Blue Spirit // An ATLA AU

Chapter 17

Zuko laid back on a rock on the side of a river. Yue, Katara, and Aang were all in the river. Toph was sitting next to him, while Sokka was sitting on the rock above him, looking at some map. He watched Aang dip underneath the water, freezing ice around his body, before popping back up to the surface and floating.

Yue came swimming over to Zuko, pulling herself up onto the rock. Zuko looked away almost immediately---even though she was still wearing her undergarments---as she pulled on her shirt.

"Waterbending bomb!" Katara yelled jumping off of a cliff across from them. When she landed in the water, so much water was launched out.

Sokka yelped, throwing his body over the map. Everyone besides him and Zuko laughed at that, as Yue pulled the water out of her, Sokka, and Zuko, throwing it into the river.

"Sure! Five thousand year old maps from the Spirit Library!" Sokka exclaimed. "Just splash some water on them!"

Katara looked at her brother after wringing out her hair. "Sorry," she said half-heartedly. She then bended the water out of the maps, and Sokka climbed off of the rock.

Everyone made their way over to Sokka, as he set it down on the not-wet rock. Zuko crouched down next to Sokka, asking, "So, have you figured out what path we're gonna take?"
"Okay, we just got out of the desert," Sokka stated, pointing at a place on the map, before darting it forwards to where the outline of Ba Sing Se was. "And we need to go to Ba Sing Se, which is here." He dragged his finger to the side, showing what seemed to be the only path to Ba Sing Se. "It looks like the only passage connecting the south to the north is this sliver of land called the Serpent's Pass."
"You're sure that's the best way to go?" Toph asked.

"It's the only way if we want to get there over dry land," Zuko corrected, looking back at Toph---if he remembered correctly there was a ferry that would take you to Ba Sing Se. "And you'd prefer that, wouldn't you?"

"Yeah, I mean it's not like we have Appa to fly us there," Sokka added.

Katara looked at her brother, snapping, "Shut up about Appa. Can't you at least try and be sensitive?"
"Why are you scolding me about being sensitive!" Sokka yelled at her. He gestured to Zuko. "He's never sensitive."
Everyone looked over to Aang---who had his knees pressed against his chest, and his arms wrapped around his knees. After Sokka's little outburst, the Airbender took in a breath, before saying, "It's okay, Katara. I know I was upset about losing Appa before, but I just want to focus on getting to Ba Sing Se and telling the Earth King about the solar eclipse."
"Oh," slipped from Katara's mouth. "Well, okay."

The three soulmates looked at each other. Zuko had seen such rage before---after Lu Ten was murdered, that's the rage he felt, he slaughtered an entire Platoon---which made all of the Fire Nation soldiers he was with fear him. He even remembered putting the commanding officer---a Lieutenant---putting their head on a pike. Before ordering the rest of the Fire Nation soldiers to pile up the Earth Kingdom soldiers' bodies and burn them. He didn't have rank over any of them, hell he was probably on a lower level than those soldiers, but at the time they were all too terrified not to. That sent one last message to the Earth Kingdom, before they retreated.

"I'm glad you're doing better," Katara added, which snapped Zuko out of his thoughts.

"Then to Ba Sing Se we go!" Yue said, as she stood up, her voice ringing with every word she said.

"No more distractions!" Sokka added, giving her a small smile.

"Hello there, fellow refugees!" A man turning the corner yelled, waving at them. Zuko moved in front of Yue, and she peeked out from behind him.