"I am learning every day to allow the space between where I am and where I want to be to inspire me and not terrify me." —Tracee Ellis Ross
/
"Run!" I try to shout, but it turns into a wheeze. I grip my side with an arm in an effort to ease the pain. It doesn't really help.
"Aang!" Katara grabs him around the shoulders and yanks him behind the fountain where Toph and Sokka are hunkered down.
"What is he doing here?!" Sokka demands.
"Who?" Toph asks, glancing between me and Ránshāo. "Zuko or Combustion Man?"
Combustion Man? Really? That's what you guys call him? I'd laugh but my ribs hurt too much.
I manage to stumble to my feet, cursing as my ribs protest loudly with displeasure. "Go!" I yell at them, their looks of disbelief, anger, horror, and confusion almost making me smile. I'd surprised them. "I'll distract him."
I don't give them a chance to respond. I square off against Ránshāo who's peering down at me blankly. Hiring this guy in a fit of desperation was definitely one of my worst mistakes. I'd been so desperate for my father's approval, terrified that Azula's lies would come back to haunt me. I'd done what I do best. I went and fucked things up even worse. I still cringe with shame every time I think about how I treated Uncle. He never should have been in that cell to begin with. I should have been.
So, I'll save the Avatar and his friends from Ránshāo if it's the last thing I do.
"Stop!" I shout at him despite the pain it causes. "The mission is off!"
Ránshāo is starting to inhale again. Shit!
I can hear Aang, Katara, Toph, and Sokka scurrying behind me. They'd better be finding cover because I have the sinking feeling Ránshāo won't stop.
"I'm ordering you to stop!" I continue, inching my way in front of the fountain. "I'll pay you double if you walk away now!"
I bite my tongue on the pain, sweeping my arms in front of me to create a barrier of fire against Ránshāo's next shot. The force of the combustionbending sends me flying into the fountain, which cracks and crumbles around me from the force. It feels like my insides are being crushed. My ribs scream at me as I land in a crumpled heap not far from where the others are huddled behind a stone wall.
Moaning, I try to get up but I can't. I've got nothing left. I curl up into the fetal position as Ránshāo prepares another shot. I'm going to die. The thought isn't so mind shattering as I thought it would be. I'm oddly at peace with it. This is what I've deserve for all the horror I've caused.
"Zuko!" Aang's suddenly in front of me, creating a cyclone that redirects the shot above our heads. Rubble rains down. I hardly feel any of it hitting my already broken body.
"I thought I told you to run," I gasp out, dragging Aang down as Ránshāo's next shot goes wide, blowing a pillar to smithereens.
"Help me!" Aang shouts at Katara and Toph. Sokka's crouched down, eyeing Ránshāo with a calculating look.
"What are you—" My question is cut off by a cry of pain as Aang hauls me to my feet.
"Aang!" Katara runs out with a murderous glare in my direction. "Are you crazy!"
Aang doesn't have a chance to respond. Another shot sends us all tumbling. Aang and I land in a tangled heap. My vision has gone dark. I can't even summon the strength to move anymore.
Gritting her teeth, Katara summons a wave of water, turning the spray into icy knives that fly at Ránshāo. He merely blocks the little blades of death with his metal arm and leg.
"Help me move him!" Aang's shout to Toph comes as if far away.
I weakly try to shove Aang away. "Leave me," I gasp. "I'm not worth saving."
Aang either ignores me or doesn't hear me. The next thing I know, the stone beneath Aang and I ripple and then we're moving towards Sokka and Toph. Katara dives behind the cover of the stone wall with us just as another shot blasts apart where she'd been standing.
Aang helps prop me up against the wall as Ránshāo's shots blast all around us. I gasp for air, choking and coughing on blood. I must have punctured a lung. Lovely.
"He's going to blast this whole place right off the cliffside!" Toph shouts, sliding down next to me. "We're all doomed!"
Katara's look might as well have been a dagger through my chest but she turns to Aang crouched beside me and Sokka. "I can't step out to waterbend without getting blown up." She shoots me another look that says this is all your fault!
And it is.
"I can't get a good enough angle from down here either," she continues.
"Me neither," Toph agrees.
"Ditto." There's real fear in Aang's voice.
I'm such a horrible person. "Sokka." My voice is so weak I have to tug on his pant leg before he'll look at me. "You're…boomerang." Spirits it hurts to talk. "His third-eye…tattoo…" I can't continue. It takes too much effort to talk.
But Sokka nods, understanding lighting up his eyes. After a moment to calculate Ránshāo's location from his combustionbending shots, Sokka lets loose his boomerang with a muttered, "Alright buddy, don't fail me now!"
If I hadn't been in so much pain I would have laughed at him.
A few moments later, Sokka steps out from cover to catch his boomerang. "Yes!" he shouts.
Ránshāo must have gone down.
Aang moves to join Katara and Toph who've run out to join Sokka.
"Wait!" I grab Aang's arm, pain shooting through my entire being.
He gives me a quizzical look but then Sokka, Toph, and Katara are sprinting back around the wall for cover.
"What—"
Aang's cut off by a ginormous explosion that rattles the entire temple.
"Now it's safe," I wheeze, letting go of Aang's arm.
The others run out into the courtyard, leaving me struggling to breath. I can feel my strength leaving me. I want to give up. I really do. But I'm not done yet. I haven't atoned for everything I've done yet. So I continue to fight for that next breath.
"Did he just blow himself up?" Toph asks.
"I…think so?" I can picture Sokka scratching his head in utter confusion.
Ugh. There I go again with knowing these people too well.
"Are you guys okay?!" Haru, Teo, and the Duke come careening into the courtyard, out of breath and flushed. The Duke has a fine cut, slowly oozing blood over one eyebrow and Haru is limping. Teo looks only a little worse for wear.
"We would have been here earlier," Teo is saying. "But we were far away and we ran into some issues getting here what with all the shaking and crumbling buildings. What happened?!" His eyes are wide as he takes in the destruction all around us.
The Duke has noticed me and his eyes are narrowing in suspicion and distrust.
Great. I wasn't expecting to also have these guys to contend with too. At least, as far as I'm aware, I haven't done anything directly to them. Is that conceited to think when my father and nation have destroyed their homes and possibly killed some of their loved ones?
"We're okay. Somehow." Sokka frowns, eyes where Ránshāo had been standing.
"No thanks to Zuko," Katara mutters darkly as she walks over to the Duke to heal his cut.
"The Fire Prince?" Haru asks dubiously
"It's hard to believe, but I can't believe I'm saying this," Aang says as he walks back over to me. "But thanks, Zuko."
"No problem," I try to say but it turns into a coughing fit. I crumble to the side, trying to suck in air. But I can't. All there is is blood. Is that my blood I'm coughing up?!
"Katara!" Aang has fallen to his knees at my side, trying to support me as my body shudders.
"Aang!" The others come running.
"What—" Katara halts mid sentence when she sees me.
"Please!" Are those tears in Aang's eyes?! "Can you help him?"
Katara's mouth opens and closes but no words cross her shocked lips. She merely shakes her head.
"It's…okay," I barely manage to get out. "I'm…not…worth it." Blackness is closing in around me. Well. I managed to accomplish one thing. I saved Aang from a man I sent to kill him. Wow. I really am messed up.
"Come on Katara." Sokka puts a hand on Katara's shoulder.
"He did just save our lives." Toph frowns at her.
Haru, Teo, and the Duke look uncertain but, when Katara glances at them for their thoughts, to my complete and utter surprise, Haru nods.
"We'd be no better than the Fire Nation if we let him die," Teo adds.
The Duke says nothing, just gives me a look I can't decipher. But he gives Katara a thumbs up.
"Fine!" she grinds out, rubbing her face with the palms of her hands. "I'll do it. But only because it's the right thing to do." If that last comment was meant for me, I'm too far gone to truly register the jab.
Everything is going in and out of focus, so I don't see Katara pull water from her hip flask until it wreaths her hands. But I'm acutely aware of when she pulls back my shirt and places her hands over my chest and ribs, I have to lock my jaw in place to keep in a scream. The pain is so intense everything's white. I hear Uncle's laughter, Azula taunting me, my father banishing me. I relive all the moments I made the wrong choice. The Northern Water Tribe. Ba Sing Se. Hiring Ránshāo. Letting my anger and fear control me.
And then it's suddenly all over.
Katara sits back on her heels, a scowl on her face. "That's as much as I can do for now."
The world returns slowly. My chest no longer feels like it's been crushed. There's still plenty of pain from my broken ribs. Yeah me. I don't deserve this, but Aang needs to learn firebending. I may be the only option he's got.
I wave Aang off and struggle into a sitting position on my own. I lean my head back against the wall, struggling to catch my breath through the pain breathing, or any movement really, causes.
"Okay." Katara points an accusing finger at me. "Time to talk. Why are you here?"
Author's Note
Haru, Teo, and the Duke were always conveniently absent during all the major story beats of the episodes the group was at the Western Air Temple. I'm more than sure that they would have come running as soon as they heard the first explosion from Combustion Man. With that being said, I had a hard time writing them in in a way that felt natural. I did my best. Hopefully it's not too awkward.