CHAPTER RATING: M (Language, Sexually Suggestive Situations)
A/N:
Chapter 25: A Long-Awaited Return
A few days later...
"We can't find him anywhere!" Azula's fist struck the table and rattled the metallic walls of the small room. "How do we even know for sure that he was heading to Feixing?!"
"Where else could he have gone?" Katara sat in a chair across from her. "You don't think he'll actually go off alone and fight the Firelord, do you?"
"I'm telling you guys, he told me he was headed to Feixing." Toph stepped through the doorway. "His biggest wish was that you two not follow him. I can't imagine how he's going to feel when you actually show up." Toph could feel Azula's dreadful gaze, even without her sight. "What?"
"How do we know that we can even trust you?" Azula spat. "If his main concern was to keep us away, then why would you lead us to him?!"
"You think I'm lying?!" Toph shouted back.
"I'm not saying that...All I'm saying is that you aren't exactly the best lie detector out there."
"What?! Shut your mouth Sugar Tits! How do we know that you aren't leading us into some trap?! How do we even know you've 'changed,' huh?" Toph rambled on. "Seeing as how good of a liar you are, I wouldn't be surprised if you were leading us to dear old Daddy right now!" The walls were creaking with her rage. "You're probably just going to hold us hostage to lure Aang to the Firelord!"
"How DARE you." Azula's voice trembled and cracked simultaneously. "You have no idea the hatred I harbor for my father because of what he did to my family! This is my ship, and you'd be wise to watch your tongue, unless you want it cut out!"
"Watch?! I can't see shit!" Toph waved her hand over her opaque eyes. She could feel Azula ball up her fist. "You wanna go?! I'll break you like I broke your damn zeppelin!" The walls began to bend with her response.
"You little bitch!" Azula turned to fully face Toph, lightning streaming down her arm.
"Okay! Everyone, calm down!" Katara pulled them apart. "Fighting is not the solution to our problem!"
The two shook their heads, and recovered from the force of Katara's bloodbending.
"You're right..." Azula took in a calming breath. "Guards!" Two bulky men burst through the door. "Take this foul-mouthed, over-privileged, Beifong brat to her cell!"
"Hey! Let me go!" The guards wrapped Toph's arms around he back, and the walls began to scream.
"Toph! Please!" Katara shouted through the creaking. Toph's breaths calmed, and her expression of anger shifted into one of disappointment. Her stance loosened, and her arms slacked.
"Let me go, you goons!" She broke away from their grasp, and snapped the metal cuffs around her wrists in half. "I'll gladly go! There isn't anything interesting to see here anyway!" She turned and waved her hands. The guards flew back, and stuck onto the walls from their armor. "Put your hands on me again, and I'll grind you into jelly!" She let her threat hang, shook her head at Katara, and stomped away.
Katara watched Toph's steps indent into the floor with every footfall, and turned with an uneasy smile towards Azula. A puddle of sweat had formed on the wooden table, with Azula visibly shaken.
"Is something wrong?" Katara rushed over, and sat Azula down onto the chair. "Hey, can you hear me?"
"I don't know what came over me…" Sweat trailed down Azula's temples, and fell into her eyes, trailing down her cheeks like tears. "But, don't worry…I'm…I'm fine." Her eyes closed, her head fell over, and she collapsed onto the cotton cushions.
"Azula!" Katara's voice boomed. "We need help!"
…
Azula opened her eyes, and found herself floating in a black abyss that seemed all too familiar. In this darkness, she stood, or laid, she couldn't tell. But she was present, in this incredible loneliness. This silence. This darkness.
It seemed like forever, but then she heard footsteps. Footsteps that echoed through the emptiness. A crackle of lightning shot up from behind her. Through the darkness, she saw a sinister grin formed by blood-red lips. A grin that she would always recognize.
"You thought you could get rid of me?" Her own voice asked. "You thought that we were different?" Her footsteps grew louder. "No. No, that's not true. We're more alike than you want to believe. Uncle couldn't get rid of me. Because I am you."
"I…I don't want to be you. I hate you. Everyone hates you."
Her smile only grew wider.
"Okay. Fair enough. But you want to make Aang happy, don't you?" A manipulative tone dominated her voice.
Azula slowly nodded.
"And you remember how he felt when I tied him up. When I teased him. When he tried to fight, but gave in."
Azula slowly nodded.
"You can feel it. You can feel it in your blood, when your body burns, when your skin gets hot. When the tension builds, and all you want is a release that only he can provide." She walked around Azula, her voice dragging along with every step. "That passion. That aggression. That power. That control."
Azula's head dropped. Her mirror image picked her up by the chin, and brought her eyes to her own. "You loved it. I loved it...But most importantly..." She leaned in closer, her breath falling on Azula's ear, just as it had when Aang was first captured. "He loved every single second of it." Another grin stretched across her lips. "Set me free, and we'll make him happy."
A Lifetime passed. And Azula answered.
"On one condition." She breathed out. "You only come out when I let you."
With a lightning-coated hand, glowing amber eyes, and a scarlet-stained grin, she placed her hand on Azula's shoulder, and faded away.
…
Katara held her hands at Azula's temples, the brilliant sapphire coated the faded scars, trying her best to heal them. Surprise struck her when Azula's eyes opened. She withdrew from the healing, and returned the water into a small basin.
"How are you feeling?"
"I'm fine. I was just…exhausted and overworked." Azula sat up and shook her head.
"Are you sure? Nothing else happened?"
"…No." Katara noticed the pause that Azula took, but didn't press the issue. "We just need to continue on our search."
A crash interrupted them. Another man stumbled through the door in an panic. He regained his footing, and saluted.
"Princess. We have something that we believe you need to see. Now." He stepped aside, and gestured them through the door. "Please, to the bridge."
Katara and Azula looked at each other, nodded, and walked out.
What they saw from the windows of the bridge panicked them. A zeppelin patrol dotted the horizon, black Fire Nation emblems emblazoned upon them. This could only mean one thing: The Firelord was aware of the remaining Air Nomads, and came to wipe away the last speck of life from the Airbenders.
"What are your orders?" A guard asked.
"We will follow them." She pointed to Katara while still addressing the guards. "Tell everyone that NO ONE is to touch or harm Katara or her friends! Slow our descent, and merge with the other zeppelins! Do not give away our position. Tell everyone to gather on the assembly floor."
"Yes, Princess!" He scrambled out of the room.
"Katara." Azula turned to her. "Go tell your friends to meet me there too. We have work to do."
Katara nodded, and ran out the door to where the 'cells' were.
…
"What a pile of Badgermole shit!" Toph shouted to herself while lying in her comfortable 'cell' that resembled more of a lofty hotel room. "How could she side with Azula? Over me?"
A few footsteps rattled the metal floor, and the door creaked open.
"Toph?" Katara's soft voice entered. Toph didn't answer, but turned away from Katara. "Don't be like that, I've got some good news." Katara couldn't see Toph's expression, but could feel her regret and disappointment. "At least hear me out, we've got this plan that we need to follow, and-"
"Did Sugar Tits come up with this plan?"
"I...Yes. She did."
"And you trust her? Even after what I told you?" Toph turned, sat up, and faced Katara. "You trust her more than you trust me?" Katara seemed surprised at the question.
"That's not how it is." She replied in a quiet voice.
"Then how is it?" Toph countered. Her arms folded across her chest.
"Well..." Katara took in a desperate breath. "Think about it. Aang's gone. Appa's gone. How else are we going to find him? Azula is the only person who has transportation as effective as Appa. We can't afford to be on her bad side."
"Do you really believe that she's changed?"
"There's something different about her. I can sense it."
Toph could feel the truth in Katara's words. But decided on pushing her a little further, to squeeze out the last drip of truth.
"Uh huh. So you're saying that we're only here because we have no other choice."
One second of silence.
Two seconds of silence.
There seconds of-
"Yes." Toph was taken aback with Katara's answer. "But that's not all."
"What else is there?" Tough leaned in closer.
"I can't let her get to him first." Katara's voice shrunk as she continued. "If I don't get to him first...I might lose him."
"So, were just using Azula, right?"
"...I guess you can put it that way." Katara shrugged.
"Good to hear." Toph sighed. "Glad to see that you haven't been brainwashed...Now then, what's up?"
"The Firelord is attacking Feixing. We're going undercover."
Toph nodded
"But one more question," Toph raised her hand. "How many Fire Nation zeppelins are made out of metal?" Toph opened her palm, and let a square of sheet metal hover above it.
Katara's grin was wider than ever.
"All of them."
The metal above Toph's hand crumpled into a ball, and shattered into dust.
"Good."
...
Aang's legs were crossed, hands intertwined in his lap as he sat in the white clouds of the Boundless Sky. He remembered what had happened, but could not bring himself to wake up. Whether it was poison of something else didn't matter, he was in the Spirit World, and he missed Katara more than anyone else.
He hoped that he'd see her again, just as he had before. He awaited her return. But something was different. He opened his eyes, and looked to his left.
In a meadow of jade, he sat next to Katara, and the rest of the world faded away. She reached for his hand, her soft skin bringing warmth to his heart.
"I'm sorry for what I did." He whispered. "I wish I had never left." His grip on her hand tightened. "I wish I had taken you with me, I wish I could be with you right now."
"I wish I could be with you too, Aang. I wish that you would've taken me with you. I just want to be with you, I want to stay by your side, through everything, and any-" her voice began to fade away, he turned, and found himself in a dark room on a bed, with azure fire upon long candles.
His body was burning, the blood in his veins, boiling with lust.
"You would rather be with her?" A familiarly playful, and merciless voice entered his ears. "You promised that you'd love both of us." He couldn't move a muscle, and only watched her sexy stride as she placed a heated palm on his bare chest, and pushed him into his back. "Don't you remember how this felt? Don't you want to experience this pleasure again?" Her voice brushed against his ear.
"I..." He stammered, looked down, and saw the stone-carved ground of the Western Air Temple, the sound of the raging waterfall assaulting his ears. His eyes shifted to the long, crimson towel that collapsed onto the floor. He forced his eyes to close, her hands taking him by the wrists, and pushing them up against the cold stone walls.
The chills ran down his spine, but heat seared across his chest as Azula pushed herself against him. Her soft body, pushing him ever closer to the answer that he so desperately didn't want to utter.
"Be honest. I know you enjoyed everything I did to you, whether it was forced or not doesn't matter." She took his hand, and placed it on her hips. His fingertips resting on her spine, began to descend. "You loved what I did to you." She continued to whisper. "You loved how it was different. But you don't love the 'true' Azula. You love how I treated you, because I'm not just some palette swap of your beloved Water Tribe girlfriend. Is that true. Do you love what I do to you?"
"...Yes. I love what you do to me."
"My little Avatar." Her long, sharp nail ran up his chest to his chin, and brought her lips to his. "I'm back, and you're mine. All...Mine." Her sexy, sinister smile was burned into his mind.
He gasped for air, and felt his lungs closing with every breath. His arms hung in chains at his sides, his head hanging low as his lungs wheezed in pain.
"Ease your breathing." He heard a voice. "The air is thin." Aang did as he was told, taking in air through his nostrils, and breathing them out through his mouth.
"Who are you?! Why did you kidnap me?!" His voice rose, and his breath faded. Again, he gasped for air.
"Calm yourself, the thin air can cause hallucinations if you are not careful."
Hallucinations? He took deep breaths again, eased his body, and fell to his knees.
"Why am I here?" He looked up, and saw hooded figures before him. He stood in a wooden room, with air so thin, that he could neither firebend nor waterbend.
"Why are you here? You wear the tattoos of the long dead Air Nomads." The hooded woman lifted Aang's robe, revealing the tattoos on his arm. He didn't answer right away. Afraid of what could happen if he told the truth. "Well...?"
He froze.
Are they going to kill me? Are they going to keep me here as a prisoner? What should I do?
Then time froze, and before him, he saw a familiar robe. His eyes shifted up the fabric to see the face of Avatar Yabgchen. She said nothing, and just nodded. He nodded, and closed his eyes.
The brilliance of the Avatar State shined through his eyelids, and across his tattoos. The bonds that held him shattered. He floated in the air as the power of the aura engulfed him, then set him down into the floor.
When his eyes finally opened, he saw men and women bowing before him.
"We have waited for your return, for a very long time...Avatar Aang."
The men and women lifted their hoods, revealing a light blue arrow, strewn across their foreheads.
"We have waited...For so long."
PUBLISHED ON: 12/04/2014
A/N:
Big delay because I was stuck in the hospital with a viral Bronchitis infection. Nasty stuff.
On another note: Toph is, without a doubt my favorite character to write dialogue for. With how brash I imagine her to be, I can actually channel my own voice into her dialogue.
Thanks for reading!