friend of Azulas? She didn't know she had any other friends besides Mei, Ty Lee, Zita and herself. "Well, I'll take you to the courtyard if you want. I think everyones' waiting anyway."
"Really? Well….if you don't mind." She grinned happily. Cindy returned the grin with as much enthusiasm as hers and led her out of the dining room. "So what brings you to the palace?" Cindy began small talk.
"Oh, I'm helping with the whole Avatar situation. I'm a mindbender." (A/N HAPPY ISABEL! ARE YOU FRICKIN' HAPPY, I MADE YOU A MINDBENDER! =-= bastard…) Cindy had to stick her finger in her ear and lean in, "A what?" she never heard of that before. She heard of metalbending and sandbending but not mindbending.
Charolette laughed, "Mindbending. If I've been around people long enough, I'll be able to talk to them through their minds and control them and such- make them see things that aren't there. I tinker with their head is all."
Cindy shivered that sounded slightly scary. She made a mental note not to piss this girl off; she could lay mindworms in her head or something. Charolette laughed loudly, "Did I mention I can read minds if they're close enough too?"
Cindy blushed, embarrassed. "Sorry, I didn't mean that. I mean-" Charolette shook her head, "No, it's okay. It does scare some people. But I won't read your mind on purpose. I've had a lot of time to practise with my ability I can control it now." She smiled. Cindy kindly returned it and they stood in front of a similar door to the last one.
Cindy yanked on the handles, where were these servants when you needed to open a big ass door like this? The door creaked and opened to reveal the courtyard. For those of you guys who don't know what a courtyard is: a courtyard is private open spaces surrounded by walls or buildings and yes the author totally had to look that up on Wiki since she had no frickin' idea what a courtyard was. She simply used the word because it sounded fancy and she figured Ozai would have one.
The two girls walked in to see Mei, Ty Lee, Zita and Azula. Charolette smiled and ran over to Azula, "Oh, I'm sorry I didn't wait." She apologized and engulfed her in a sweet short hug. Azula laughed it off, "It's fine, I had forgotten about you anyway."
Ouch. Cindy found that offensive but Charolette and Azula just like waved it off like they did the war. Ty Lee yanked Charolette from Azula, "It is so nice to see you!" she wrapped her arms around her and hugged. Charolette nodded and returned the comment. Mei and her exchanged mutual awesomeness just by staring and highfiving. Perhaps they were speaking through her mindbending?
Zita stood forward, "I don't think I've met you before. I'm Zita." She grinned. Charlotte returned the grin, "A pleasure. I'm Charolette." She both bowed their heads. Cindy stepped forward and looked at Azula.
Azula caught her gaze, "Alright people, now that we're accounted for and acquainted we'll begin."
The others silenced themselves and listened as the Princess explained every single detail and every single fact about the situation and about their bending powers.
Cindy said goodbye to her old life the moment she heard Azula say her name. No more picking moonpeaches with her mom, no more pointless fights with her dad, no crazy stories with her friends to cover up the truth about ruining that cabbage merchants' cabbages. All of that was thrown out the window. She figured Zita felt the same after seeing her stressed.
She now had a new life. As a comrade and a friend of Princess Azulas. She had her friends- which happened to be the elite team she was going to work with until the Avatar was caught bound and gagged then thrown into a dungeon cell. Then she had Yew-Ta. Good thing to, the thought of him brought her back to sanity.
"Are we ready to train then head out?" Mei asked. The girls exchanged looks and nodded.
Cindy exhaled, this is her new life.
OoO
Will cleaned the table as always and washed the dishes. It made him feel like a housewife doing it for two people now. Oh well. A few minutes ago Zita walked out the door to some Mission Impossible thing. And that was that. She'd visit but it wouldn't be the same funky brother sister relationship they had. Sigh.
He wiped the table down then headed upstairs to his room. He was contemplating on whether to make the bed or not. Ever since Zita lived in his room, the bed has remained un-made. Maybe he should leave it like that so when she comes back, she'll have it all messy already.
Well, now he couldn't sleep in his own bed.
He headed over to his closet which Zita thankfully didn't touch and pulled his armour out. He carried it down to the living room and laid it on the couch with his uniform then decided to take and shower and all that jazz. He ran a hand through his messy hair then decided sooner or later, he would get a haircut.
He sat down on the room that was left on the couch and closed his eyes for a short nap, life was just moving too fast.
OoO
No one really wanted to wake up that morning. Unfortunately, life just hated them. Spade was the first to wake up with Sokka's arm draped around her waist. 'YESSSS!' she squealed in her head then decided to just stay there for a couple more seconds before actually getting up.
"Spade."
Sokka's lips moved and words came out, well technically a ward came out. Which conveniently was her name. Spade froze, "Uh….Good morning Sokka!" she covered her mouth because of morning breath, but she greeted happily.
Sokka cracked open one eye and removed his hand, "Same to you." He yawned and stretched then sat upright, "Todays' the day." He muttered.
Spade sat up too and yawned quietly, "Yah." She said softly, "Gunna suck without Toph and Iroh at my house. Gunna be so boring, I like, live alone." Sokka quirked a brow, "Alone?" Spade nodded, "Yah, if we ever see eachother again I promise to tell the story." She chuckled, "But right now we need to wake the other up and get you guys back to your world." She tried to put as much excitement in her voice but she just wasn't up to it.
They crawled out from underneath the blankets and began shaking everyone to wake up. Sokka went upstairs and woke the twins up to tell them to wake their Iroh up- they thought their parents didn't need to say their goodbys, they said them the night before. And eventually after a lot of grouchy and whiny sleepy protests, everyone was up, dressed had eaten and was ready to be shipped off in a ritual.
"So…." Nadra started awkwardly, "This is it, you guys are leaving." She was truly honestly going to miss them. They had so much fun together and BANG they had to leave so soon. Stupid war. Katara nodded sadly and got teary eyed, "It's been fun." She let out a choked laugh. Sokka rubbed his sisters back and half smiled at Nadra, "I'm still sorry about the way I treated to when we first got here."
Nadra chuckled, oh yah. Those were the days. "It's alright, you had every right to be all…. Sokka-ish about it." He chuckled. Toph stepped forward and Nadra and Spade braced themselves for the strongest 'yellow punch buggee' punch ever. Nadra stumble sideways into Zuko from the punch and Spade into Sokka.
She winced in pain and she let her siblings go, "Holy shit!" Toph laughed, "The harder I punch, the more I care." She shrugged as Spade rubbed her bruising arm. Nadra leaned on Zuko who stiffened up. Once Nadra noticed what she was doing she immediately leaned back and straightened up.
"Let's go outside shall we?" Iroh offered and headed for the backdoor to lessen the awkwardness and tension that the pair had just created.
Zuko chewed on his lip and looked at Nadra who was walking in front of him. Her hair swayed in the breeze and it gave off her strawberry scented shampoo. He had always liked strawberries.
Iroh extended his pointer and he walked in a circle and with fire he marked a circle in the grass of their huge backyard then another smaller one inside then the symbols of each nation then a smaller circle inside with a triangle inside of that. Toph recognized what he was doing since she felt it when she was blind in that clearing before they came here.
Spade began to get very teary eyed. She bit her lip hard to keep the tears at bay. She hadn't cried since the day she found out her parents were gone; she was planning on keeping that record. Iroh clapped his hands, "There." He turned towards the teary girl, "Minya." He smiled warmly and opened his arms.
Spade let the tears flow and hugged him with all the strength and every fibre of her being, "You have to go right?" she let go and wiped her eyes form the tears that blurred her vision.
Iroh sighed softly, "I'm sorry Minya." He apologized with a small smile. Spade laughed slightly, "You were the only one who knew and could pronounce my name."
The group erupted in small chuckles and laughs. Aang turned to Nadra, "I'm guessing you're staying?" he asked quietly. Nadra nodded and put a hand on his shoulder, "You can do anything you set your mind to, you don't need me even if Avatar Roku says so. Don't lose hope." She gave him a bright smile then bent down to his ear, "Protect Katara with all your heart and make sure she doesn't end up falling for Zuko." She whispered quietly. She didn't think anyone heard, she was a very good whisperer. Momo landed on Addi's shoulder then licked her, he then moved to Aiden then Nadra and Spade.
Appa roared then trudged over to the twins; with his tongue he caught both of them in one lick. Addi laughed, "Ewwwww! Appa!" Aiden laughed with her, "Oh God! Appa!" he whined. Katara bended the saliva off of him and onto the floor.
Iroh instructed Appa in the smaller circle and everyone on his saddle. Nadra turned to Spade who was helplessly holding back tears. Nadra couldn't blame her, she felt like crying to. Heck, just looking at her made her eyes water and her nose sting. She sniffed, and wiped the oncoming tears and got an idea. "Wait, Iroh!" her voice cracked but she didn't care.
The gang looked hopeful thinking she changed her mind, the twins just looked neutral. Nadra ran into the circle and yelled up at the saddle, "You guys can't take me, but you can take Spade." She gestured over to the shocked girl.
She pointed to herself, "Me!" she squealed. Nadra nodded and motioned her towards her, "I'm pretty sure Spade can carry her own wait, she'll prove useful, of course." She grinned.
Spade grinned at Iroh who nodded, "If the Avatar cannot take you in, then I will." He offered and helped her up on the bison. "Hey! Who said we didn't want to take her in?" Sokka asked defensively.
The twins laughed from behind and Nadra came out of the circle, "I'll miss you guys." She sniffed as the tears began rolling down her cheeks. 'I don't want you to go….' She looked at Zuko, 'Say something, anything!'
Katara gave her a smile then followed her gaze to Zuko who was at the far corner of the saddle, she smirked, "We'll miss you too."
"Make sure to give the twins a good butt kicking if they do anything wrong for me, okay?" Toph asked with a grin and waved. They waved back enthusiastically.
"We hope to see you again, maybe we'll come crashing through your window again." Aang joked. Nadra laughed, "Maybe you could take the front door next time, okay?"
She looked back at Zuko who had so happened to be staring first. They're cheeks turned a crimson color and they looked away. 'Say something, Zuko!' she pleaded in her head. And when that husky out of tune voice didn't reach her ears she sighed in defeat.
She went back with her twins, "It was really ncie meeting my childhood heroes." Nadra chuckled, "Be good kids, stay away from cactus juice and keep away from Azula." She advised jokingly. The gang chuckled along with Iroh and Zuko let that adorable crooked smile show making Nadra go weak in the knees.
Iroh instructed everyone to relax and release their chi and son a huge blue chi circle engulfed them. They couldn't possibly hear them with that bubble. And that gave Nadra an idea.
Zuko felt so stupid on not saying anything, he should of said 'oh thanks for everything, sorry about burning your feet.' Or something! But he was too chicken too.
He opened his eyes to see the chi bubble, it looked so thick with everyone. Spade stood still looking down at Nadra with a smile, she mouthed the words 'thank you' as she figured she wouldn't be able to hear her if she yelled. Zuko didn't think so either.
Nadra took a step forward and breathed in and out. Zuko could feel the bubble get larger. She made eye contact with him and almost backed out on her crazy ass idea. She didn't though, she would never see this dude again and now she just happened to realize she loved him. She really sucked right now.
Nadra inhaled one last time and belted it out, "Zuko! I love you! I was being a douche when I didn't admit it last night, I thought you didn't like me and I still think you don't, but that's cool too! I'm sorry!" she took a breath, "Don't forget I love you like crazy even though you can't hear me, but that's cool too! Bye!"
Everyone in that chi bubble heard her acclamation. They were almost done with the ritual so no one stopped, but everyone had the slightest smirk on their face since she had no idea that they heard. Zuko almost stopped with his chi, his eyes wide he opened his mouth to reply but the chi bubble expanded and a white light blinded him before he could respond to Nadra.
He was gone.
The group landed in the clearing Toph and Iroh done the ritual to get to the other world. Toph opened her eyes and a world of color greeted her. She jumped off of Appa and looked around excitedly.
Zuko's head whipped around frantically he clutched his hair and he threatened to rip it out when he realized he wasn't back at that grand Californian house, "Are you serious!" he yelled and jumped off the saddle.
"Uncle, take me back!" he demanded. Iroh shook his head, "I'm afraid I can't do that. There are rules to the ritual." Zuko groaned and facepalmed exasperatedly. Spade smirked, "That's why you should've said something last night."
"But she didn't say something either!" he yelled. Katara shook her head, 'That's not how it works, the guy has to confess his feelings for the girl to as well! We are very fragile beings!" she explained.
"Fragile beings? Does that count Toph too?" he asked in all seriousness. Toph came back from her looking and punched him.
Zuko fell back on his butt and he felt something poke his leg, "Wah?" he reached in his pocket and pulled out a sour apple green blow pop. "When did-?"
"Nadra must've snuck it in." Toph concluded as she made a earth stairwell for Iroh and Spade.
"Snuck it in? That's very hard to believe, my nephew is a very light sleeper." Iroh bashed the idea away. "That may be so, but I felt it with my own two feet." Toph retorted.
Zuko twirled the white stick between his fingers as he thought back of how much Nadra just loved sour things. When they were at the beach he was exclusively took him to a candy shop and literally bought one of each sour candy there for him to try. The Sour Green Apple Blow-Pop was his favourite- one being he loved green apple, two being he loved sour and three being he liked lollipops.
He carefully took the wrapped off and stuck it in his mouth.
It was bittersweet.
OoO
Nadra shielded her eyes from the light and when the blinded white light of DOOM was gone, so was the circle that was burned into the ground by Iroh and the gang. Zuko was gone as well.
Nadra frowned, her nose began stinging and her eyes watered. The twins sat on either side of her with pained expressions. Nadra wiped the tears before they could fall and she exhaled slowly, "Hehe, well…they're gone now." She sniffed and trudged back into the kitchen, her siblings trailing behind her.
"Even if he didn't hear, I bet he was too pansy to admit that he feels the same." Aiden reassured. Addi nodded and dug into her pocket, "We got something for you." They sat around the kitchen table.
Nadra raised a brow as Addi put down a sour green apple blow pop lollipop, "We know it's your favourite." She cooed.
Nadra chuckled, "You guys are the best things in my life right now." She grabbed the sucker and ripped the wrapping off and stuck the green loli in her mouth.
She scrunched her face, the loli was so sour, but she liked it. She sighed and pulled the loli out of her mouth and twirled the stick in her fingers as she admired the green sour lollipop. Nadra frowned, Zuko liked sour things.
She frowned, she would kill to see that crooked smile or to hear that out of tune husky voice of his. It's funny; she always realized things much too late then they just slip out of her reach at the last second. She shifted her body to look out the small square window for the kitchen. Nadra put the loli back in her mouth and stood from her seat. Aiden and Addi sat in their seats and watch their older sister, in a daze walk outside into the backyard.
Nadra shuffled her feet to the exact spot of that fateful night where Zuko was half asleep and he burned her feet- can anybody else say de ja vu when they thought of Toph? She sat down slowly and stared at the fence her hands supporting her from behind.
She sighed and remember how it was a full moon- or was it a full moon? She couldn't remember now.
Nadra closed her eyes for a minute and basked in the sunlight as she sucked on her sour lollipop, savouring the taste. She thought of her friends and the events the last could of the days- it was going to be so boring without them.
Nadra opened her eyes and winced at the light change, she fell on her back and shielded her eyes with her hand then pulled the loli out again and examined it.
"It's a sour candy ending."
The End
Me: kinda sad ending , right? Well I was planning that, but I really liked the 'sour candy' Idea I dreamt up one retarded night. So, this is it. It's finished. ANDD it's literally 2:07 in the morning and I have to go to school tomorrow but luckily tomorrow- well today- it starts at like 1 so I can sleep in. ;D
ANYWAY, I'd like to thank everyone whos helped me push forward through this story and finish it ;)) love you guys!
And until the sequel, see yah! ;D