Chapter 10
Escape from Azula
Sokka opened his eyes and saw that he was in a large room. Barred narrow windows against one wall framed the light of the setting sun. He inspected the room further and found a young man, perhaps a few years older than his own sixteen years.
The youth started when he saw that Sokka was awake. He turned abruptly to leave and had placed his hand on the heavy steel door when Sokka called out to him.
"Water. Please."
The youth turned to face him again, a look of confusion on his face. Sokka spoke again. "It's been more than a day. I need water."
The soldier hesitated, before giving Sokka a drink from his own water skin. Sokka thanked him and the soldier left.
Sokka watched the closed door after the man departed. He hadn't really needed water, he could go another day without it before he would be in danger. His thirst hadn't been his motivation, no. He needed them to think he was weak; incapable of resistance or escape.
As he dwelled within the void, he considered the future. The next hours were crucial for the survival of himself and the Avatar. He needed every advantage he could get. Had he not been in this state of complete mastery of the self, he doubted he could so much as form a cohesive thought. In fact, he doubted he could do anything but sit and wallow in self pity.
When he left the void he would surely crumble. Perhaps he would make it a day before he succumbed to his grief for what he had lost. Maybe more, maybe less. He knew that he had only been able to organize his thoughts because the reality of it all had not yet sunk in. When he eventually left the void, it would, and he doubted that he could reach it again. Would he find the strength to carry on, once again shackled by the weight of his emotions?
He knew that he could not stay in the void forever. Eventually he would emerge, willingly or otherwise. He had to find a solution to this problem. He thought back to his last encounter with Laghima. You can remember what you have forgotten and hide what you wish to forget.
Had the man known? He must have understood that the news would unsettle him, that it might even break him, if given the chance. Sokka closed his eyes and visualized the labyrinth of his mind. He searched through tunnel after tunnel, corridor after corridor, until he found the archive of his memory.
He envisioned his memory as a great library. Rooms filled with shelves upon shelves of memories, as clear as the moment that they had been made, stretched across the very length of his life. He opened the first door and went inside.
The memories of the past day were piled neatly inside; the studious workers of his subconscious knew their work well. He picked one up, inspected it, and replaced it on the shelf. It had been the memory of the blushing snake. That was one, he knew, he would want to remember when he left the void. He kept looking, before realizing that all he needed to do was think of the memory and it would appear in his hands.
He took the memory containing the price of his bargain and left the room. He renentered the greater archive of his life and created a chest with a thought. He placed the memory inside and locked the thing tight. He carried the chest to the darkest corner of his memory, laying it beside things he had forgotten before, someplace he would not think to look.
He straightened up once more, looking down at the chest. With the memory locked away, he did not know what it was. He only knew that it had to remain hidden, that he must not look at it. He turned away from it and began his journey out of the crypt of his memory.
The door to Princess Azula's chambers opened. She looked up from the message she had written to her father, seeing the sentry she had stationed in the First Son's cell. She raised an eyebrow at him. The soldier blanched before saluting hastily.
"The prisoner is awake, Princess." He said, staring past her into the wall.
"Has he said anything?" Azula asked, returning to her task. She sealed the message and placed it in the canister upon the back of the messenger hawk. She crossed to her window and sent the hawk away.
"He asked for water. He sounded weak, your highness."
Azula frowned. All he had done was ask for water?
"Is that all?" She asked, looking at the young soldier. The man nodded. Azula rolled her eyes and motioned for him to leave. "You are dismissed. Return to whatever your usual duties are."
Azula leaned back in her chair. It was odd, she thought, that a man would awake to find himself imprisoned and do nothing but ask for a drink. She had expected panic, confusion, even rage. But none of that had come, according to the soldier at least. She rose from her seat and left the room. She headed down the corridor. A left turn, and then a right. She climbed a staircase and turned left again, before coming to the steel door that served as the entrance to the Water Tribesman's cell. Admiral Zhao was waiting for her.
"Good evening, Admiral. Have you spoken with the prisoner yet?" She asked, despite knowing that he had not.
"No, Princess. I believed that you would wish to be present when I questioned him." Zhao replied.
"What, pray tell, do you intend to question him about?" Azula asked. She had come out of curiosity for the boy's behavior. Azula doubted that he would have any useful information for them now that they had captured the avatar.
"The whereabouts of his father, and what plans he might have. Now we have captured one of his children, Hakoda will be easy to manipulate into surrender."
Azula nodded. Her own father, Firelord Ozai, had spoken of the Water Tribe's weakness for family. It was one that Firelord Azulon had crushed out of his line, after his own brother was killed by the previous chief of the southern Water Tribe. Holding one's own family so dear was a weakness that could be exploited, her father had told her. He demonstrated that philosophy when he burned Zuko during their Agni Kai, a lesson that Azula had forced herself to watch. She had put on an air of enjoyment so that none who saw her would report to her father that she had shown weakness, but in truth it was horrifying. Her brother had never been kind to her, but she didn't relish in his suffering. That her father would so readily disfigure his own son, and for such a meaningless offense, had opened her eyes. If she wanted to keep her fathers love then she could never fail him. He was the only family that ever cared for her, after all.
"Shall we, Princess?" Zhao asked, stirring Azula from her thoughts.
"After you, Admiral." She said.
Zhao smiled and opened the door to the cell, stepping inside. Azula followed seconds after. She looked at her prisoner. The boy remained tied, his eyes open as he stared into the near distance. He looked calm, lost in thought as if he was in some Earth Kingdom cliffside chateau overlooking the sea, and not held prisoner in a Fire Nation stronghold.
"So you're awake at last." Zhao said, coming to stand directly in front of him.
"I guess so." The Water Tribe boy said, his voice dry and weak.
"I imagine you're wondering how we captured you." Zhao said, and he turned his back on the boy. When no response came, Zhao turned again and bent over so his face was level with the prisoner's. "No? Well, it hardly matters. We have you and the Avatar. I would have liked to get your sister too, but we can't always get what we want."
Azula watched the boy's eyes. She couldn't get a read on him. There was no emotion, no feeling in them. They gave nothing away, at least they hadn't yet.
"What is your name? It would be nice for us to know when we send word to your father that we've captured you." Azula said. "I could torture it out of you of course, that's always more fun. But it would save time for you to tell us yourself."
"Sokka." The boy said lazily. His eyes had yet to leave Zhao, as if he was searching through him for something she couldn't begin to understand.
"Well then, Sokka," Said Zhao, "I have some questions for you. Where is your father?"
Sokka shrugged. "I can't say, I haven't seen him in years."
Zhao's eyes narrowed. "Surely you must have heard something. I doubt that a Water Tribesman would go years without communicating with his family."
Again Sokka shrugged, unmoved by Zhao's words. Zhao stood up straight. He turned to Azula before speaking again. "Princess Azula, would you care to loosen the boy's tongue?"
Azula tapped her chin, thinking, "Well," She said, before igniting a condensed point of blue flame at the end of her finger. "I could. I am no stranger to burning the truth out of people."
"Liar." Sokka said, still not looking away from Zhao.
Azula looked at Sokka, surprised. It was true, she hadn't resorted to such tactics. She had interrogated prisoners before, of course, but they succumbed to threats long before anything more had been necessary. Azula had been secretly glad of that. It was something that nobody other than herself had known, a secret she guarded closely to grow her reputation. How had the boy known?
Sokka finally dained to look at her. His ocean blue eyes, cold and empty as the light of the stars, met her own. She smirked, knowing that he would break as all others had before. But then something happened, something that she couldn't quite explain. There was something inhuman in those eyes, something as devoid of compassion as the blackness of night. It was like looking down upon the depths of the sea, an abyss that could swallow whole armies never to see the sun again. She felt that she was seeing not a man, but something ruthless and unfeeling as a Crocodile-Shark.
His eyes seemed to expand, and she saw a windswept plain as empty and devoid of life as any she had imagined. It was a cold and dry place inside of this man, as well ordered and maintained as the hull of any warship. To her surprise Azula found that, for the first time since she was small, she was afraid. She was frightened by whatever this person was, for she knew that he would not hesitate to do what he must.
Azula blinked. She fought the urge to run, to get away from whatever this empty thing was. This void in the shape of man. She was Azula, blood of the dragon; firebender of the finest order. She did not shy away from any bender, she did not balk at quick men with clever swords.
But his ocean colored eyes…
She felt in the marrow of her bones that this man was like nothing she had seen before. The emptiness in those eyes, the sheer inhuman apathy, was something that she did not wish to see again.
She remained glued to the spot, staring into those eyes. But then something changed, the emptiness filled, the void blew away. What was left in them was surprise, confusion, and… sorrow?
"It would do no good." Sokka said, breaking the silence. "Even if you did, I couldn't tell you."
Azula nodded. "He speaks the truth. He knows nothing, or at least nothing of use to us. You can remain here if you wish Admiral, but my presence is no longer necessary."
With that, she turned on her heel and left. She retraced her steps to her chambers. Once inside she locked the door.
What was that? Azula wondered, bracing herself against the desk. What on earth had happened? Had she imagined it? He had seemed inhuman, like some spirit in human flesh. But then he had changed, as if coming out of a trance. Was it all in her head?
Azula exhaled slowly, calming herself. She must be mistaken, there was no way that whatever she saw in that cell was real. The boy was a good actor, that must have been it. He had let slip his emotions in the end, hadn't he? He too broke, he too gave way.
Azula couldn't help but wonder if she had broken as well.
As the Azula turned on her heel, Sokka watched her go.
When she, this Princess Azula, had come in with Zhao, he hadn't paid her any attention. Instead he had focused on Zhao. Still wrapped in the absolute clarity of the void, he had opened his third eye. He had been looking through Zhao, searching in vain to find a shred of the man that wasn't corrupted by Sozin's light. He had found none. It wasn't unexpected, but he had searched nonetheless.
Then she spoke about how she had burned the truth out of people. As soon as the words had left her mouth Sokka knew that they had been a lie. How he knew he couldn't quite say; he just knew it like he knew that the sun would rise again. He had looked upon her with his third eye then, and had seen something he had never expected. Her aura, her chi, it wasn't the dark red of Zhao, or the golden fire of Shiyu. No, inside this woman was a blue flame that roiled and snapped like lightning, coursing through her body like summer wind over the sea.
More than that, he had seen inside of her as he had Katara at the fire temple. She was… Afraid. Someone had left her when she was young, abandoned her without a word, and she was left with no one but her father. Sokka could see in her a devotion to the man, an unbreaking need to never fail him. Deep down she was afraid that he too would abandon her, that he would cast her away. More than that, in the time their eyes met, she was afraid of him
He had lost his hold over the void then, and when it left she seemed to relax. As if she had taken him for something other than he was, and when he left the trance of perfect stillness she found that he was human after all. Moments later she had left.
Now that she was gone, he was alone with Zhao. Zhao, who for some reason he did not understand, hated him with the fury of a hurricane.
Zhao watched as the door closed behind Azula. He turned once more to face Sokka and he smiled. It was a vicious thing, the expression a tiger-seal gave a fawn. "You know, the Princess thinks that we're going to use you to negotiate your father's surrender. We're not, at least I'm not. Instead I'm going to wait until your father is right in front of us, and then I'm going to kill you. Him too, if I can manage it."
Sokka tried to speak but found that he could not form words, so great was his dismay.
"Don't bother, you can't talk me out of it." Zhao said, pacing in front of Sokka.
"When I was a boy, younger than you are now, I learned of my fathers death. He was slain by your grandfather, Chief vurak. I swore that I would not rest until I saw your whole family wiped out like the Air Nomads. Hakoda and I have fought many battles, but that snake is far too slippery. Now, however; I have you. The perfect bait to snare the fox. Your sister might still live of course, but rest assured that I have my soldiers scouring the forest for her even now. None of you will escape, and my father will finally get justice."
Zhao made to exit the room, but paused to speak once more. "Do try and escape. I'd love the chance to end you sooner than I plan."
Aang's eyes snapped open. He tried to move but he was restrained, his arms held taught by chains connected to two pillars. He struggled to free himself to no avail. He heard a noise and whipped his head around in any attempt to see what it was.
"Oh! Mai! He's awake!" Said a cheerful girl with a long braid. Aang tried to see who she was talking to, but she was out of sight.
"I managed to puzzle that out myself, Ty Lee." Mai replied, stepping into Aang's line of sight. She was rather gloomy, he thought.
"I'll go find Azula, you can wait here with him." Mai said before leaving the room.
"Where am I? Where is Katara? Where's Sokka?" Aang said, glaring at Ty Lee, who cartwheeled over to him.
"So that's what they're called? Well we have Sokka, that's the boy right? The other one was washed down the river when we captured you."
Aang groaned. How had they been captured? What had happened to Jeong Jeong's people?
"What's your name?" Ty Lee asked, smiling at him. Aang blinked at her for a second. This was a bit silly, she had taken him prisoner and yet she was being friendly and casual, as if the seriousness of the situation was lost on her.
"Aang." He said, looking at her warily.
"I'm Ty Lee. The girl who just left is my friend Mai. She went to find Princess Azula, I think you've met her brother a time or two. Did he really decide to leave the Fire Nation to join you?"
"What? Why would Zuko do that? All he's ever done is try and capture me and my friends." Aang said, perplexed by her question. Ty Lee was about to respond when a new voice spoke.
"So you say my brother is not your ally. Tell me then, why was he seen leaving the fire temple with you?"
Aang craned his neck to see the newcomer. Another girl, dressed in black armor fringed with gold, had come in. She wore a top-knot, with two fang ike bangs framing her face. She looked vaguely familiar; her resemblance to Zuko was faint but undeniable.
"What? He was unconscious. We took him with us because he would've died if we left him there! We tied him up and dropped him on the deck of his ship." Aang said, perplexed. So Zuko wasn't involved in his capture? Then he had a new enemy after him, one with more resources than Zuko.
Azula, Aang assumed that was who she was, only stared at him. Her eyes narrowed, and then she spoke again. "Why would you do that? If he is your enemy, why would you want to take him with you? Why return him to his ship?"
Aang rolled his eyes. "Because he would have died if we left him there. And we couldn't take him with us or leave him in the Fire Nation. Sokka saw his ship from far off, and we gagged him with a sock and threw him aboard. He slid on his face a bit, it was pretty funny actually."
Azula nodded slowly, before speaking again. "Girls, let's go. We'll leave the Avatar to himself until we depart for the capital."
The three of them left without another word, leaving Aang to struggle with his bonds alone.
Appa flew high among the clouds of the night sky. The sun had set an hour ago, and they had begun their rescue mission. Zuko was surprised to find that he liked this Water Tribe girl, if she had been born in the Fire Nation they could've been friends. It was too bad, he thought, that they had to be on opposite sides of this war. He had seen much of it in his years searching the globe for the Avatar. Countless villages, numberless islands, ports, cities, towns. He had been all over the world, both in Fire Nation colonies and Earth Kingdom lands, and everywhere he went he saw the same thing: people hated the Fire Nation.
It was a shame really, that so many couldn't see the Fire Nation for the great civilization that it was. Great grandfather Sozin had started his war to share their greatness with the world, and yet it didn't seem to have worked. Maybe there wasn't a point to the fighting anymore? If the whole world was Fire Nation then who could they share their greatness with?
Zuko shook himself from his thoughts. Katara had said something. "What?"
"I said, are you ready?" Katara repeated, guiding Appa lower and towards the wall of the compound. Zuko grunted his response as they came up alongside the wall. The plan that they had concocted was for Zuko, or 'Lee' as he had called himself, to go in first and cause a distraction. Katara would wait five minutes before entering from the opposite side of the compound while the soldiers were rushing to deal with Zuko's infiltration.
Once they were level with the top of the wall Zuko leapt off of the bison and onto the rampart. He moved like a shadow, staying just out of sight of the sentries. He ran to a corner and climbed down rapidly, before rolling under a wagon. He watched silently as a unit of infantry men marched past in formation, waiting for them to grow fifty paces distant before slipping out of cover. He ran stealthily along the bottom of the wall until he came to a low iron building that was separate from all of the others.
He rounded to the front and broke the padlock on the door with a heel kick, sending sparks door swung open silently on well oiled hinges, revealing the compounds store of blasting jelly and other explosives. Carefully, he removed a small keg of spark powder and poured it in a line from the most volatile of the explosives and out the door. He continued the work quickly once outside, pouring the line a safe distance from the storehouse. He checked to make sure that the building was clear, and lit the spark powder with a pair of spark rocks. He would have used firebending, but he wanted to keep that part of his identity secret.
The powder caught, and Zuko made a mad dash for cover while remaining unseen. He rolled behind some barrels on the other side of the courtyard from the storehouse, and waited. He didn't have to wait long, for mere seconds after he had reached the dubious safety of the barrels the munitions exploded.
Unsurprisingly the walls bent outwards but held in place, though somewhat shredded. The roof however, flew into the sky in a jet of flame and debris. Burning pieces of wood and fabric rained down across the compound, igniting anything that it could. Training dummies, hay, crates, canvas. Everything within a hundred yards was soon aflame.
Soldiers rushed out of the stronghold trying desperately to put out the flames. It was pandemonium; pure chaos ensued. Zuko waited for the stream of personnel flowing from the stronghold to slow before making his way to the stable. He climbed in through a window and began cutting harnesses and tethers with his dao blades. The rhinos were panicking from the explosion and subsequent commotion of the men attempting to stifle the flames. Zuko kicked open the stable doors, stepping to the side as a herd of angry komodo-rhinos burst through the open doorway.
He watched from the shadows as the new element was added into the confusion of the compound. He looked and saw Katara sneak in through a side door, almost unseen. To his dismay, a pair of soldiers followed her. He groaned and chased after. Why was he always stuck with amateurs?
Sokka heard an explosion. He assumed it meant that Katara had begun the rescue plan. Good, he had gotten bored of waiting. Throughout the past few hours, ever since Zhao had left him alone in his cell, Sokka had been rubbing his restraints against a bolt in his steel chair. He had felt the ropes begin to fray, and he hoped that they had been compromised enough that he could break them.
He calmed himself and concentrated on the Face Stealer's shadow coursing through him. He tried to focus it into his arms and shoulders, and he felt the now familiar tugging sensation in his mind. He pulled on the restraints, and they held for a moment before breaking. With his hands free he began to untie the knots that bound his legs and torso to the seat. When he was done he picked up the chair and walked to the door, where he paused and listened. He could hear the sound of two sentries breathing, their breath echoing inside their helms.
Sokka had expected as much and planned for it. He knocked on the door and said "Hey, uh, I've really got to pee."
The two guards jumped in surprise. "How did you get untied?"
"Zhao untied me. Said that I couldn't escape even if I tried to, so there was no need to keep me restrained."
Sokak heard the guards pause for a second, before one of them spoke again. "Stand back from the door. We will escort you to the bathroom and back.
"Sure thing! Man I appreciate it, I feel like I'm gonna burst." Sokka said, trying to make his voice sound like it was further away. He waited next to the door, chair held at the ready. The door opened and when the guard walked in, Sokka hit him in the chest with the chair. The man dropped, groaning in pain. Sokka took the soldier's jian blade and its scabbard from the man's back and dodged underneath the blast of fire from the second guard. Sokka moved like lightning, sweeping the guards feet from under him and drawing the blade. The guard had time to blink his surprise as he found himself flat on his back on top of the other man. He tried to rise but found the point of a sword level with his eye.
"Keys. Slowly." Sokka said. The guard swallowed and slowly pulled out his keys. He tossed them into the hallway behind Sokka, who spoke again. "Where is the Avatar?"
The guard swallowed, before replying. "Down the stairs, two levels. Take a left down this corridor and you'll find the staircase on the right side. Go right when you get to his floor, he's held in the last cell. You can't miss it."
"Thanks!" Sokka said with a smile, before knocking the man unconscious with the flat of his balde. Sokka closed the door, picked up the keys, and locked them inside. The keys were labeled, a surprising and helpful development. He probably would have liked the Fire Nation, if they hadn't been bent on world domination for the last century. They were a very efficient and well organized people.
He had his third eye opened, and it told him that his two guards weren't bad people. He felt conflicted at having to hurt and lock them up, but he had to do it. He followed the directions that the guard had given him, making his way to the stairs. He descended, and when he got to the first landing, he saw Katara cornered by two firebenders. He drew his sword and came at them silently, preparing an overhead strike to knock one unconscious. Before he got there however, Katara's masked companion struck like a coiled snake. He swept the legs of one firebender, and tossed him into the other. They tumbled down the stairs and lay heaped together on the next landing.
Sokka paused in his descent, lowering his sword. The masked man was no stranger, Sokka could see who it was with his third eye. Katara's companion was Prince Zuko. Sokka thought furiously, trying to reason out the next few minutes of the night. Zuko was helping them escape, likely just so he could capture Aang himself later on. But they were short on allies, surrounded by enemies and in unfamiliar territory. Could he rely on Zuko not to double cross them? Did he have a choice?
The conflicting fires within Zuko had changed even more since their last encounter; the golden fire had grown brighter and the corrupted flame of Sozin's light had waned even more. Sokka grit his teeth. He would take this subtle change in Zuko's aura as a sign. He cleared his throat and Katara spun to face the noise, her face in the richtus of battle. The fire in her eyes faded the moment she saw that it was her brother to have made the noise.
"Sokka!" Katara cried out as she rushed up the stairs to embrace him. He hugged her back briefly but his eyes never left Zuko. He could hear the steps of two men in armor approaching around the corner from outside the stairwell. "Two men are coming from the hallway. They're close, coming from the right side. You two wait here while I rescue Aang, I know where he is."
He detached himself from his sister and raced down the stairs and to the cell the guard had told him about. He unlocked the door and entered. Aang was in the center of the room, struggling with his bonds.
"Aang! Katara and Z- someone else are here to rescue us. They're on the next floor keeping the exit clear." He fumbled the keys while he spoke, looking for one that would open the padlocks that held the manacles in place. He gave up after a second and drew his sword.
"Sokka! What're you-?" Aang said when Sokka raised the sword over his head before saying, "Try not to move."
Sokka focused as hard as he could on this swing, channeling Koh's power through his limbs. Everything seemed to slow down as Sokka brought his weapon to bear against the metal binding Aang's hand. The metal gave and the cuff fell open. Sokka repeated the process on the other cuff and then the Avatar was free. Sokka sheathed his sword and the two friends ran from the room as fast as they could retracing Sokka's steps to meet up with Katara.
Reaching the landing that Katara and Zuko had met Sokka on, they found a fight taking place. Katara had managed to freeze the feet of one soldier while Zuko dueled the other. The fight hadn't been going on long, perhaps a few seconds. Aang drew in a deep breath and with it he blew a powerful gust of wind at the two soldiers, throwing them both into a wall and leaving the boots of the first man frozen to the floor.
"Hey Katara, who's your friend?" Aang said, stopping his mad dash to stand beside her. Katara hugged the Avatar, before making quotation marks with her hands and saying, "This is 'Lee'."
"Okaaay. 'Lee' then." Aang repeated the same gesture when he said Zuko's alias. Zuko looked up at the ceiling in evident exasperation. Sokka rolled his eyes. They didn't have time for this. He thought for a moment before asking, "Where's Appa? How long will it take us to reach him?"
"I still have my bison whistle, I guess they didn't search my clothes when they captured me." Aang offered.
That was good, Sokka thought, they could still call Appa to them. "Alright, here's the plan: We're going to make our way out of here, 'Lee' and I will cover the rear while you two take point. Aang, you'll need to clear the way with airbending. Katara and Lee know the layout, so Katara will give directions while you lead."
Katara nodded before she and Aang took off running, Sokka held up a hand for five seconds before he and Zuko followed. They ran furiously through the stronghold, but fortunately they met no more obstacles in their race for freedom. And then they made it outside.
The moment that Sokka and Zuko stepped out of the stronghold they were met with a jet of blue fire. Sokka leapt over it and Zuko spun right, narrowly avoiding getting burned. Sokka drew his sword and quickly scanned the scene. It was pure madness. Everything was onfire, angry rhinos rampaged around and for some reason a pig-chicken was pecking at the back of a passed out firebender. Katara and Aang were engaged in combat against two girls that Sokka hadn't seen before.
One of the young women fighting Aang and Katara shone with a faint silver aura, not unlike that of Aang's airbending chi. Sokka guessed she might have some Air Nomad ancestry. The other one shone with a dull gray light. It was rather depressing, actually. In the few seconds that Sokka watched the exchange one of them, the one with the silver glow, landed a hit on Katara's arm. The chi immediately stopped flowing into the limb, and it fell limply to her side.
Sokka's attention was drawn back to his fight when the crackle of electricity filled his ears. He turned just in time to see Princess Azula shoot a bolt of lightning at her brother. Sokka's eyes widened when Zuko dropped his swords and caught the lightning and channeled it through his body. Sokka could see the lightning travel through Zuko as the firebender guided it with a hand and then shot it at Azula's feet. The Princess flew backwards through the air and out of sight, and Zuko regained his weapons.
Sokka pushed away his astonishment and raced towards Aang and Katara, ducking under arrows and cutting the heads off spears as he went. He channeled more of Koh's power into his run and crossed the length of the yard in an eyeblink. The girl with the silver aura, she had braided hair now that he noticed it, was aiming another puch at Katara's other shoulder. Time seemed to slow for Sokka and he knew exactly where this girl was going to strike. He copied her target and placed his own light punch on the girl's outstretched arm.
Ty Lee's eyes widened in shock as her own chi was blocked less than a second before she would've made contact with the waterbender. She jumped into a flip to put space between her and her attacker. She turned to face this new assailant, and froze when she saw him. It was the First Son, but he was awake now, and his aura had returned. His aura was like a shadow on a moonless night, save for a pale blue light that stood in the center of his heart. A long shadow stretched out behind him, and it writhed as if with a life of its own.
Ty Lee shuddered, and backed away slowly. Her eyes never left whatever this person, this thing, was. She was truly afraid, more so than at any time in her life. "What are you?"
Sokka blinked at the odd question, but didn't slow down to talk. The other girl, the one with the depressing aura, was throwing knives. He deflected some with his stolen blade and dodged the rest. He stepped closer to her to knock her out, but a gust of wind kicked by Aang sent her sliding across the ground. Sokka grinned at his friend, and only just managed to pull him out of the way as another firebender started attacking them.
"So you tried to escape after all." Zhao said, walking calmly towards the pair of them. Soka looked around and saw Zuko and Katara battling Azula and Knife Girl respectively. Sokka put his sword in a low guard that would allow him to dissipate any fire bent at him with an upward swing. Aang stood beside him, in a ready stance. Zhao too took a bending pose and their fight began in earnest.
Sokka swung his sword through a ball of fire, dissipating it easily, and Aang blew his aside in a kick. Sokka darted forward at Zhao, who sent a jet of flame at him. Sokka dodged and began thinking. Zhao meant to kill him, he had said as much in his cell. He would never rest until his entire family ended, he would never stop chasing them. Unlike Zuko, this man had no good left in him. He had chosen his path in life and would not turn back.
They fought furiously, and Zhao was truly a master. He dodged, struck, fell back, all in perfect form. Despite the older man's skill, he was no match for the combined strength of Aang and Sokka. Gradually the fight turned in their favor unti suddenly Zhao was lifted into the air and then slammed back into the ground by the power of Aang's bending. Zhao lay on the ground, dazed and groaning. Sokka looked at him, trying to find a reason not to do what he felt he must. Search as he might, he could come up with nothing. The words of the Face Stealer came back to him again, predicting Katara's death. And then again from his most recent voyage into the spirit world. You shall find the price of mercy weighs heavy on your shoulders.
Had not Zhao sworn that he would never rest until Sokka's line was wiped out? Could he afford to let him…? No. Sokka knew what he had to do. He walked to stand over Zhao. He raised his sword to point directly above the man's heart. He lifted his sword higher still, until his hands were above his own head. He brought them down, plunging the weapon towards Zhao.
And then a gust of wind pushed him away from Zhao, and Aang stood between them.
"Sokka! How could you even think about ending him! He's defenseless, he-" Aang was cut off by the sound of a Zuko crying out as he fell to the ground.
"We'll finish this later!" Sokka said, before rushing to face Azula.
Azula stood over the masked firebender, a nagging feeling of familiarity tugging at her. She began to suspect the identity of her opponent. The twin swords, the way he redirected her lightning as only one man in the world could. She reached down to remove the mask, but stopped when a stream of water caught her in the chest. She slid back a few feet, and raised a fist to fight the waterbender.
"Do not touch him, you monster." Katara said icily, bending the water with one arm as the other hung limp at her side. She had grown to like this 'Lee' despite herself. They had spent only a day together planning her brother's rescue, but she found that she considered him a friend.
Azula grit her teeth as Katara's words brought unwanted visions of her mother, Ursa. She punched out flame at the girl, only for Sokka to intercept it with his sword. She met his eyes for a moment and found them to be filled with determination. Perhaps she had imagined whatever had been there before.
"I admit it." Azula said. "I am a monster, a-" She was cut off when the First Son spoke.
"Liar! I checked." Sokka said, sword pointed at Azula. Azula had been about to monologue about how she was going to take them all prisoner while Zhao regained his senses. Her plan left her mind at Sokka's statement. What did that even mean, he checked? She opened her mouth to speak again, but was silenced when the Avatar's beast landed beside her and swatted her away with a paw.
Even as she watched, her two prisoners and the waterender climbed up onto the bison, Sokka carrying the masked man. They took off in an instant, and Azula's heart sank. She wished now very much that she hadn't sent word to her father of their capture. Despite that failure, she thought she had accomplished the mission her father had sent her on. The man in the mask… had it been her brother?
Katara's hands were covered with a soft blue light as she healed Zuko's shoulder. They had removed his mask when they had escaped. She and Aang had been shocked to see the familiar ruined face of their enemy, but Sokka had not so much as blinked. He said that he had known all along, ever since seeing him with his third eye on the stairs. He shrugged when asked why he had said nothing, saying that he believed they had to trust him for the time being.
Aang steered Appa back to where Zuko had found Katara. He had been overjoyed to find that his staff had been tucked safely away in the saddle. Sokka was surprised and thankful to find his boomerang was there too. He had thought it was lost, and losing this was not something he wanted to explain to his father.
Aang and Sokka carried Zuko down from the bison. They laid him gently on a pile of leaves and propped his head up, and then they waited for him to awake. They did not have to wait long before Zuko stirred, and opened his eyes. He blinked slowly before he fixed his eyes on Aang.
"You know, a hundred years ago I had friends all over the world, even in the Fire Nation. I used to visit my friend Kuzon there all the time. If you and I knew each other back then, do you think we could have been friends too?"
Zuko clenched a fist, half ready to lash out at the Avatar. Before he could move, his eyes fell on Katara and Sokka. He remembered how they had defended him when he lost his battle with Azula, and of how well he and Katara had gotten along. He relaxed his hand and sighed.
"Yeah, I think so." He said, before getting to his feet. He found that his dao blades had been laid beside him and he replaced them in their sheath. Without another word, Zuko walked away into the night.
Author's Note.
This is not a Zutara story, it's platonic. Kataang forever.
Also; I have covid-19 so the next chapter might come out sooner than usual or far later.
