not from around here | Zuko X OC

| chapter sixty six |

Zuko rolled over, putting out an arm to pull his girlfriend in closer to him because he was disappointed by the lack of her touch. Normally when he woke up he would find the warm girl pressed up against him with her arms wrapped around him. Once he had even woken up to her laying directing on top of him, her arms wrapped as far around his back as possible.

When he didn't feel Saki next to him, he felt around a little more to see if he could feel her. When he didn't, he finally opened his eyes to see no one next to him. Instead, he saw the edge of Appa's saddle and the sky moving past them.

He sat up, bags under his eyes from the restless sleep. Everything flooded back to him and he remembered where he was. He was upset that he couldn't cuddle with his girlfriend that morning because that was what he looked forward to every morning.

Instead of pushing Saki out of his head, he let her stay in the back of his mind, letting her provide comfort. He turned and his eyes focused on Katara, who had clearly been up all night steering Appa.

"You should get some rest. We'll be there in a few hours, you'll need all your strength." Zuko told her, making her look back at him slightly.

"Oh don't you worry about my strength, I have plenty. I'm not the helpless little girl I was when they came." She said, remembering the day that the fire nation has attacked and her mother was killed. Zuko listened to her talk about that fateful day.

"But we were too late, when we got there the man was gone. And so was she." Katara told him, hugging her knees as her voice broke.

"Your mother was a strong woman." Zuko told her comfortingly.

"I know." Katara said, placing two fingers on her necklace.

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Appa flew over the dark ocean. The sun had set and darkness had spread over them. Zuko was now on Appa's head, steering the sky bison.

"There!" Zuko exclaimed as he looked through a telescope. "See those sea raven flags?" He asked, pointing as he threw the telescope to Katara. "It's the Southern Raiders." Zuko told her as she inspected the flag for herself.

"Let's do this." Katara said, her tone full of malice as she glared at the ship.

Zuko and Katara both sat on Appa's head as Katara created a bubble around them so they could all breathe as Appa dove under the water. He swam closer and closer to the boat before Katara used a water whip to grab a crew member off the side of the boat. All the rest of the crew ran to see where he had fallen as Appa swam under the boat to the other side. They resurfaced and Katara created a huge wave and shot it at the side of the boat.

It hit the boat, knocking the remaining crew into the sea. The three of them landed on the ship, where there was one man left. Katara spotted him and shot a stream of water at him, sending him flying into the water where he landed along with his crew mates.

Katara loaded her arms up with water as they sprinted across the deck and through a door into the inside of the ship. Zuko took down a guard they encountered with ease.
They approached a large door and stopped.

"This is it Katara, are you ready to face him?" Zuko asked. There was a pause, in which Zuko remembered what Saki had said to him about killing this man. Was she right? Was it wrong to kill him because of a personal grudge? But isn't that why he killed Katara's mother, wouldn't that make it equal. He thought about what Saki would say.

"Don't stoop as low as him, Katara. By killing him, you're just as bad as the man who took your mother away from you."

Zuko could hear it almost as if she was speaking directly to him. He was interrupted by Katara pulling down her mask and, with a loud grunt, shooting water at the door. It burst open and Zuko jumped through first, deflecting the flames that the guards shot at them.