Chapter 18: Escape
AN: I was extremely touched to see the positive response that this story is continuing. Although my writing is not nearly as good, it still brings me joy to know that I can provide happiness for others to see this story continue! We get a lot of action in this chapter, which is funny because I'm terrible at writing action scenes! I hope you all enjoy this chapter :)
Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender
Fear.
That was the only emotion that spread across the faces of the guards across the room as the Avatar burst out of his chains. The group of them had one mission when they had came to the Avatar's cell, and that was to torture the airbender. Now, roles were reversed. The fate of their lives were quite obviously in the Avatar's hands, exemplified by the massive amount of wind that picked up in the room. Not one of them dared to even move a muscle as the Avatar rose into the air, the sounds of the chains that once held him loudly rattling around in his cell. Then, silence came over the room as the Avatar turned his head to the group, the lifeless stare sending shivers down their bodies as they looked at his empty eyes.
The world seemed to pause as the room shifted into an eternal stalemate. The Avatar stared back at the group of guards, who were trembling in fear, almost daring them to make the first move. To even make a noise that would alert others to his presence. Everyone in that room knew about the raw power that was being possessed at that moment. One wrong move, and things could go seriously wrong. A mistake could cost them their lives. The fight or flight response was starting to trigger in the group of guards who had come to torture the Avatar. Most of the group was smart, and they slowly took steps back towards the door. One firebender however, chose wrong.
Almost as a desperate measure, the firebender stepped forward and sent a hurling flame at the Avatar, who easily dodged it. Before the firebender could even have the opportunity to think about making his next move, the ground below him split into two, trapping him in the floor and making him unable to move. Unfortunately for the group, the rest of them made the decision to try to help out their friend. Two Dai Li agents sprang forward, one lifting the earth from the floor to try to chuck it at the Avatar, only to find that the rock that they had created was destroyed before they were even able to fling it at the Avatar. The seismic reaction being so close to them sent them flying back into the ground, leaving them temporarily immobile as they tried to gather their surroundings. The other Dai Li member tried to send a pair of Earth Cuffs to potentially trap the Avatar, which once again were swiftly broken in midair. The Dai Li member tried to create another set, but was unable to do so, as the Avatar had already bound them to the ground with his own earth cuffs.
One last firebender remained standing, and they seemed to be the most skilled one of the group. Forming two fire whips in his hands, he lunged forward at the Avatar, swinging both of them at once. The Avatar was well prepared for this however, and with one gust of wind, both fire whips were instantly put out. The Avatar responded by sending one more powerful blast of wind in the firebenders direction, sending him flying into the wall. Seeing that he was no longer in danger, the Avatar seemed to be satisfied as he gently lowered to the ground. The mysterious glow disappeared, and all that was left was an airbender bending over himself, gasping for air.
Stumbling out the door of his cell, Aang found that he could barely move without being in excruciating pain. Every inch of his body was covered in cuts, burns, and bruises from his torturing sessions. Being thankful for the Avatar State to save him from his current predicament, he also knew that he had just used up most of his energy. Aang frantically went into the room across from him, and he knew that he was about to give in to his body's aching. The pain was too much for him to handle. Surveying his surroundings, he noticed some sort of closet that was across the room for him. Dragging himself over, the airbender found that he had to will himself to be able to open the door, using his remaining strength.
The last thing the airbender heard were footsteps towards his cell and the shouts of guards before he collapsed, succumbing to his pain.
The look on Katara's face was enough to scare the rest of the group as they flew in the air on Appa. Fortunately for her, their stop at the Jasmine Dragon was extremely brief. Iroh understood immediately, and upon waking up a tired Zuko and using the bison whistle to retrieve Appa, the Gaang found themselves flying towards Lake Laogai at full speed. They decided to leave Chief Hakoda behind at the tea shop, as neither of the Water Tribe siblings wanted to risk losing their father again. The group was traveling without a plan, but with the addition of Iroh and Zuko to their party, Katara was hoping that would be enough to just bust right in through the front door. She looked forward to taking down any Dai Li agent that thought about getting in the way of her and Aang. A look she had only had once before- when she hunted down The Southern Raiders with Zuko.
There was an uneasy silence as the group continued to fly towards the lake. The realization of the true sacrifice that Aang had made for Chief Hakoda was starting to truly set in, as they realized that the Dai Li had nothing to lose in their quest for power. They wouldn't hesitate to kill Aang if it meant them gaining their position of power back. Katara wished her Dad hadn't shared this, but they were planning on torturing him to try to get any amount of political information that they could use to their advantage. If they were willing to do that to her father . . . then who knows what they would possibly do to Aang.
The waterbender couldn't help but shudder in worry for her Love. Aang had given so much to the world, and she was sure that he went and turned himself in without a doubt in his mind. Why couldn't the world just leave him alone in return? The airbender had already suffered so much, and Katara knew that the way the politicians had treated him at the peace meetings this past week hadn't helped anything at all. Then, her father made things worse by telling him no when asked for permission to court her. Katara still couldn't believe that everyone around her was acting so selfish when all Aang had ever been was selfless to them. She just hoped that she would be able to see him and tell him how important he is . . . not only to her but the rest of the world.
Finally, Appa began his descent towards the murky waters of Lake Laogai, and the group all took a deep breath as they braced themselves for the upcoming battle. Fortunately for Katara, no one hesitated to join her when she made the announcement that she was going to save her Love. She could tell by her brother's face that he had an apology that he wanted to deliver as well. Hopefully he would be able to deliver that apology . . . The group silently made their way off of Appa, with Zuko helping his Uncle down from the beast. Sokka came over to his sister and gave her an empathetic squeeze on the shoulder, which she let out a short nod in return to show her signs of thanks. She would have time to show her emotions later. After Aang was safe.
Toph led the way as she used her earthbending to find the entrance. At last, she silently made the signal that she had found it. "Is everybody ready?" The earthbender asked out to the group. Katara wasn't sure, but there seemed to even be a tint of worry in her tone as she asked it. When the group met the earthbender with nods, she blasted open the entrance to the underground prison, and the group charged forward to begin their battle for their friend.
Katara led the charge into the prison. Wherever Aang was, she wanted to be the one to find him. Just past the entrance, there were two guards that they had clearly caught by surprise. Not even giving them the chance to react, she froze the guard that was standing on the left while Toph cuffed the guard on the right using her earthbending. The rest of the group decided to keep moving, except for Sokka, who was worried about his sister. He had good reason to, as she decided that she would do her own interrogation of one of the guards.
Moving up to the guard that was frozen against the wall, she formed an ice dagger and pressed it right against the guard's throat. She found herself almost smirking as fear overtook the guard's eyes. "Where is the Avatar?" she let out with a snarl. Sokka ran over to her and gently grabbed her arm, placing it down while he shot a look of concern her way.
"His cell is around the corner and to the left!" The guard shouted out in fear. Smirking, Katara dropped the water and released him from his temporary prison against the wall. With a defiant motion, she pointed towards the entrance.
"Good, now go, before you end up regretting it." The waterbender satisfyingly watched the guard take off, running as fast as he could out of the prison. Her brother still stared at her though, with almost a dumbfounded look on his face.
"You weren't going to actually do anything to him, were you?" Sokka asked with his own amount of fear forming. He was relieved when his sister shook her head no.
"We're not going to kill anybody here . . . as long as Aang's alive." With that, she marched forward and continued on through the underground prison. Katara smiled to herself when she caught up to the rest of the group. Iroh was taking on 2 guards at once, and he clearly had a position of power over them. Toph and Suki were working together to chain up a group of four guards that they had taken down. Zuko was battling with a group of three guards, but they seemed to be no match for him. Feeling content with how things were going, she turned to her brother. "You help them finish the rest of these guards, I'm going to find Aang."
Katara took off around the corner after she was met with a subtle nod from her brother. Unfortunately for her, two guards were waiting for her, both of them being firebenders. One of them shot out a stream of fire towards her head, while the other one created a fire whip and sent it spiraling out towards her legs. The waterbender responded by creating an ice wall, allowing the two elements to clash together. Before the firebenders had a chance to respond, Katara created a water whip and cracked it at the left firebender and connected just below his knees, causing the firebender to buckle to the ground. The firebender on the right attacked once again with a stream of fire, this time sent directly at her. Because Katara had taken time to attack the other soldier, she narrowly dodged the current fire stream, leaning against the wall to avoid it.
Deciding to change tactics, she changed the water that she was using to form a tendril and quickly wrapped it around the firebender's leg. Seeing that she was successful, she flung the firebender to the wall next to her, taking him out as he groaned in pain. Katara continued to run down the hallway until she reached her destination. Seeing the largest cell at the end of the hallway, she threw open the door to find a shocking revelation. Aang was nowhere to be found. The only remnants of the cell was a broken metal chain, and 6 knocked out guards.
The anxiety within Katara only grew as she couldn't find her companion. She turned around desperately to try to find any other possible place that Aang might have gone, when she noticed a door across from her in the hallway. Sprinting towards it, she slammed open the door to investigate what might be inside. The room was incredibly dark, and she wasn't able to take in her surroundings very well. Searching her way blindly around the room, she finally found a lantern accompanied by a set of matches. Quickly lighting the lantern, she smiled as the light illuminated the room, allowing her to get a much better view of everything. Noticing that Aang wasn't there, she was about to leave when something caught her eye on the wall. Curious, she went over to investigate.
Plastered on the wall were multiple posters that had strings connecting everything to each other, almost creating a network of some sorts. Looking closer at some of the posters, Katara gasped as she noticed in-depth information on all of the politicians that had attended the peace meetings, including her and the rest of the Gaang. She noticed that everybody in the Gaang had small skulls next to their names. Glancing closely, she gasped as she finally understood what this was. They were on a hit list, and the Dai Li were aiming to take them out.
Katara knew that she needed to inform the rest of the group as soon as they rescued Aang as to what was going on. Turning around, she was about to take off when she was suddenly shackled by earthbending in her ankles making her unable to move. Before she could move her upper body to break the shackles, a pair of cuffs came flying at her, successfully hitting their target. Now completely immobile, the waterbender hurriedly scanned her eyes to the door before allowing her face to drop. Standing at the door was the last person she wanted to see, Long Feng himself.
The leader of the Dai Li maliciously took a few steps forwards towards her as he let out a cackle. "Well, it took you long enough to show up." Long Feng spat out before forming an evil grin. "I was starting to wonder if you all even cared about the Avatar!" The Dai Li leader smirked as he sent a hateful glare towards the waterbender's direction.
The waterbender herself was left unamused. "How dare you question our loyalty to Aang?" She spat right back, her eyes narrowing. Not caring that she currently wasn't in the position to be making any threats, she decided to continue. "Tell me, or I'll force it out of you. Where. Is. Aang?" Katara wasn't messing around. The vengeful look that she had as she faced Yon Rha long ago was now the face that she currently donned as she stared down the leader of the Dai Li.
Long Feng took a small step back, the intimidation working, before he realized the position that he was in. Just as quickly as he took a step back, he took an additional two steps forward to get right in the waterbender's face. "Wouldn't you like to know?" He growled, clearly upset that the Katara had gotten to him. "Too bad for you, you're not going to find out, because I'm going to kill you, and enjoy every single second of it."
Katara remained unfazed as he bent a huge slab of rock from the floor next to him, ready to send it hurling at the waterbender. Just as he was about to release it and finish his attack, a huge gust of wind came from behind him, knocking him to the ground. Seeing as it broke his concentration, Katara was freed from her cuffs, and she quickly used this moment to collect the water around her and deliver a swift water jab to Long Feng's face, knocking the leader out cold.
After taking a few deep breaths to gather herself from her latest altercation, the waterbender forgot that she was saved to gain the upper hand. Not only was she saved, but she was saved by air bending. Which means . . . "Aang!" Katara screamed as she looked up to see the airbender that held her heart. She thought she saw a quick smile flash from her Love, before he keeled over for a few moments trying to catch his breath, and eventually collapsing to the ground. Katara immediately ran over to him, throwing her body down next to his as she picked up his weak form and cradled it into her lap.
Finally being able to take a good look at him, Katara let out a frightening gasp as she threw a hand over her mouth. The airbender was covered everywhere with bruises, cuts, and burns. Welts triumphantly stuck out on his body as they marked where the boulders had crashed into him. Scabs and thin cuts on his body showed where they must've stabbed him with some sort of blade. Worst of all, the burns. The dark marks on his body gave evidence that the flames that had scorched his body were given by someone that was right next to him, making the burns so much worse. Tears welled at the corners of her eyes as she stared down at her companion, who's own eyes still managed to sparkle as they stared right back into hers. She didn't know how he managed to do it, but his gaze brought comfort to the waterbender. "Aang, what did they do to you?"
The airbender, however, didn't seem to be very cognizant of his injuries. "Ka . . ta . . ra" he breathily croaked out. "I . . . missed you . . . so much." Aang then formed a weak but warm smile on his face as he used whatever strength he could to lightly cup her face. With his arm trembling, he shakily wiped away some of the tears that were streaming down the waterbender's face in a beautiful display of affection. Eventually, Katara couldn't take it anymore. She leaned down gently and placed her lips on his, conveying all of the worry, sadness, and anger that she had been harboring since his disappearance into her kiss. The airbender tiredly responded, matching the longing and despair that he had been holding on to.
The two eventually broke away, before the door slammed open again, only this time to reveal her brother. Sokka's face washed with relief as he saw his sister, and he hastily explained his presence. "There you are Katara! I was looking all over for you! All the guards are incapacitated, but we still haven't found-" The Water Tribe Warrior's face fell immediately as he laid his eyes on the heavily injured airbender. "Aang . . ." His voice completely faltered as he finished his sentence, worry and guilt taking over his features.
The group filed in right behind Sokka, each of them taking their own turn to gasp at the sight before them. Katara continued to protectively hold Aang against her, almost afraid that if she let him out of her grasp that something terrible would happen. The look of sadness that enveloped the faces of their friends was hard for her to bear. Everyone knew that the sacrifice that Aang had made for her father was a dangerous one, but none of them had possibly imagined that he would come out of it looking like this.
Finally gathering the courage to break the silence, she stared back up at her group of friends. "We need to get him home immediately." She softly instructed, looking down sadly as the airbender had slipped back into unconsciousness. Sokka and Zuko immediately came forward to help carry Aang back to Appa, but Katara shook her head. "One of you needs to get Long Feng to Appa. He needs to pay for his actions. I'll help carry Aang." The two boys shared a look of concern between each other before Zuko finally backed off and headed in Long Feng's direction. They both knew that convincing Katara to let go of Aang wouldn't be an option.
Working together with her brother to take an arm of Aang's around each of their shoulders, the two siblings gently made their way back to Appa. The bison let out a cry as he saw Aang's unconscious form, nuzzling his head against his friend before sinking down to the ground as low as he could to make it easier for the siblings to lift Aang on top of him. Katara tried to give a gentle pat on Appa's head to show her thanks before climbing back on.
The ride back to the Jasmine Dragon was completely silent. Katara tightly held Aang against her form, letting the slow breaths of the airbender soothe her. The rest of the Gaang was still trying to get over the shock of Aang's condition. They all had seen him dead before, but even when he was struck with lightning he didn't look that bad. Thankfully, Appa recognized the emergency and flew at a much quicker pace back to the Jasmine Dragon than he had on his way to Lake Laogai.
As they landed at the Jasmine Dragon, Katara got off with Aang as quickly as she could, having Sokka help her carry the unconscious airbender into the tea shop. Iroh and Zuko took off with Long Feng to turn him in, wanting to have a word with the Earth Kingdom Army so they could inform them about the rest of the guards that were at Lake Laogai, waiting to be taken in. Hakoda ran out to meet them, and his face immediately fell when he saw Aang's condition. Finally reaching the shared bedroom they had before they moved to the Avatar's house, Toph and Hakoda immediately left to grab water for Katara to work with for healing. Sokka couldn't take it anymore, and he broke down in tears, running out of the room, with Suki quickly following him.
Which left Katara alone, with Aang. There was a small bucket of water that she had to work with that had been placed there from their previous stay at the Jasmine Dragon. She immediately got to work on his wounds, letting the familiar glow and hum of the healing water do its magic. She knew that Aang had it much worse than her, but she was going through her own personal torture session. Even while unconscious, Aang's body responded in groans of pain as she worked.
Three buckets of water and four hours later, Katara had finally made her way to the legs of his body. She was able to heal the rest of him, but he undoubtedly would be in pain for the next week, at least. The others had returned throughout her healing session as she worked diligently on her Love. No one wanted to leave Aang alone. He had felt abandoned by them, and they weren't going to do that to him again.
After finishing one leg, Katara quickly moved on to the other. She was thoroughly exhausted. Not only had she not slept because of missing Aang, but the emotional and physical taxation of the rescue and his healing was taking it completely out of her. Katara's spirit and energy immediately perked up when she felt a gentle stir against her. Stopping what she was doing immediately, she leaned forward to see Aang slowly come back to.
The airbender opened his eyes slowly, the gray storm clouds sparkling as he looked around in confusion. There was no confusion however when his eyes met a pair of ocean blue eyes, and a wide warm smile sprang across his face. "Katara!" He weakly gasped out, his body not even close to being back to full strength. The waterbender couldn't hold back her emotions any longer as she crashed her arms around him into a warm embrace, not even caring that he let out a soft groan from the slight pain that she caused. She was finally in his arms again. As the airbender gently placed his arms back around her, the two held each other as they let their tears escape them.
Even though the room was full, the two didn't notice. They could only see each other and that's what mattered. Katara's heaving sobs into Aang's shoulder filled the room with a bittersweet sound, while Aang provided his own silent tears to encapsulate the moment. They held each other tightly for the next five minutes, both of them afraid to let the other one go. Eventually, Katara gently lifted herself up from Aang, but not before lightly kissing him on the forehead. Looking around, she noticed that everyone else had left the room, wanting to give them their privacy.
Aang immediately gave her a sad look, wanting the closeness and comfort of being able to hold her in his arms. Katara could only let out a small smile as she shook her head. "I still need to heal your other leg first." Using the rest of the energy she could muster, she diligently worked on his leg, healing every last wound that he had incurred during his imprisonment. Though the wounds were visually healed, she knew that the pain would be lasting much longer, but there was nothing more that she could do about it.
Finally climbing into bed, she allowed herself to be cradled back in Aang's arms. She sighed in content as she was finally where she belonged. The two wanted to talk to each other, but neither of them had the energy to do so, both of their eyelids closing immediately as they found comfort in each other. The couple finally let sleep take over them as the sun marked its highest point in the sky, marking the noon hour. Yet, the exhausted couple would remain asleep for the rest of the day and through the night, not needing to move at all knowing that they were in each other's arms, where they both belonged.