Blue Spirit // An ATLA AU

Chapter 24

Zuko shook his head as he paced, he was trapped down here in the crystal cavern. Somewhere underneath Ba Sing Se. He heard rumbling coming from above him, and he walked over to where he heard it.

Some of the rock slid away, and he watched as some Dai Li Agents dropped Gemini down the hole. She was screaming, but over that, the assassin could hear one of the Agents say, "You've got company." He jumped up, grabbing Gemini as she fell from the ceiling. The assassin stepped back as he caught her---she was a lot heavier than he expected.

He looked down, seeing iron cuffs on her wrists that connected them, then shoes stuck on, by iron cuffs. Gemini gave him a weak smile. "Hey, Zuko. Maybe I really should have let you meet with the Kyoshi Warriors before the meeting. So, what do you want to do? Because what I want to do is to find Iron, and he and I can rip those two agents' heads off."

The assassin sat her down against the wall, and he sat back down leaning against the other wall. His hands hung in between his legs, as he said, "I was right. Princess Azula did infiltrate, under the guise of the Kyoshi Warriors. They must have met the Kyoshi Warriors, ambushed them, stole their clothes, coming here under the masquerade that they were invited---which the Kyoshi Warriors---Suki's group was. Not them. That means that the Kyoshi Warriors are more than likely prisoners of war now. This isn't good. There's no way I can get us out of here, but... maybe I can get you out of those cuffs. Those dumbasses didn't take my bag away from me."
Zuko opened his bag, going for one of his daggers. One of the ones he wasn't the best with, so if he were to accidentally metal it. He looked up at Gemini saying, "Okay, so don't get mad. But I'm technically Fire Nation, and I can Firebend."
Gemini shrugged. "I suspected as much. Mushi---Iroh, the owner of the Jasmine Dragon, he's the Dragon of the West. And he's a firebender with golden eyes. He told me that practically every Firebender has golden eyes, so I assumed you were one."
He held the dagger pointing the blade towards the ground, asking, "How did you know that?"

"I investigated him with Iron when he first arrived in Ba Sing Se. He wasn't hurting anybody anymore, and was living here peacefully, so there wasn't a reason to report it to my father. We've kept it a secret, but the Dai Li caught you from near the Jasmine Dragon, so I suspect you were talking to him," Gemini stated, as Zuko looked at her in awe. He walked over to her, lighting the blade of the dagger on fire.

The blade heated up, and you could see it on the blade. He bent down going for the ones on her wrists first. It slid through the iron quickly, with it touching her skin slightly. She winced at the hot metal of the blade, and the melted iron hit her skin. Zuko pulled off that iron cuff, doing that with the other one. The broken cuffs were thrown to the ground, and Gemini groaned, the cuffs on her ankles were too tight to wedge any earth in between to break them with her bending.

She held her hand out to Zuko. "Give me the knife. Then we'll get out of here."

The assassin nodded, as he passed her the knife. She did what he did before, and she sighed in relief, as she flexed her ankle. Gemini stood up, brushing off her clothes. She looked at Zuko saying, "Come on, we're leaving now." The Earthbender moved forwards, doing an earthbending move, easily making a passage for them to go up.

Both of them made their way back to the surface, coming out in a bad area. Not bad as in it was an area that was terrible looking, or with 'bad' people. But with the Dai Li being there. Both of them got into fighting positions, going into the fight immediately.

Zuko mainly had to avoid the rock hands the Dai Li Agents were throwing at him. He kicked at the Agent, before using the chi-blocking he knew to bring down the Agent. He moved it onto the next one, doing the same thing.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lennon come in on the eel hound, he remembered Chun mentioning that he has. His eldest brother jumped off, attacking the Agent closest to him. All of them were fighting together, until Zuko felt pressure in his chest, like when Dai Li Agents had done when they used bonebending on him before. He froze, and coughed into his hand. Blood was there, he felt his chest move again, and he looked down to see blood soaking his shirt.

He fell down, barely catching himself as he fell.

"Zuko!" Lennon called out, and he looked over there to see his brother bring down another Agent. He ran over to Zuko, grabbing him. The assassin coughed up more blood, and he watched Lennon's expression change. His eyes seemed to widen when he saw all the blood on Zuko's shirt. "What the hell happened?" He demanded.

Gemini came over as Lennon pulled off his younger brother's shirt. Both of them gasped, as Zuko looked down, he gagged, as he looked at his own body. The Dai Li Agent had forced his ribs to come out of his chest. His chest looked like something out of a horror painting. He was losing a lot of blood, considering everything seemed to blur. He heard yelling, as he felt himself get picked up.

"The Earth Kingdom has fallen, we are leaving, now!" Zuko heard Gemini yell, as well as people scrambling. He whimpered, as he felt his ribs shift again. The assassin reached up, grabbing the fabric near him. Something was tied around his torso, and he groaned. He heard other voices, Iron---he was pretty sure that it was the Dai Li Agent that was Gemini's second, Jet, and then Lennon obviously.

"Gemini!" He heard Toph call out.

"Zuko!" Yue and Sokka called out, but he couldn't respond.

His chest felt cold for a moment, but he wasn't strong enough to wake up, and see what happened.