Episode 20, The Crossroads of Destiny
I took a deep breath and stood up wiping my tears away. There's no time for being sad now. I can be sad after we defeated everyone that's bad and with that I mean the Fire Lord and his psychotic daughter.
I took another deep breath to calm my nerves but the story Mai told me never got off my mind.
What seemed like forever but was probably about 20 minutes later I heard some noise. Then a hole in the ceiling was opened and someone fell into my cell.
I stared at the person with big eyes. "What are you doing here?! Are you okay?" I blurted out and quickly ran to his side. With a groan, Zuko stood up and rubbed his head.
He knitted his eyebrows, "I'm fine but what are you doing here?" He questioned back. I shrugged my shoulder, "Honestly, no idea." There was a quick pause.
"Your sister's a psycho," I blurted out out of nowhere. He almost chuckled at my sudden statement. "That's a really on point description," he said. I let out a small laugh.
His face turned serious and he eyed me, "Wait, are you hurt? Did she do something to you?" I quickly shook my head and his panicked expression disppeared.
"I'm fine," I told him, "No offence, but your family is kinda crazy," I said and he nodded deep in thoughts.
"That's true but my mother wasn't like them," he mumbled still deep in thought. He looked kind of nostalgic almost. I didn't want to ask anything, who knows, maybe something terrible happened in that matter as well.
"You know, we're not that different from each other after all," Zuko spoke up after a couple of moments and I looked at him with big eyes. What is he talking about? He had it way harder in his life than me.
"I don't think so ," I told him and he slightly shook his head.
"No, really, I had plenty of time to think about it," he said and he meant what he said. I knitted my eyebrows slightly. "We both know how it feels to have way better siblings," he added.
I felt a peng in my heart as my face softened. That's true. And even though Gran-Gran and the others treated us all the same, I still felt that Katara was definitely their favourite deep down. Maybe it was because of my looks or maybe she knew something I didn't. But I still felt kinda left alone.
"And we both lost our mothers at a young age to the Fire Nation," he added. The things Mai had told me came back to my mind. I absent mindedly nodded before sniffing.
Great. I took a deep breath before fanning my face with my hands to stop myself from crying. Zuko tensed before stepping closer to me, "I shouldn't have-" "No, it's okay," I interrupted him quickly and took another deep breath.
I swear, I won't be able to hold it back for any longer. "Did something happen?" He slowly asked and put both of his hands on my shoulders. When I looked at his face, I could see the worry in his eyes.
My lower lip trembled and my eyes welled up with tears. I tried to blink the tears away and looked on the ground. I slightly shook my head before whispering, "You won't believe what I found out."
A sob escaped my lips and Zuko pulled me in a hug and stroke my hair. We stayed like that for a few moments. My silent tears soaked his shirt. But I couldn't hold them back. It was just getting too much.
I sniffed and parted the hug. "Thanks, I kinda needed that," I mumbled awkwardly, not looking at him. I really need to get my awkwardness under control.
He also avoided eye contact. Oh Spirits, that was so awkward. "Do you, maybe, wanna talk about it? Uncle Iroh said it was good to let everything out," he said and I slightly smiled.
I let out a small laugh, "Since when do you take your uncle's advice?" I wiped my tears away. Zuko smiled at me softly, "I realised that Uncle's advice aren't bad actually."
I nodded. "Yeah, they aren't," I looked on the ground, "You would never believe what I found out," I whispered, my voice cracking again.
Zuko put a hand on my shoulder, "You don't need to talk about it if you don't want to."
I shook my head, "It's okay, I kinda can only tell you, besides I owe you after soaking your shirt."
But before I could open my mouth, the wall beside us exploded. I flinched and instinctly clutched to Zuko's arm.
When the dust from the explosion disappeared, I saw Aang. My first emotion was relief. Azula didn't get him.
I let go of Zuko and jogged up to Aang, hugging him. Parting the hug I patted his head with a huge smile, "Thank the spirits you're okay kiddo."
"Uncle, I don't understand. What are you doing with the Avatar?" Zuko asked and pointed at Aang. I whipped my head in his direction just as Aang did.
Why was he getting upset about it again. "Saving you, that's what," Aang said and slightly shrugged his shoulders.
Zuko almost lunged at Aang but Iroh held him back. "Zuko, it's time we talk," Iroh said in a serious voice.
I looked between the two with a bad feeling growing in my stomach.
Iroh turned to look at us, "You two go ahead and help your other friends, we'll catch up with you."
Aang nodded and bowed at Iroh before he disappeared in a tunnel. I took a good look at the two before hesitantly following Aang. I looked over my shoulder as I walked away. Zuko and I had eye contact until he was out of sight.
With a heavy heart, I took a deep breath and quickly followed Aang.
"Where are the others?" I asked the little monk as we were jogging through the tunnel.
"We need to get Katara first," he briefly answered. It was silent until we came to another wall which Aang destroyed.
Katara had been in a similar room as me. Aang and Katara hugged and I left the room and leaned against the wall. I really don't have to be a third wheel.
When they got out, Katara engulfed me in a hug as well. "Lets go we don't have much time," Aang said and we hurried out of the tunnel.
We came to an open area. It was still underground but way bigger than these little chamber like things. In the middle was even a small carved in water stream.
It looked really cool but I had no time to inspect it any further as we were still jogging.
"We have to find Sokka and Toph," Katara said and I couldn't agree more.
But before we could get and further, lightning came our way. Aang quickly created an earth wall in front of us. When making contact with the lighting, it exploded.
We stumbled back and I got into fighing stance. Katara used that water stream and send a huge wave in Azula's direction.
But she dodged it by creating a huge fire wall in front of her. When the water touched the fire it evaporated, creating a lot of smoke.
I squinted my eyes and tried to see where the princess was when she suddenly jumped out of the smoke and to the side.
Azula shot fire our way as she landed on a huge rock.
Aang and Katara used water to dodge her attack while I shot lighting her way. That girl needs to go down.
Aang then split up the huge rock and it started to collaps. Azula's eyes widened and a gasp escaped her lips before she jumped down between the three of us.
She pointed one hand each at Katara and Aang while she smirked at me. Just when I wanted to attack, a fire stream came our way and hit the place right between Aang and Azula.
We all whipped our heads in the direction when Zuko came towards us. He was in a fighting stance ready to attack anybody.
We all stopped in our positions, looking at Zuko. He first looked at his sister then at Aang.
Our eyes connected and my heartbeat speeded up. I'm sure my eyes were full of hope and desperation. In that moment I had no idea what he was going to do. I could see the conflict in his eyes.
When he broke the eye contact, my heart threatened to stop beating. He looked at his sister again before turning to Aang.
I could feel my stomach drop when he suddenly shot fire in Aang's direction. He just chose the bad side. He betrayed his uncle and himself.
I froze in place with wide eyes and watched everything take place. I simply couldn't bring myself to move and fight. The fact that he hadn't changed at all was overwhelming me. My mind just couldn't process it.
I snapped out of the shocked state when I heard a huge earth spike crash into the ground. I looked up and Azula was fighting against my twin.
Katara had the princess in her water whip but Zuko freed his sister by cutting the water whip with his fire.
I clenched my teeth before shooting fire his way. I couldn't let the siblings outnumber my sister.
He turned around and his eyes briefly widened at the sight of me. "I thought you had changed," I told him while I was shooting fire his way continuously. "That's not you Zuko," I tried to get him to our side.
He didn't react at all. My eyes welled up with tears and my breathing quickened. He never attacked me back.
"Fight back!" I shouted at him and shot another fire stream his way. He only dodged.
I stopped attacking him and slightly shook my head at him as a tear escaped my eye. "Why?" I breathed out between my quick breaths and he didn't say anything.
"Just say something," I called out to him but he still didn't say anything. Zuko just looked at me and I clenched my teeth to not break down. "Anything," I whispered as my voice cracked.
Then the whole cave started to tremble and Aang came running over to us. Azula attacked him and he went flying to the side.
"No," I let out a shout and took a step towards Aang when suddenly Dai Li soldiers surrounded me from every side.
Nothing happened for a few moments until a bright light appeared. A strong wind blew through the cave as Aang rose in the air. His eyes and arrows were glowing brightly.
He mastered the Avatar state. Luckily one of us was successful.
Life surely loved me. Note my sarcasm. Literally everything was going downhill.
Azula hit Aang in the back with lightning. He couldn't dodge it and fell down.
"No!" an earpiercing scream escaped my lips as the only hope we were able to hold onto was injured badly or even dead in the worst case.
Katara used all the water there was and with a huge wave the surfed in Aang's direction to catch him. On her way there she swept off all the people on the ground including me.
When all the water disappeared, I quickly got up and hurried over to Katara with quick breaths.
I looked down at kiddo and my heart felt heavy. The poor guy didn't deserve this. Katara was holding him in her arms as tears were streaming down her face.
When I heard footsteps behind us, I quickly turned around and stepped in front of Katara and Aang protectively.
Suddenly, Iroh appeared and started to attack Azula after he told us to get out of the cave.
Katara didn't even think about it twice and quickly got out of there with Aang still in her arms. I looked into Zuko's eyes.
"If you go away, then we're over," I croaked out with teary eyes, "And don't ever think about coming back, I won't forget this." With one last look at him and a tear rolling down my cheek, I turned around and quickly followed my sister.
Right outside the cave, in front of the palace, we came across Sokka an the others. Toph sensed our mood and didn't even say anything.
I bit my lip and ran up to Sokka who already opened his arms when he saw me and hugged him tightly.
Wordlessly, we all got on Appa. Honestly, we all could feel the bad mood radiating from Katara and me. Nobody dared to say a thing. We were lost.
Everything was silent as Katara got out the magic water from the North Pole and put it on Aang's wound on his back.
I was still crying silently. I couldn't believe how drastically my life changed and how much I felt betrayed from my own life.
I didn't want anybody to talk to me so I sat at he very back of Appa.
Katara started crying too when her water didn't heal Aang. She hugged him and I lowered my head.
But then he let out a cough and a quiet groan. Katara's mood immediately got slightly better.
However I still felt empty inside. I just lost faith in love and trust. Zuko just betrayed everyone even though I was sure he had changed. I'm not even sure anymore if everything he said and did was real and not faked.
I looked at the sky and wished everything had gone differently but I couldn't change it.
We had lost this battle and it didn't look good for us. We also lost the Earth Kingdom. That meant that we had no place to hide.
Honestly, we were screwed in every possible aspect that we could be screwed in.
A/N - Finally! We reached the end of book 2. YAY!
Honestly, I'm so grateful for all the people who have voted for this story so far and I can't believe I actually made it so far and not quit the story halfway through.
But I'm really hyped to continue and to end this story.
Stay safe and healthy everyone and thanks :)