Carved In Rock || ATLA

Meet Me On The Battlefield

The Crossroads of Destiny - Continued

"We carry on through the storm, tired soldiers in this war, remember what we're fighting for." - SVRCINA

🌊 ⛰ 🔥 🌪

There it was again, the olive branch that Aelita was offering to Aang. He knew he should take it, but right now with his focus on Katara, all he could do was nod in thanks.

Part of Sokka had hoped Aelita would've put up more of a fight, turn them all down, and tell Iroh that Zuko could go to hell, but he knew her well enough not to be surprised when she didn't. It was that too-big heart of hers wrapped up in sarcasm and fire that had drawn him in, and as much as he may loath some of those she decided to give it to, he'd settle for whatever pieces of it she would give to him.

"What about Kyojuro and Murata?" Toph asked, her voice cutting through the tension.

"I'm not sure what all the Prince and Princess have been able to accomplish thus far or who all they are targetting, but I do have someone that might be able to help," Iroh said. He ducked back into the bushes he had emerged from to haul forward a young bound and gagged Dai Li agent. In a flash, Aelita bent water from the pond to surround the man in ominously sharp ice. A jerk upward brought that ice close enough to slice through the gag that silenced the agent but not enough to graze his skin in a thinly veiled warning.

"Azula and Long Feng are plotting a coup!" The man quickly said without further prompting. "They're going to take out the Prince and overthrow the Earth King, but I don't know anything about what Lord Zetzu wants. Princess Azula and Long Feng hadn't planned on him being involved."

"Zetzu is one of the Princes of the Fire Nation, he isn't some common Lord." Aelita pointed out.

"It was how he introduced himself to us this morning before we apprehended the other brother."

"Forget about him," Sokka said as he stalked forward towards the captive with one hand on the club at his hip. "My sister! Where are they keeping Katara?"

"In the Crystal Catacombs of Old Ba Sing Se, deep beneath the palace." The agent explained, unsure which group of teens now was more terrifying than the other.

"Murata seems too loyal to the King and Prince Kyojuro to stand by and let this happen, what did Azula and Long Feng do with him?" Aang asked.

"I don't know," the man answered. "The Princess claimed the King assigned him as Captain because he didn't trust us, she turned our men against him with one sentence. No one questioned her this morning when she said he'd no longer be a problem."

"Shit," Aelita let out the breath she had been holding. Trying to not assume the worst, she shifted her focus. "And Prince Kyojuro, is he safe or have your men already made a move on him?"

"Azula sent out three of our best last night, she was worried that he'd be her biggest threat to the throne but no one's heard back from his recovery team yet."

"Maybe that's a good thing?" Toph offered up.

"There's one way to find out," Aelita said to the earthbender. She crouched to the ground and pressed her palms to the fresh soil of the gardens. She closed her eyes as she inhaled a deep, slow breath, opening them to shine blue on her exhale. She pushed out the webs of her own spiritual energy to search Ba Sing Se for the strands of Kyojuro's life force. It took several heartbeats to find the first traces of him, but she finally found the residual flow of his being and followed it to an apartment she recognized but couldn't quite place in the Lower Ring. She saw him then if only a flash, unconscious and bandaged in a bed barely big enough for his wide frame. She committed the location to memory before letting the power fade. "I've got him," She explained. "He's hurt, but he's alive, I can feel it."