Chapter 13
As she looked down over the ocean from the royal airship, Azula could barely contain her anticipation. In only a matter of days–hours!-she would be with Aang again, and he would come to his senses and leave the waterbender for her.
It felt like a hunt, she realized. She recalled the excitement of stalking the royal forest with her father, finding the perfect place to spring her trap, setting it up with the proper bait. Then they would lie in wait to watch the vulnerable little animal walk right into it.
She followed the memory to its conclusion, and was disconcerted to remember how disappointed she had been when her traps had come up empty.
She shook her head quickly, banishing the recollection. I was a child then. Now I'm a much better hunter. This trap is perfect, she assured herself. She thought through each element of her plot again, each part calculated and poised, aimed at the couple's weakness: the waterbender's conflicted loyalties.
Everything was ready for Aang's return to the palace. She had brought his belongings to her own bedchamber. The kitchens had been ordered to prepare a vegetarian feast for her return. She even had a royal pardon on her desk ready to sign. She would publicly forgive the Avatar his role in her father's death, throwing blame instead on the waterbender. Then she would let Aang decide the fate of his ex, and her Resistance movement. She doubted he would want her executed, but perhaps a moderate prison term would be a fair compromise between his ethics and her citizens' calls for justice for her father. Even if Aang wanted her to let the peasant get away with her crimes, Azula would go along with it. She would simply weather the public relations firestorm if he wanted pardons for Katara, Zuko, Mai, the lot of them. Soon enough, there would be a wedding, and a royal baby to appease the public, and all of this would be forgotten.
The tree cover around the Resistance's forest hideout was too dense to allow Aang to see the kidnapper's trail from the sky. When he and Katara returned to ground, the search continued, as the whole group searched the camp for clues.
Longshot, the Resistance's best tracker, noticed a couple almost imperceptible footprints leading away from Sokka's tent. He followed the faint trail to a clearing a mile south of camp, where wheel ruts showed a vehicle had been parked. The unusual wheel pattern indicated a tank of some kind.
"It's a lot easier to carry an unconscious or resisting person in a vehicle than on your back," Zuko remarked.
"Luckily, those tire treads are also a lot easier to see than footprints." Aang pointed out. The tank's driver had made no efforts to hide its trail, and the muddy ground preserved it. If the kidnappers wished to be pursued, they couldn't have arranged it better.
The group had to split up then. The entire camp had to be moved, since Yoshio's treachery meant it was no longer secure. Most of the Resistance members were needed to contribute to that enormous undertaking. As the spy's jailer, Iroh stayed behind as well. But Zuko and Mai felt responsible and concerned about the kidnapping because of Azula's possible involvement, and Ty Lee wanted to help recover her boyfriend, so they joined Katara and Aang.
The five followed the trail for 2 straight days. Driven by her simmering rage against the Fire Lord, Katara refused to stop to sleep, and the others had to keep up with her. As they got farther from the camp, the trees grew more sparsely, and they were able to track the cart from the air with Appa. Their frantic pace should have allowed them to catch up, despite the kidnappers' head start. But the tank must have been moving unusually fast, because they never even sighted it.
As the landscape changed, it became clear that Sokka had been taken into the Si Wong Desert. That understanding darkened the mood of the Resistance fighters, who had some experience with the harsh landscape.
"I hate the desert." Katara grumbled to her boyfriend.
Next to her in the front of the group, Aang glanced at her, mildly alarmed at her tone. "How come?" he wondered. He didn't mind the heat himself, but knew that Katara preferred milder weather.
"No water. I'm defenseless."
"I can defend you. I don't need water to bend," the Avatar offered.
"That's true." Despite her bad mood, she couldn't help returning Aang's smile. "I'm always safe with you. Still, I'd prefer to take some precautions. The Si Wong Desert is dominated by a nasty group of thugs, and I'm betting they're involved in this somehow."
"But it's Azula and the Fire Nation who did it…." the airbender began doubtfully.
"Maybe they're working together." She shrugged. "All I know is, no big crime ever happens in this part of the world, without this gang being behind it."
"It sounds like you've run into them before."
"We've had dealings with Gaishun's sandbenders," her voice darkened. "They're petty thieves, drug dealers, poachers, and now, probably kidnappers. They rob anyone they find alone in the desert. They use cactus juice to make a hallucinogen that makes people act like idiots. And they trap animals and sell them for their supposed medicinal properties."
"What medicinal properties?" Aang wondered.
"Made up ones. For example, there's a legend about grinding the fangs of the saber-tooth moose lion to make a tonic for impotence. Even though it doesn't work, old men are desperate and foolish enough to pay a high price for it, and hunters cruel enough to sell it. We also caught that gang transporting a badgermole to sell to a circus."
Aang gulped. "I guess we should leave Appa behind, then."
"Definitely. Let's look for someone trustworthy to take care of him in the Misty Palms Oasis. There's a White Lotus outpost there. It's also a great place to get supplies and information."
Night was falling on the third day of their pursuit, when Katara, Aang, Zuko, Mai, and Ty Lee arrived at the Misty Palms Oasis. Everyone insisted Katara allow them to sleep, and they wouldn't be able to get the supplies they needed until morning anyway, so they got hotel rooms.
Aang left Appa in the care of a boy whose father was in the White Lotus. Saying goodbye to his bison was hard for the airbender, especially after hearing stories of animals poached and abused, but his friend's contented lowing at the sight of a pile of straw reassured him.
The group rented a sand-sailer, and loaded it with cargo and ammunition. Aang didn't know how to bend sand, but he could use airbending to direct the vessel wherever he liked.
Gaishun's gang stayed in a notorious tent city in the middle of the desert. The Resistance members knew where it was from their previous dealings with him. Zuko and Katara told Aang which way to direct the wind, while Mai and Ty Lee exchanged uneasy speculations about their estranged friend.
"So are we just going to grab Sokka and fight our way out?" Ty Lee wondered.
Aang pursed his lips. He never liked the idea of violence, but in this case it might be unavoidable. "How many of them will there be?"
"A lot. And they can just sink us under the sand before we can even strike." Zuko answered grimly. "Can you defend against that, Aang?"
"No. I never learned to bend sand," the airbender replied, dismayed.
"Could you just….harden it?" Katara wondered. "Is it anything like freezing water?"
"I could try, but without a teacher to show me how, I don't think I'd be able to figure it out quickly enough," the Avatar admitted regretfully. "Earth is my worst element."
"What about blowing the sand in their eyes?" Mai suggested.
"I guess I can do that if I have to," Aang agreed uncomfortably.
"I'm surprised you hadn't thought of this," Zuko nudged Katara. "Don't you and Uncle always get on me for not having a getaway plan?"
The exiled prince had a point, she had to admit. In her panic to recover her brother, Katara had failed to account for a safe retreat. Rushing into danger like this wasn't her style. But she couldn't let Zuko insult her, not when his track record was so much worse than hers. "I guess we'll just have to do what you always do," she retorted.
"What's that?"
"Rely on pure dumb luck."
Mai barked a short, delighted laugh and ruffled her boyfriend's hair. "I like your ex, Zuko. She knows you so well!"
The royal airship landed in a plain just outside the Fire Nation fort built next to the Western Oasis. The regiment stationed there came out to welcome the Fire Lord and her guards. Raiden saw them lining up with dread, knowing who was waiting for him.
As they disembarked, flanking their leader, the guards and the soldiers saluted each other, then dispersed at their ease. The plan was for the Fire Lord and her men to spend the night in the fort, then go into the desert the following morning. Raiden followed Azula closely, then retired to his assigned room early, hoping in vain to avoid the confrontation.
When he heard a knock on his door, he knew who it was.
Akane's hands were on her hips; her eyes reproached him. "You haven't responded to my last three letters."
"I'm sorry. I hadn't realized it's been that long." Despite himself, he'd lost interest in her anyway. It seemed he couldn't help being an asshole.
"Is there someone else?" she demanded.
"No…." he answered, though he couldn't help picturing the Fire Lord's perfectly painted red lips.
"Then why?"
"I didn't know how hard it would be," he admitted. What was hard was spending every day watching over Azula, beautiful and vital, while technically tied to a faraway girlfriend, whose features were fading daily from his memory, and whose letters were increasingly insipid.
"If you wanted to break up when I left, you could have just told me," she informed him, crossing her arms over her chest.
"I didn't want to, then. I didn't want to make it harder on you."
"You thought it would be easier this way?"
"You're right, it was cowardly of me not to be honest earlier. I'm sorry, you deserve better."
"Yes, I deserve an explanation," Akane pushed.
"I guess the long distance was just too much for me," he answered blandly. "I thought we could keep that connection going, but I was mistaken." He knew that shouldn't be the case though. In the military, he'd met dozens of soldiers who kept relationships with hometown sweethearts alive through much longer separations than this one. There was something wrong with him.
"It wasn't the distance," she sighed, shaking her head. All her anger was gone now, and only sadness was left. "Raiden, you have this….capacity for devotion that you have never even tapped. I see it in the way you serve. And if you ever really fall in love, you'll be just as dedicated to her, as you are to your duty, and your beliefs. Nothing will stand in your way. The problem is that I just wasn't that person for you."
The truth of her words hit him. "I guess you're right. I'm sorry." He meant sorry for everything: for stringing her along, for not loving her. It would be a hell of a lot easier for both of them if he did.
"Me too, Raiden. Me too."
He opened his arms hopefully, and she gave him a hug, but pulled away quickly. He took her hand to keep her from leaving too soon. Akane had seen him more clearly than anyone ever had, he realized. The tragic thing was that even though he had ruined their relationship, she still recognized in him exactly the man he aspired to be. Losing a person who knew him inside and out was incredibly painful, but after this, she wouldn't even want to stay friends.
He tried to express his feelings; he owed her that much. "Akane, thank you for understanding me. You're a great friend. I'm really going to miss you." The words were inadequate, but they were all he had.
She gave him a wry smile. "I know. And maybe after I finish this tour and move on to a new guy, we can be friends again. Good luck, Raiden." She squeezed his hand and walked away.
Note: Thanks for reading! Please leave me a review!
I'm taking two weeks off to celebrate Christmas and New Year's. The next chapter will be posted Friday, January 6. Happy Holidays, everyone!