"So…this is it, huh?" said Aang. The five of them were standing atop one of their submarines as they stopped to refill their air supply.
"Are you ready for the Fire Nation to know the Avatar's alive?" said Sokka raising a fist.
Aang looked at them with determination in his eyes. "I'm ready." He said.
"I hope you kick some serious Fire Nation butt, Twinkletoes." said Toph as they all moved in for a group hug.
"You can do this, Aang." said Zoe strongly.
"I know." He replied, then looked at Zoe, "I'm glad you became apart of our group, Zoe. Part of our family."
Zoe smiled, a trickle of warmth flowing through her. "Me too." She said fondly and they all hugged once more. Zoe couldn't believe what an emotional and huggy group they were.
Aang and Katara were staring at each other, and Zoe could tell they wanted to say good bye alone. She led the way back into the submarine, Toph and Sokka following sensibly.
Zoe couldn't believe how fast the tide of battle could turn. From winning to running in defeat. They knew. They knew about the eclipse and the Fire Lord had hidden like a coward in Zoe's opinion. She had gone with Sokka, Toph and Aang to find him, but all they found was Azula.
And she thoroughly regretted going.
The memories of her taunts were still fresh in Zoe's mind.
"Oh… Zoe, wasn't it?" chimed Azula evilly, "Do you know Mae? She's Zuko's girlfriend, they'll probably be engaged soon…he moved on from you as fast as lightening. But, then, that's not so surprising, as why would anyone care for you?"
Zoe scowled and stomped on, she didn't care. Not one bit. Why should she care that Zuko had a new girlfriend? She was never going to see him again, and anyway; she hated him. Yet still, she had to swallow down the sickening jealousy, and the angry tears that threatened to overwhelm her.
So after a horribly tormenting and disastrous day… here they were, tired, sore and humiliated, walking all the way to the western air temple. Appa got tired carrying so many people; though not as many as they would have wished to be with them.
They had to leave all of the other soldiers and escape on Appa as the Fire Nation had swarmed in all over them, destroying their submarines. So it was Zoe, Katara, Sokka, Toph, Aang, Teo, The Duke and Haru who had made their way to safety.
"I miss Pipsqueak…" The Duke was saying sadly.
"I miss not having blisters on my feet…" complained Sokka.
"Sokka," scolded Zoe, "you're an amazing warrior out in battle, but when you come off you complain of blisters?" she tutted softly.
"Hey, blisters are very torturous!" he defended and Zoe shook her head, bemused.
"Hey!" cried Toph suddenly, "we're here! I can feel it!"
Everyone looked around into the open space. "Ahh…" said Katara, "I think your feet need their eyes checked."
"No." said Aang. "She's right! We are here!"
Zoe walked over to the cliff face and looked down. She shrugged then opened her new glider and jumped on. "She you guys down there!" she said gleefully hopping on.
Zoe sighed happily, the feel of the wind through her hair making her forget that days defeat. She flew around in awe of the amazing caverns and upside down towers that came to view. This place was stunning!
Below, Zuko looked up to the sky where he saw something that made his heart jump to his throat. A woman with golden hair, red clothes and a white glider was flying above him. He backtracked quickly under cover as the Avatar's bison came into view too with a roar.
His heart thumping he stood behind a pillar, breathing heavily. This was going to be harder than he thought.
Zoe landed next to her friends as Haru, The Duke and Teo ran off to search for hidden rooms. Teo asked her if she wanted to come, but she declined. Aang tried to run off with them, but Katara held him back.
"You guys go." She said to them, "I think we need to talk about some things."
Zoe looked at Katara hesitantly; was she included in this 'talk'?
"Is there even a question to be asked, Zoe?" she asked with a raised eyebrow and a small smile. Zoe grinned, relieved and walked over to sit with them.
"So…what's the new plan?" asked Aang and Zoe noticed he seemed to be a little…flustered?
"Well…" said Sokka, "if you ask me; the new plan, is the old plan! You just need to master all four elements and confront the Fire Lord before the comet comes!"
"Cause that's gonna be so easy…" mumbled Zoe, but as she said it an unwanted image of Zuko appeared in her mind of him teaching Aang firebending. She shook it away angrily, but still couldn't help wondering where he had been today…during the eclipse.
"Oh yeah, that's great…" said Aang sarcastically, "No problem, I'll just do that…"
"Aang, no one said it's going to be easy." Soothed Katara and Zoe noticed she had a slightly hardened edge to her tone.
"Well it's not even going to be possible!" cried Aang not looking at her, "Where am I supposed to get a fire bending teacher?"
Katara thought for a moment then said, "We could look for Jeong Jeong!"
"Yeah…right." said Aang, nearly rolling his eyes. He lay back, "like we'll ever run into Jeong Jeong again."
"Who's..?" started Toph, "Oh never mind, if it's important I'll find out."
Zoe giggled; it was true.
"Oh well!" said Aang quickly jumping up. "I guess we can't come up with anybody! Why don't we just take a nice tour around the temple?" And he ran off, jumping onto his glider and flying off.
"What's up with him?" asked Zoe with a raised eyebrow.
"There's got to be someone who can teach him fire bending…" sighed Sokka, hand on his chin and thinking.
Zoe growled in annoyance when Zuko flew into her head once more and her stomach flipped.
"What's wrong?" asked Katara when Zoe clutched her head.
"What?" She snapped, "oh…nothing, just a head ache."
Katara sighed, "come on, let's go get him." And she got up and walked over to get on Appa. Zoe just picked up her glider once more and jumped on.
They flew after him and Katara called out in a very clear voice to him.
"What?" he said, and Zoe who was beside him knew he had heard. "The wind is too loud in my ears!" he called and Zoe scoffed.
"Oh, it is not." She said doing a loop around him. "Come down and stop avoiding us!"
"Cool loop!" he said ignoring what Zoe had been saying, "But, check out this loop!"
He stuck his tongue out and flew in a large circle over her head. It was pretty cool.
"Aang!" cried Sokka, "I think we should be making some plans about our future!"
"OK!" said Aang, apparently not deaf anymore. "We can do that while I show you the giant Pai Sho table!" and they landed, all four of them glaring at Aang in bemused annoyance. "Oh, you're gonna love the all day echo chamber!"
"I think that will have to wait." Said Toph firmly, throwing a worried glance in Zoe's direction. Appa moved from behind them and she point behind her back.
And Zoe froze, many simultaneous emotions colliding inside of her. Disbelief, anger, relief, fear, hurt, love, shock, confusion….
Why, why now? Just when that hole inside her was starting to fill itself again. Just when things seemed like they might be OK. Anger and hurt boiled up inside her, but she couldn't move. She could only stare at the boy that had just arrived.
"Hello…" he said, he didn't seem like he had realised Zoe was there yet, either that or he was ignoring her. Zoe didn't understand what he was doing; why wasn't he attacking them? "Zuko here."
This sparked the flare on Zoe's bottled up fury. She walked slowly to stand in front of her friends defensively who had still not spoken and Zuko's eyes widened in…what seemed to be fear and joy at the same time.
"Zoe…" he whispered. He had never seen her look so beautiful, yet so terrifying. She had changed since he saw her last. Her hair was longer and a little tamer (a very little), her curves were fully defined now and she looked more like a woman than a teenager. Something else had changed in her attitude, although perhaps that was because of the absolute icy look of death that she was now giving him. He had never seen her eyes so cold.
"Why-" Her voice cracked and she closed her eyes, looking away, steadying herself. "What are you doing here?" she hissed, her voice tight. She refused to cry, she would not let Zuko have that satisfaction. She would never let him know the pain he caused her.
There was silence; no one sure what to say and Zuko was still staring at Zoe. He wanted to tell her how sorry he was, but he didn't seem able to get the words out. The other very irrational part of him wanted to hug her, to kiss her, but he knew he would never be able to do such a thing again. Pain and regret stabbed his heart once more. Why, why was he such an idiot?
Suddenly, everyone was spared of the never-ending silence by Appa, who had just trotted over to Zuko, roared and given him a massive lick. Twice. Zuko wiped the saliva off his face and looked to them all; trying to calm his beating heart and trying to remember that he was trying to convince these guys, all of them, that he wanted to join their group.
"I know…I know you must be surprised to see me here-" he started, trying not to look at Zoe, but Sokka interrupted.
"Not really," he said stepping forward and placing a hand on Zoe's shoulder. "Seen as you've followed us all over the world." Zuko glared at the hand intruding Zoe's body, irrational irritation growing at the gesture. He tried to swallow it down.
"Right…" he said bashfully and Zoe felt her heart warm, she felt sorry for him, wanted to hug him. She nearly screamed in aggravation at herself; she wanted to be furious with him! Punch every bit of him she could reach! "Well uh…anyway." He was saying. He looked down and closed his eyes and Zoe realised how different he was from the last time she saw him. How much he had changed. There was a new sense of wisdom and maturity about him. "What I wanted to tell you….about, is that I've changed." He looked up; his eyes locking with Zoe's and his golden irises nearly burning her, a look of desperation within them. Hot tears welled up behind her eyes and she felt the pain building up inside her chest like she would explode at any minute, why must he do this to her? "And I ahh…I'm good now and…well, I think I should join your group, Oh! And I can firebending…to you." No one spoke, Zoe had her eyes squeezed shut, she couldn't look at him. "See…I, ah…"
"Zuko…" moaned Zoe under her breath and Zuko caught her gaze, his eyes begging her to forgive him.
"You want to what now?" said Toph bewildered.
"You can't possibly think that any of us would trust you, can you?" demanded Katara, and Zoe felt a trickle of annoyance at her words. "I mean how stupid do you think we are?"
"Yeah, all you've ever done is try to hunt us down and capture Aang!" added in Sokka, his hand tightening on Zoe's shoulder.
"I've done some good things!" Defended Zuko, "I mean I could have stolen your bison in Ba Sing Se, but I set him free; that's something!"
Appa licked him once more and Zoe had a most bizarre urge to giggle. The conflicting emotions within her threatened to make her sick as they tossed her mind around; dizzying confusion overwhelming her.
"Appa does seem to like him." Said Toph surprised.
"He probably just covered himself in honey or something." Said Sokka immediately, "so that Appa would lick him; I'm not buying it."
"Actually…" said Zoe, not looking at Zuko; she was struggling to get words of her constricted throat as it was. "It's true…I was there."
"You're actually going to defend him?" hissed Katara from behind her.
"No!" snapped Zoe angrily, her voice echoing. "I'm just putting the truth out there."
"Whatever, it doesn't matter." Katara responded icily. "There's no way that changes anything."
"I can understand why you wouldn't trust me." He said with his eyes down. "And I know I've made some mistakes in the past-"
"Like when you attacked our village?" Sokka interrupted accusingly.
"Or when you stole my mothers necklace and used it to track us down and capture us?" Snarled Katara rakishly.
And image of Zuko with a blue watertribe necklace circling a girl tied to a tree came into Zoe's head and anger, jealousy and sadness threatened to overwhelm her. Then 'Mae', this faceless girl whom Zuko apparently loved swam into her head, and she gritted her teeth, her face transforming into a scowl.
"Look…" said Zuko, "I admit I have done some awful things. I was wrong to try and capture you…" He had a hand on his forehead, holding back his dark locks and his eyes were closed in regret. Zoe felt her scowl melting away, despite her attempts to keep it in place. "And I'm sorry that I attacked the Water Tribe…and I never should have sent that Fire Nation assassin after you; I'm going to try and stop him-"
Zoe's head snapped up, her eyes blazing furiously. So she was right; he was behind combustion man.
"Wait!" Snapped Sokka, interrupting Zuko and pulling out his boomerang, "you sent combustion man after us?"
"Well that's not his name, but-"
"Oh sorry," sneered Sokka, "I didn't mean to insult your friend!"
"He's not my friend!"
"That guy locked me and Katara in jail and tried to blow us all up!" Cried Toph, deciding she needed to add in her own input.
Zuko squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, then looked up to Aang. "Why aren't you saying anything?" He asked, "you once said you thought we could be friends."
Aang didn't reply.
"You know I have good in me." He said, his tone almost pleading.
Aang looked to his friend's determined and angry faces, then back to Zuko, his eyes hard. "There's no way we can trust you after everything you've done. We'll never let you join us."
Zuko's eyes shut, his face scrunching up at the impact of these words. He walked toward them, frustrated, determined, and angry. Sokka pulled Zoe behind him as Zuko came closer and Zuko nearly growled out loud.
"I'm trying to explain that I'm not that person anymore!" He cried, but Sokka, while holding Zoe back determinedly, stepped forward menacingly.
"Either you leave," he snarled, "or we attack!"
"Sokka, let go of my hands!" snapped Zoe, struggling to get out of his grasp. Sokka didn't reply and Zuko glared at him for holding her against her will. He wanted to rip him off her himself. "Sokka!" Zoe's tone was dangerous, with a hint of a threat beneath it. Sokka relinquished his hold. "Thank you." She hissed and spun round to face Zuko straight on. "Before we proceed with the attacking…" her forehead furrowed, her eyes as sharp and cold as ice and she stalked toward Zuko slowly.
"Zoe, I know I've made some stupid decisions, but ple-" Zuko started, holding his ground as Zoe menacingly stepped closer to him
"Stupid decisions?" repeated Zoe, in barely over a whisper, her tone maddened, "is that what you call Ba Sing Se?" She demanded.
"I'm sorry." Zuko looked down, ashamed and regretful. His eyes burned and he found it hard to swallow. "I'm so…sorry." He choked out and Zoe was more surprised than she had ever been by the pain in his voice.
She growled furiously, dropping the hand she had raised to hit him. She was trying to cover her sadness with anger, but it wasn't working; even with her eyes tightly shut the hot tears squeezed through the edges; pain crushed her chest, her heart. She hated him for making her feel this way and she hated him for making her care.
She raised her hand once more, she wanted to hit him! But, she also never wanted to hurt him. She glared at her hand that refused to move, tears slipping down her face. Zuko had looked up at the sound of her furious growl and he felt his heart wrench in two at the hurt that he knew he had caused on Zoe's face. At the angry, pained tears that streamed down her cheeks. He tried to reach out to her, but her eyes snapped up to him, icy and furious. "Don't touch me!" she hissed so harshly that Zuko nearly felt the words slice through his heart.
Katara moved forward at Zoe's words, glaring at Zuko, her eyes full of anger. "You need to get out of here, now." She snarled with her hand on her waterskin at her waist.
Zuko clenched his fists. "If you won't accept me as a friend, then maybe you'll take me as your prisoner." He got down on his knees pitifully and raised his hands up as if they would tie them.
Zoe looked at him mournfully; another mood change taking her by surprise as she wanted pull him to his feet, hug him and say she'd be his friend. Why'd he have to make everything so difficult!
"No, we won't!" Screeched Katara and she shifted into her bending stance sending a ball of water straight into Zuko, dousing him and knocking him backwards. Zoe felt as if the water had been directed at her; she felt the blow as it hit Zuko, she nearly cried out, nearly ran to help him up. But, she didn't. She turned away, any other words spoken were a blur, and they buzzed together. She didn't care what was said, she wanted out. She wanted to be gone. She should have known her happy little world with the Avatar and his friends couldn't have lasted. She should have known he would always be there, somewhere, and somehow able to always still take her heart.
A/N sorrryyy for the delayed update! Work suddenly decided that I should work every single day at the same time heaps of family is staying at out house...so my niece's won't leave me alone... anyway I hope it's OK ...still more of the reuniony bit's to come =D clearly... anyway thank's heaps for your reviews! Please let me know what you thought of this chappie! :) and now I'm off to bed...