CHAPTER 23: Then, everything changed

"We cannot change what we are not aware of, and once we are aware, we cannot help but change."

Nii felt something cold run down her spine, as she turned around to see two villagers in the distance running towards them with desperation etched into every step, their eyes wide with fear.

She felt a sudden jolt reverberating through her entire body, causing her breath to get stuck in her throat. Everything seemed to stand still.

What had happened?

As they came closer, it was soon clear that tears were streaming down the face of one of the villagers, Manari, and without thinking about it, Nii reached up a hand towards him, even though he was still several feet away.

"Manari? Yabu?" she whispered into the air.

Nii felt fear wash over her like an unstoppable towering wave crashing ashore, threatening to engulf everything within its reach.

Yabu and Manari were the fastest runners in the entire village.

Something very bad must have happened.

They had to have been running for some time to get to the temple. It was usually a day's walk to get there.

With a pounding heart, Nii broke into a run towards them.

She could hear someone running just behind her, but she could focus on nothing else but the tears on Manari's face.

"Please!" Yabu yelled in between ragged breaths, as they closed in on each other. "Nii, please! Come home… now… we need…"

The three villagers almost crashed into each other.

Nii felt blood rushing for her ears as both Yabu and Manari bent over to rest their hands on their thighs, both of them heaving for air. Sweat trickled down their faces, while their muscles quivered with exhaustion.

"What happened?!" she rushed, cupping Manari's face, and she could feel his body trembling in her hands. "Manari, tell me!"

"They attacked… the village…" Manari struggled between hard breaths, still leaning forward.

Nii could feel air twirling next to her, and she knew that Aang had reached them too. She could also hear other breaths behind her.

"Who attacked you?" Aang asked in rushed words.

"Fire…" Yabu breathed. "Fire Nation… soldiers."

Nii felt a stone forming in her heart, while her knees almost gave in under her.

She could not believe it. It had been so many years since they had seen anything close to a Fire Nation soldier near the village. How had they found them?

"Come, we need to go. NOW!" Manari rushed, pulling at Nii's hand for her to come with him.

All three of them started running.

"Fire Na…?" she heard Aang behind her. "Hey, wait! Nii, stop!"

Without thinking, Nii instinctively stopped in her tracks, even though Manari and Yabu kept running. She turned around to face him.

His brows were furrowed and his face was filled with worry. But she did not have time to say goodbye to him. Not now.

She opened her mouth to tell him so.

"Let me take you. On Appa," he rushed, before he pulled something out of his pocket and put it into his mouth. An almost silent sound escaped it as he blew into it.

Now Zuko had joined Aang and Katara, and Nii's eyes darted back and forth between them and the villagers, as if she was caught between a silent tug-of-war between the two gatherings, pulled in opposite directions.

Luckily, Manari and Yabu had stopped too.

She bit her lower lip and made the decision.

"Aang'll take us. It's faster," she waved at them.

Soon Appa came flying out of nowhere, and they all moved quickly to get into his saddle. Even though Nii hated the sensation of flying, she felt deeply grateful for the beast beneath her.

He was really fast.

The ground soon shrank beneath them, and Nii felt tears forming in her eyes from the rush of wind against her face as they ascended higher and higher. She felt weightless, buoyed by the rhythm of Appa's tail.

Her stomach churned.

"What happened?" Nii heard Zuko ask Katara.

"They say that Fire Nation soldiers attacked Nii's village," Katara whispered to him.

"Fire Nation?!" Zuko spat out loudly, causing Nii to look at him. "But I don't have any soldiers around here."

Nii furrowed her brows as his words reached her ears. Yabu and Manari were still breathing rather loudly, trying to catch their breaths, so she must have been mistaken.

"I know," Katara answered him, but Zuko had turned his gaze to look at Nii.

He looked confused and angry at the same time.

"Those aren't my soldiers," he gritted between his teeth.

Nii tilted her head at him, her brows still scrunched together in confusion.

"What do you mean, 'your soldiers'?" she spat.

Tension was thick in the air between them as a slow moment of silence passed by, while Nii and Zuko stared at each other with narrowed eyes.

"Uh, Nii?" Aang sounded nervously from his seat over on Appa's head. "Zuko's the Fire Lord."

Nii closed her eyes and shook her head in a swift movement, taken aback. A confused sigh escaped her lips. She tried to take in Aang's words.

He was WHAT now?!

"You're the Fire Lord?" Yabu asked next to her, his voice trembling slightly.

"Yes," Zuko answered.

Nii felt a whirlwind of emotions within her chest, as she opened her eyes to cast a furtive glance over to Katara, searching for any confirmation, for any reassurance that they were joking.

Astonishment, fear and confusion raced through her veins when she saw the look in Katara's eyes.

They were not joking.

But surely, he could not be the Fire Lord?!

She had always heard stories about the ruthless iron-fisted ruler of the Fire Nation. Stories of dark magic and forbidden pacts forged with malevolent spirits, of harsh punishments for dissenters and political rivals and of delight in inflicting pain and suffering upon his enemies.

Rumors of torture chambers hidden deep within the Fire Nation palace walls and barbaric methods of punishment had chilled her hearts many times as a child.

As she grew older, she knew that they were probably just children's horror stories, but at the end of The War, no one could question the Fire Nation's aggressive moves of expansion - war crimes that spoke of an insatiable thirst for power and conquest. Not even the elders of the tribe questioned it, and they always sought to see the good in everyone.

Nii looked at Zuko.

With a trembling hand, she reached up a hand to brush a strand of hair from her forehead, her mind racing with questions and uncertainties.

How had she missed this?

Of all the times he had been speaking of going to the Fire Nation to have them send materials and whatnot to the temple, she had never heard him say anything close to him being the ruler of it all. She knew that he was a Firebender, but the Fire Lord himself?

She could not wrap her head around it.

He was just a young guy.

A bit shy maybe, seemingly polite, in love with a Waterbender. But an evil ruler?

Nii narrowed her gaze to his scar.

And amidst the turmoil of her thoughts, a sense of curiosity also began to take root within her. She wondered what had happened to him, how he had gotten his scar. She also wondered whether he had betrayed the old Fire Lord. She knew that he was too young to be Ozai the Evil.

What did this mean for the future of the Fire Nation?

Indeed, what did this mean for the world at large?

And if it were not Fire Nation soldiers who attacked the village, who had?