Freedom

Chapter 29: The Blackened Forest

Katara didn't know how long they flew.

She knew they needed to get as far away from the prison as possible. While they assumed, the warden would be preoccupied with wrangling in the prisoners, it wasn't a guarantee that Azula wouldn't be on their tracks when she came to.

She pulled at the tattered prison shirt that clung to her skin. She wanted to tear it off and throw it over the side but her clothes were neatly packed away and she wasn't interested in changing in front of three boys. Instead, she tugged at the seams hoping to get it as far away from her body as possible.

Aang climbed his way onto the saddle, "So does someone want to explain to me what went wrong back there?! Our plan was fool proof!!"

"It was..." Katara started to speak but Sokka finished for her, "Until Azula showed up..."

"I thought Ozai didn't want anybody at Zuko's execution?" Toph asked, confusion in her voice. Sokka shrugged, "We did too..."

Katara thought back to her time at the prison, every interaction she had, every bad feeling she got. She shook her head before she spoke, "I don't know how... the warden knew something wasn't right..."

"How do you know?" Aang asked, his voice tilting upwards in worry. But Katara just shook her head, "I don't know... I just have a feeling"

Sokka shrugged, leaning back against the saddle, "It doesn't change anything now... Zuko's out of the prison, Azula is still chasing us, and the Fire Lord is still evil..."

"Yeah you're right about that..."

Everyone turned their heads towards the voice, seeing that Zuko had awoken, his amber eyes looking back at them. He went to push himself up, wincing as he went.

Katara rushed over to him, placing a hand gingerly on the small of his back to help him sit up. The other three exchanged small looks mixed with confusion, but no one spoke.

Sokka rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "Uhh sorry Zuko... I-uhh" Sokka stuttered on his words, trying to find an excuse for calling the other man's father evil.

Zuko waved him off gingerly, "Don't censor yourself... You're right, I wouldn't be here if I didn't think that..."

Katara glanced over his wounds, seeing the burns lining his arms and legs, "We need to stop so I can heal Zuko..."

"And yourself..." Aang added, a hint of frustration at the interactions between the two.

"Right..." Katara nodded, forgetting about the burn on her wrist, and the other on her arm, that only stung when she remembered it was there. She imagined it would be a pain to heal her wrist with the dead nerves, and no matter what she did, she knew it would scar.

But she needed to be in better shape to fight. She knew that even from the prison. She saw the way her bending hesitated before it struck. She saw her hand quiver when it moved, the burn affecting the joint underneath. She needed to be in good fighting shape before the solstice. It would take several healing sessions before she got back to that point.

They kept flying for a few moments, bobbing in and out of the clouds to find a safe place to land.

As they descended out of the clouds, they looked down to see a forest burnt to the ground, pieces of rubble scattered across the dirt.

"Woah..." Sokka spoke, looking down at the burnt forest.

"It looks just like Senlin... there's no life anywhere..." Aang looked down, tears welling up in his eyes. Katara didn't need to look at him to know that he was feeling like it was his fault. He had said the same thing when Hei Bai was attacking Senlin during the solstice. He blamed it all on himself.