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~The Avatar fanfic~ All is Conquered-Part2 (Chapters 8-11) |
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(Continued from The Avatar Fanfic-Part1 Chapters 1-7)
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(Chapter 8 )
Inside the gilded room, heavy tapestries hung from every wall like threaded murals, covering the barred windows with their material finery, their woven gold and silver accents glittering in the bright yellow light of a dozen wrought-iron torches. Busy red, curling designs covered the walls with detail between the colorful tapestries, and thick oriental rugs and tasseled cushions covered the hard marble floor. Against one of the painted gaps between the elaborate tapestries sat a four-post canopy bed of dark crimson-tinted wood, made up with the finest woven linens and softest pillows, but it’s beautifully-dyed coverings had never been touched in the three months since they had been brought to the room. A doorway outlined in twisting red designs led to a room filled with beautiful flowing robes and dresses, and a big dressing-mirror covered one whole wall of the room, reflecting back the other two walls of racks crammed with ornately designed headdresses and clothes of all different styles; the third wall, which was all shelves containing little painted boxes and velvet displays of gold and silver jewelry; and the single four-legged stool carved from cherrywood, that the imprisoned waterbender was seated upon, while the princess of the Fire Nation dressed her in bright green and gold patterned robes that seemed to choke the tan-skinned girl in silky cloth.
A slight smile rested on Azula’s red lips as she tied the twisted-satin cord to the last layer of green-gold robes around her pet-waterbender’s waist, and carefully adjusted the top so that each extravagant layer could be noticed beneath the next. Azula gave her motionless human doll a little smile of satisfaction, brushing her hand lovingly along one side of her smooth almond-toned face. She bent down to pick up the finely-crafted cherrywood comb from the floor beside it’s matching stool, and began to comb out the girl’s long dark waves. Azula took her time running it’s cherry teeth gently through her soft locks, enjoying the feel of it beneath her pale hands, and the contrast between the reddish color of the expensive comb, and the rich, dark-chocolate color of the waterbender’s shining strands of hair. She glanced up into the mirror that covered the wall in front of them, and noted the way the green and gold robes brought out the clear blue color of those eyes, lethargically staring both into and past the giant mirror at nothing. Azula ran her fingers down the length of the waterbender’s soft dark hair without looking down from the mirror. She paused, considering it, then left her dark waves flowing freely down the back of her green robes, and left her briefly to retrieve a small headpiece made from winding threads of gold and green trailing ribbons that matched the robes nicely. After Azula had placed the pretty gold piece securely in the waterbender’s dark hair, she slipped gold bracelets onto each of her wrists and dozens of glittering gold necklaces at her throat to cover the harsh burn-scars and the iron collar that had made them.
Azula stepped back slightly, looking into the huge mirror at her beautiful human doll, perched obediently in front of her on the carved red stool in bare feet. She walked around to the front of her and admired her work; the waterbender was a vision of earthy green, glinting gold, and rich dark waves of flowing hair.
Azula took the girl’s hand firmly, “Get up.” She ordered, and the waterbender-girl stood, the soles of her feet making no noise on the polished marble floor.
“Come.” Azula crooned, and she followed as Azula’s pale hand led her by the wrist, gold bangles clinking softly, out of the closet-room, across the rugs and cushions, and stopped in front of the door.
Azula turned and looked into the pair of lifeless, clear blue irises. It gave her a profound feeling of satisfaction to know that they belonged entirely to her. Her dark gaze moved along the curve of the girl’s smooth tan jaw, down to her silent, unexpressive mouth. It did, however, drive her mad that her treasure had not made a sound since that day in the dungeons. It didn’t bother her nearly as much that she had lost the will to move on her own anymore. It was her voice she regretted losing the most. Azula sorely missed the sweet, innocent sound of her voice; so much that she could feel it aching sharply in her chest as she looked at her treasure’s sealed mouth.
‘Aren’t you happy, now that you live so well?’ She wanted to ask as she looked back up at the girl’s azure stare, her own eyes betraying more sadness than she would ever allow to be seen on her face outside this room.
Banishing the emotion from her features, Azula leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on the waterbender’s warm, unresponsive lips. I will keep you here, where you will be safely mine, she thought silently as she felt the warm ache inside her and the pair of soft lips beneath hers, until you are happy and I can hear your voice again… Azula turned away slowly, lingering close to her treasure’s pretty face before she had to go unlock the door, reaching idly for the key that hung from her neck.
Fully composed, Azula turned the iron key in the lock, and spoke firmly over her shoulder to the girl standing behind her, “Now, come with me.”
The waterbender did as she was commanded without the slightest change in expression, and followed just behind Azula as she walked briskly through the corridors as if she were sleepwalking, all the way to the throneroom. Azula spoke sharply to the Dai Lee guarding the huge doors and they went inside, the guards closing them behind the prisoner’s trailing robes.
Azula led her pet-waterbender to the wide cushion on the floor beside the throne and seated her on her knees, with her back straight, so that the green-gold robes gathered around her nicely. She turned and settled herself onto the throne, glancing down to her side at her beautiful trophy once, before glaring down the length of the throneroom to the big doors at the end.
“Send them in.” Azula snapped loudly into the huge, empty room.
The doors opened to admit a single Dai Lee soldier with a neatly trimmed beard, who halted smartly before the throne’s raised platform and bowed.
“Your Highness, I have some information gathered from rumors in the city regarding the missing member of the Avatar’s traveling-party, as you--”
The bearded soldier’s head snapped around as one of the side doors opened, and Prince Zuko let himself into the throneroom. He stood to one side of the throne a good distance away, with his arms crossed over his chest and said nothing, as Azula glared distastefully at her fool of a brother, and turned back to the Dai Lee making his report.
“Well?” Azula’s tone was more than irritated, and the soldier struggled to find the right words for a moment.
“As I was saying…Your Highness. The rumors confirm that she is a very young girl, blind, and an exceptional earthbender. According to one rumor, she’s on the run from the House of the Flying Boar, for running away from home.”
“And the what is the useful information?” Azula snarled, making the poor man flinch.
“She, uh, she has been spotted a few times inside the city. She must be trying to blend in with the rest of the earthbenders. But it’s dangerous to attack her; if what people say is true she can--”
But the man was interrupted again, as all hell broke loose for a tenth of a second.
The doors of the throneroom burst open with an echoing boom. A young Dai Lee came scrambling in to the shouts of the guards outside the door, with his uniform scorched and ripped in a few places. The young man ran right up to the throne and immediately began to shout and rant.
“Your Highness, this is urgent! The General somehow discovered where we were watching him from and attacked us a little while ago! He caused a diversion and got away after; Your Highness, it’s the Avatar! He’s recovered enough to--”
But that was as far as the young Dai Lee got, because as soon as the word ‘Avatar’ had left his lips, Azula had thrown herself from the throne with a shriek of rage. There was a thunderous crack and a blinding blue-white flash that left a purple haze over their vision; and as they stood on shaky knees, blinking the spots away, they saw the foolish boy lying on the throneroom floor, an enormous scorchmark ringed his body and the smoking hole through his torso gaped black, all the way to the crumbled marble floor.
Azula stood with two fingers thrust at where the young soldier had been standing, fury etched into her face as she snapped her gaze away from his smoking remains to look almost frantically back at the waterbender on the cushion beside the throne.
The next moments passed to the sound of the bearded soldier’s panicked yells as he fled the throneroom, stumbling, and then scurrying away on his hands and knees. Zuko stood frozen where he had been standing against the wall, stealing glances at the prisoner on display, when Azula had mercilessly struck down the messenger. His eyes followed hers as she whipped around to stare intently at the waterbender beside the throne, and the sudden expression he saw there severely startled him.
Katara sat exactly as she had been before, not a muscle had been moved. But there was the most incredible look of pure disbelief on her face. Her clear blue irises were gaping from the wide whites of her eyes, and her curved caramel lips fell silently open in her astonishment. Her throat moved as she swallowed, and her mouth started to work as the two royal siblings watched in shock from either angle. It had been so long since any expression had shown on Katara’s face that the change was staggering. It was like watching the dead come back to life in an instant.
All at once, the waterbender slumped forward, with her hands holding her up off the polished marble floor, and her lips moved slightly.
From where each one stood, rooted in place, the faintest whisper could be heard from the imprisoned waterbender’s lips; “…Aang……alive…?”
From across the echoing room, Zuko heard Azula utter a hushed curse of distressed anger.
She rushed to grab Katara roughly by the wrist, dragging her to her feet and swiftly out one of the throneroom’s side doors in one swoop. Zuko was left where he had been standing, gaping after the two girls in astonished confusion.
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(Chapter 9)
Azula all but threw the waterbender into her gilded, windowless cage. The prisoner’s bare feet tangled in the layers of fine green robes as she was pushed inside, and she stumbled to the floor. Just before Azula snapped the door shut, the girl raised her head from the rug and cushion she had fallen on and looked back through the dwindling opening between the door and its frame. The look of shock was still frozen onto her beautiful face, but the strength of soul that had once been in the waterbender’s eyes, now flickered vaguely behind her wide blue irises and tousled hair, fallen free of the spun-gold ornament like sleek dark water. Her struggling, sentient stare seemed to reach out and grab Azula, drawing her inside the cage with her, and Azula closed the door behind her instead.
A solution to her broken web of lies lit Azula’s desperately-reeling mind as she gazed down on her prone, fraught treasure, collapsed in disarray on the cushion-littered floor, looking up at her possessor as if she were trying to remember how to get up, and Azula was swept over to her as if she’d been pulled in by the innocence she saw drowning in the blue.
She walked around and knelt down in front of her pretty waterbender, raising her with a hand under her chin. The girl’s cinnamon-cream eyelids lowered and raised very slowly as if she had learned how to blink again, and her caramel-brown lips moved soundlessly.
“Yes…?” Azula said softly, cruelty staining the gentleness of her voice.
The waterbender’s lips moved again, and Azula lowered her head to listen until she could feel the girl’s light breaths on the side of her face.
“…Where…is Aang…?” the softness of the tan-skinned waterbender’s words against her ear gave Azula chills, but she replied as planned without hesitating.
“You would be better off not knowing…” Azula’s tone lilted as she tried to hold back a dark smile, “He betrayed you.”
“…Where is Aang…?” the waterbender’s quavering words sounded so much like they used to; full of hope, and sweet fear, and fragile innocence, waiting to be shattered all over again. Oh, she had missed that voice.
Azula held her by her delicate jaw, only a breath away from her red lips. “Rumors of the two of them have been all over the city…” Azula crooned, “… rumors about the Avatar, and that earthbender. The blind one who was traveling with you.”
The girl’s blue eyes became even wider as she trembled, “…Toph…?”
Azula smiled a bit more. “Yes, that’s the one.”, she brushed the iron cuff she wore on her left wrist across the waterbender’s face slowly, “They ran off together, you know… right after you came to me.”
At the touch of the cold iron cuff, the waterbender’s eyes clenched shut and her smooth brow furrowed. She let out a small, strangled gasp of remembered pain that made Azula’s heart dance. There was the sound that she wanted so dearly to hear; it lessened the sharp, gnawing worry that her beloved treasure was slipping away to a place that she could never reach. She wished to stay here, forever, listening to the terrified little sounds her waterbender-doll uttered as she gently touched the iron cuff to the side of her face.
But the sound was changed when it came again. It was so much sadder that it hurt her just to hear it, and Azula glanced down to her pet’s face in alarm. Clear teardrops were sliding from the corner of each eye squeezed shut in fright, and her mouth trembled violently as she flinched away from the touch of the iron bracelet. A look of brazen regret pulled at Azula’s pale face and somber, dark eyes as she allowed the waterbender to slip from her grasp onto the cushion-covered floor, where she curled immediately into a ball of wrinkling green-gold fabric, a spray of dark wavy locks, and a tightly tangled knot of bare, almond-colored limbs. The robes around her throat had loosened, to expose her bare shoulders as they began to shake with inaudible sobs from within the clenched bundle.
Azula could do nothing but look on in quiet agony as her dearest treasure lay crunched into a ball on the floor, crying the bitter remains of her heart out onto the fine cushions and rugs all around her. It felt like a dark, bottomless hole was opening up inside her chest and swallowing her, bit by painful bit; so much like the burn of hot weights that it made the firebender feel crippled by it’s heaviness. It was almost a hopeless struggle to breathe as she watched the waterbender-girl suffering alone on the floor of her gilded prison. So much so, that she dragged herself to her feet and fled the room under the crushing, aching weight of her regret.
Tearing the chain from around her neck, Azula stuffed the little iron key into the outside lock of the closed door, and turned it sharply. She leaned heavily against the door, clenching the key in her fist as all the pain turned slowly into seething anger. She swore so viciously that the air around her should have caught fire.
That stupid fool! It was his fault her precious waterbender lay in her room weeping like life was not worth living. His! What business did that idiotic boy have barging into the throneroom? If she hadn’t just killed him herself, he would be in the dungeons right now, being blackened alive for it. That kind of lax discipline was already hazardous to her authority, and now her most prized treasure was starting to slip between her fingers, all because that insolent brat had started raving about the Avatar! One word— ONE! —and her perfect, iron hold on her precious waterbender had been cracked; her carefully-spun lie torn to bits on the dungeon floor. Damn him, that stupid boy, straight to the deepest, darkest pit in the underworld! Her fist had begun to shake with fury, but underneath it she could feel the faint stab of fear that she would lose her dearest treasure, permanently if she didn’t do something. Azula clenched her teeth in fury and slipped the chain around her neck again, turning toward the throneroom to deal with the charred body and terrified guards she had left behind.
Zuko was still standing there, staring incredulously at the hole in the young Dai Lee’s corpse, when Azula shoved the huge throneroom doors wide. They flew back and slammed into the walls on either side as she strode angrily into the throneroom for the smoking mess on the floor. Zuko went after her as she went by him.
“Azula! What did you do with her?” She ignored him. “Azula!” he yelled, and grabbed her left arm.
She stopped dead. Then she turned around to face him, her red lips twisted in a deep snarl, dark eyes infuriated.
Zuko did not let go.
"Get your filthy hands off of me…" her tone was like bubbling acid in his good ear, but Zuko held his breath and refused to release her arm.
"I said, get off me, wretch!" Azula’s left arm sizzled under his grasp, and searing pain roared up Zuko’s arm as the iron bracelet became red-hot. He snatched his burning hand away, biting back an agonized cry as he clutched it to his chest with his other hand, and heard the sound that made them both freeze.
The torn screams of the waterbender, locked inside her cage of a room, echoed through the palace of Ba-Sing-Sei in unison with the hiss of Azula’s iron cuff.
A look of unrestrained horror graced Zuko’s face as he felt his scalp prickle with fury, and Azula was paralyzed with the realization of what she had just done; the suffering screams of her treasure setting her in flames as they resounded in her ears.
Zuko’s eyes locked onto the red-hot cuff Azula wore with desperate horror, and cracked under the straining, gruesome noise of Katara’s wailing.
“STOP, NOW!”
He hurled himself at his sister, the tips of his fingers sparking. She struck him flawlessly, ruthlessly to the blackened marble floor. Her left hand clenched instinctively around a licking ball of heat to roast him where he fell, and the tortured screams amplified.
Azula froze, the blaze in her left hand extinguishing instantly. Zuko’s fist smashed into her torso with desperate force in her moment of hesitation. She was hurled across the throneroom, her reflection flashed across the polished black floor, and crashed backwards into the nearest of the huge black pillars that formed rows on either side of the room, her body ricocheting off it with a loud ringing crack.
The silence was absolute as Azula lay in a motionless heap at the base of the cracked pillar, the two halves of the iron cuff quivered back and forth on the floor nearby. It was utterly destroyed. Not a sound could be heard throughout the conquered palace as the pieces fell still; Katara’s cries had ceased entirely.
A chill ran through Zuko’s spine as he realized the consequences for his actions, and he staggered to his feet in the tomblike silence, his thoughts reeling as he stared fixedly at his sister’s limp form. He would be killed for this; there were no doubts whatsoever. He was a wanted man, again. But from this point on, his life was in the balance, and he knew it was only a matter of time. He felt it settle heavily, deep in his gut as a sickening weight.
His throat was dry as he dashed across the smooth marble floor and stooped to quickly yank the chain from around Azula’s neck. It snapped free, and Zuko took off, slipping hurriedly between the huge side-doors and went tearing down the corridor until he reached the prisoner’s room. He skidded a little as he stopped in front of the locked door, and anxiety fluttered the nauseating weight in the pit of his stomach as the sound of Katara’s screams echoed through his mind. What had happened to her to make her scream like that? Azula hadn’t even been near her, and then… oh Gods, that hideous, throat-ripping sound… Zuko could feel his heart thudding in his chest as his shaking hands fumbled with the iron key on its broken chain. He finally jammed the little metal thing into the lock, and twisted it before his trembling could rattle it loose. The door gave a little bit under his other hand as the lock clicked loudly into the silent, echoing hallway, and Zuko pushed it open.
But he went no further.
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(Chapter 10)
He was frozen in the open doorway as he gaped in shock at the contents of the gilded room. Everything in it had been completely destroyed. It looked like a vicious typhoon had torn loose inside the locked room, and then vanished.
The tapestries were hanging from the harshly scratched walls in shreds; all that could be seen of their beautiful designs were heavy ribbons with ragged edges. Every cushion had been ripped apart, and the wads of feathers and soft brown stuffing were strewn over every inch of the destruction. Even the thick oriental rugs were not spared from the carnage; they lay in tattered pieces everywhere, their loosed threads drifting among the stuffing and feathers across the bare, black marble floor. Even the four-post bed that had never been touched was a shambles. Three of the four cherrywood posts had been snapped in half and reduced to large red splinters scattered all around the pieces of ravaged fabric, and its canopy sagged like a conquered banner from the last remaining post, torn down and shredded like the tapestries; thick ragged strips trailing limply into the chaos. The bedcovers themselves had been lost as more destruction scattered across the black floor, and the huge mattress had been heaved off of the bed’s frame, crookedly jutting into the air, and Zuko could see the massive hole that had been clawed into it from where he stood aghast in the doorway.
In the middle of all the stuffing and feathers and ravaged décor, only one layer of ripped green robes left covering her, was Katara. She was crunched into a loose tangle of ripped fabric and caramel limbs, with her dark hair sprayed carelessly over the wreckage so that Zuko couldn’t see her head, but the telltale shudder of her exposed shoulders made it clear what she was doing. He felt a sharp wrench of his chest as he saw her shiver. It tore something inside him to see her like this, huddled all alone in another prison, trying to hide her weeping from the rest of the world.
It would have been chilling to walk through the wreckage of the once-beautiful gilded room, looking around at how everything had been clawed apart by human hands to utter scraps, but Zuko barely noticed the room at all. The air inside the destroyed prison was thick with the sickening smell of burned flesh just the same as it had been in the dungeon cell three months ago. It made him quietly furious, deep down where he almost didn’t notice it, and it turned his stomach over and over, for more than one reason. He could know nothing but irrational guilt for not having the strength to mercifully snap her neck when he had the chance. It weighed heavily on his heart, along with a deeply suffocating ache in his core, that he could tangibly feel in his muscles as he stumbled through the torn fabric and drifting fluff towards Katara’s huddled form. He could hear her tiny, stifled sobs now, coming from under her splayed hair each time her shoulders shook. It felt like the sound was wrapped very tightly around something vital inside him, and every muffled gasp was a hot squeeze that absolutely strangled him. Zuko stood right over her, watching her weep so quietly that he could barely hear it, but heartbrokenly enough to tremble her entire body, and crumpled to his knees next to her under the invisible weight.
His fingertips touched her shoulder very gently, and he felt her shaking like the way a small, frightened animal’s heart races, against the pads of his fingers. He wanted so badly to say something, but the ache inside had closed his throat so that all he could do was breathe, and only barely. As gingerly as he could, Zuko placed his hands on her trembling shoulders, once again fearing how small and light she seemed beneath his hands, and lifted her from her slump on the feather-strewn black marble.
Katara rose without any resistance, and leaned quietly where Zuko folded her against his chest, careful not to touch the iron collar and cuffs on her arms and neck, feeling her sobs against the ache inside him that made breathing almost impossible and the smell of her fresh, raw burns in his constricted throat.
He wanted to tell her that it would all be alright somehow, that he would protect her from the whole world now, no matter what. He wanted to comfort her so badly he could taste the words on his tongue pressing to come out, and he wanted nothing more desperately than to make her feel safe again by holding her as close and tight as he could. He wanted to press her close enough to feel the ache in his chest, and understand that he would do whatever it took to keep her safe from then on. It was a hot, aching wave that washed over him as he heard and felt another of the shuddering sobs that shook her frame.
Katara’s face tilted up as he placed his hand on the back of her head and felt his fingers buried in her soft dark waves. Zuko could see the tears trailing away from her clear blue eyes across her smooth almond-colored cheeks, and the suffering that was contorting and pulling at her trembling, caramel mouth. He wanted to take it all away as he held her soft head in one hand and looked into her face; so much that it engulfed him entirely with that smothering, aching feeling, and blotted out everything else but her pain.
Please, Katara… Please stop crying…
Zuko drew close to the tears on her face, pressing the cold wet trails against the side of his own face as he held her close, not noticing the tension that had crept into her limbs. Her sobbing breaths had quickened with panic as he got closer, oblivious to everything in his utter tenderness. His eyes were closed and he held her pressed lightly to his chest with as much care as he could, but firmly enough to prove his intention to protect her. He didn’t see that Katara’s eyes had gone wide with remembered distress and her trembling was no longer from weeping, but from barely-contained hysteria. Her mind screamed wildly with the memory of Azula’s lips and burning hand on her back, and the searing collar and cuffs that still ringed her arms and ankles and throat with scars, and the inhuman torture that had assaulted her again only a short time ago, branding the scars in even deeper as she writhed and screamed and tore the room apart in her madness.
But Zuko saw none of this, and leaned in with the utmost care to place a gentle, loving kiss to her trembling lips.
Until she snapped.
A bloodcurdling, bestial scream ripped loose from Katara’s throat as she pushed Zuko away, thrashing and clawing to get away from the threat, until she was crouched tensely in the far corner like an animal, draped in her ripped green robe, staring threateningly at the firebender as his body slumped backward onto the black marble floor.
Katara’s surveying blue eyes were hard and cold like chips of glacier ice. All the innocence and gentleness had left them, and a brutal creature looked out over Zuko’s body. The tears had gone from those volatile orbs; instinct had bent the little bit of water into a handful of long needles and viciously sunk them deep into the firebender’s unprotected chest.
She approached the body on all fours; six deep red spots formed a hexagon in Zuko’s chest, staining the red Fire Nation uniform a darker, glistening-wet crimson as they spread.
The clink of the iron key slipping from Zuko’s lifeless hand made Katara jump quickly to her feet, her sharpened gaze zeroing in on the thing that had meant freedom for so long. She stared at it hungrily for a moment, icy eyes flicking up to Zuko’s unmoving face warily, waiting for her assailant to get back up and attack her again.
When nothing happened, she dove at the small key on its chain, snatching it up quickly with a muffled jingle from the feathers and stuffing strewn across the floor. She clutched it to her chest as she slowly turned her unstable gaze on the single, open door. Right there in front of her; it was the portal to her freedom. And revenge.
Just then, in the throneroom, lying at the base of the cracked black-marble pillar, Azula moaned and turned onto her stomach, and her narrowed brown eyes fell on the two halves of her iron cuff.
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(Chapter 11)
The five strapping earthbenders fumbled around in the almost complete darkness of the underground tunnels. Their low, hissed curses echoed through the blackness as they bashed their skulls sore where the already-low ceiling reached down over them, and gracelessly stubbed their toes wherever a stone protruded. A set of light, quick feet patted the tunnel floor as their owner moved confidently between the slowly bumbling men.
“Tch. Jeez… and you call yourselves earthbenders…” a young girl’s extremely sarcastic voice echoed through the tunnel, “Here, watch your toes.”
There was the sound of a small bare foot coming down firmly on the stony dirt underfoot, and the crumbling grating of six large chunks of earth rising simultaneously from the floor. One of the men found the sense to light the iron lamp he had brought, illuminating five men, blinking and squinting in the sudden light, and a small girl with a mop of black hair hanging in front of her blankly staring eyes, already seated on top of one of the six earthen mounds. She let out an exasperated breath.
“Can we get down to business already?”
The shaggy looking earthbenders hurriedly took their seats, and one man, a few years younger than the other four, cleared his throat gruffly.
“We all know why we’re here, so let’s not waste anymore time. The Fire Nation will not be idle for long; we should use this chance to ambush them and take back our city.”
Another man, his dark hair graying on the sides, immediately spoke up; “That is far too rash. We have women and children with us, and by now the Fire Nation’s Princess will have sent for more troops. This city was not invaded by idle forces.”
A third man voiced his frustrations: “Then what do you suggest we do? We can’t just sit here and wait!”
The graying man spoke again. “We are out-numbered and out-manned, and no one here wants to see their families get hurt. An escape is our only option.”
“So we’re just going to hand them our city, and expect to sneak thousands of refugees away to where?” the younger man refuted, “Even if we could get everyone out without getting caught, it’s a long way to anyplace else, and another city wouldn’t be able to take in even half of our numbers.”
The graying man was silent.
“This place is all we have; it’s home. We can’t just let the Fire Nation take it from us. Our last chance is to come up with a good strategy, and counter-attack. If we hit them in just the right spot, we could gain the upper-hand.” The younger man said confidently.
The fourth man nodded favorably, “If we use our heads, it won’t matter how many men they have. No one knows our city like we do. We could split their forces up by attacking in different areas at the same time, and take them one piece at a time.”
“Are you all stupid?” the four earthbenders’ heads snapped around to stare at the small blind girl with the sharp tongue, “What makes you think, even for a second, that Azula will play fair? She’ll find a way to use your families as a tool against you. She wouldn’t hesitate to use blackmail for any reason.”
“Are you saying we should just roll over and play dead because it’s the safe way to go?” the younger one said with a glare.
“No,” Toph replied evenly, an annoyed frown creasing her brow, “but it’s foolish to expect that Azula would take it lying down either.” It was quiet in the tunnel as the blind girl continued. “Right now, our main concern is getting the citizens to safety, and since there are so many, it has to be done gradually. In waves, so that they can break up and move to different places. But eventually, Azula will have to be distracted in order for them to escape.”
The five men’s grunts of agreement echoed through the tunnel. The graying man was nodding; “While our surprise attacks are keeping the Fire Nation soldiers scrambling, the groups can get away and start heading to wherever they’ve planned in advance.”
“After a while, they’ll start to notice that people are missing and catch on.” Another of the men pointed out, “It’ll be harder for the later groups to escape than the first ones, so the sick and the elderly will have to leave first. Then the younger and fitter ones will be the only ones left to get out.”
“Good,” the graying earthbender nodded again with finality, “If we all agree, then the only thing left to do is to speak to the rest of the people, split them all into groups, and start making plans for each group’s escape route. All in favor?”
The five big men, and Toph, voted unanimously, and they all rose from their earthen seats, a firm stomp of their heels sinking each one back into the dirt and stone floor of the tunnel. A couple of long minutes later, the lamp was doused, and the five men were clambering up out of an iron grate in the streets of Ba-Sing-Sei one at a time. Toph growled and snapped angrily as one of the strapping earthbenders tried to be helpful by lifting her up, so that her dirty bare feet dangled freely in the air, and attempted to hoist her out of the hole. Her ferocious curses distracted the five men just long enough for them to miss the swift shuffling sound of dozens of feet approaching.
Azula’s Dai Lee were upon them before Toph’s feet could even touch the stones of the street.
Two of the five rebel earthbenders met with their swinging iron claws, and went down with a heavy muffled grunt. The third one, the young one, was yelling needlessly to run, that it was an ambush, and was silenced by a metal-fingered grip around his throat as the man carrying Toph emerged quickly from the grate.
“What’s happening? Put me down, idiot!” Toph yelled from under the big earthbender’s arm.
“No, we have to escape! There’s too many of them!”
“Like hell there is! I said, put me down!” she raged as the man took off, jostling her alongside like a sack of meal.
Behind them, the fourth rebel fell with a sound like wet meat amidst dozens of Dai Lee footfalls already chasing after the two runaways. It took no longer than a minute for them to catch up.
“Run!” he bellowed, and all but threw her ahead of the gang of assassins, as the fifth and last of the rebels was mown down before he could even take a fighting stance. Toph hit the street hard and rolled, ending in a dusty heap. The Dai Lee had barely slowed down to permanently dispatch the big earthbender, and she had to scramble dizzily to her feet before the mob of enemies was upon her.
“s**t.” she panted as she ran, feeling the vibrations of all her pursuers thundering after her.
She turned a hard corner, feeling the grit on the street’s stone sliding under her feet, and swiftly climbed a stack of crates onto the roofs, trying to shake them off. The mob split up instantly at the corner, and the half that turned instead of going straight spotted her dashing across the slanted clay tiles and over the peak of the roof. Sensing the edge of the slope, Toph gritted her teeth and dropped over the other side of the building, feeling a moment of total blindness as she fell through dead air to the ground.
As soon as her bare feet touched the dirt, a violent curse ripped loose from her clenched teeth; the Dai Lee had landed in the side-alley first. And it was a dead end.
Toph sucked in a breath as the sharp whistling of six iron claws shot towards her, and let out an explosive cry, thrusting five lightning rounds out to meet each one, and dodging the last. The metal weapons were sent streaking back at their wielders, and buried themselves brutally in each assassin’s throat with a nasty wet crunch.
It was done: Five assassins for five rebels.
Toph squared her shoulders as the five bodies hit the ground, and faced the last one still standing with a hardened glare. She could feel his tremors through the ground between them and hear the chain of his weapon rattling slightly in his hands.
Without warning, the fierce blind girl whipped both hands up above her head, raising a thick cloud of earthen dust in the narrow alley. The Dai Lee charged forward blindly, iron claw at the ready, to meet his impressive opponent’s dust-masked attack as he had anticipated. Instead, the assassin smashed head-on into the solid wall that had been raised within the cloud of dust, and collapsed in an unconscious heap as Toph escaped out the open end of the alley.
“Moron.” a smirk tweaked her face as she headed straight for the edge of the city and the safety of the woods just outside it’s walls, chuckling craftily.
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(Oops... ran outta room again! sweatdrop Continued in The Avatar Fanfic-Part3)
 Mitsukeru Furidomu · Mon Jul 30, 2007 @ 07:17pm · 0 Comments |
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