Second Chances | Zuko x OC (ATLA)

|Audience With The King|

🔵Kaia🔵

We're on Appa's back, flying towards the palace and having to hang on for dear life since we don't have a saddle. "Can we please buy a new saddle? Riding bareback is terrifying." Toph buries her face in the bison's fur. "There it is," Sokka says and points to the large structure not that far away.

"That whole thing is the palace." Geez, it's huge! "The Earth King's chamber should be in the center."

"We have to be careful," I speak over the wind and they glance at me. "Long Feng's probably warned the king that we're coming."

"Why would you assume that?" I flash the water tribe boy a pointed look. "If you ask me, I think we're just gonna sail right in and—" He yells as Appa suddenly veers to the left to avoid a large boulder. "What was that?" Toph shouts since she can't see what's going on.

"Surface to air rocks!" Sokka exclaims and sees more being launched. "More incoming!" Appa veers right to avoid them. One comes straight at Aang, but he destroys it with his hand making my eyes widen. You can tell that the Avatar's had enough of this. Another one is launched at us head on, but Aang slices it cleanly in two by swinging his staff.

He jumps down to the front of the palace and slams his staff into the ground, generating a massive earthen wave to knock back the palace guards. Appa lands with a growl at the captain's ostrich horse, which drops the captain and runs off. We jump off and follow Aang continuing toward the palace.

More guards appear and launch Earth cubes at us, but Toph and Aang use earthbending to block the attacks while Katara whips away the guards. "Sorry!" I hear her call out and shake my head. Right now I can't safely use my firebending. I watch Katara use her water whip again and an idea forms.

I focus and manage to create thin tendrils of flame in my hands. I smile and emulate the way I saw Katara move, using the whips to destroy projectiles and knock back guards. Once they're taken out more guards appear in front of us, charging in our direction. Toph uses her bending to flip the tiles of the walkway, trapping them between them, ensuring a clear passage for us.

We go around and I hear Katara calling out apologies. "Sorry! We just need to get through to see the Earth King!" We're racing towards the stairs that lead up to the palace when guards suddenly launch two giant statues at us. I stop along with the others as Toph and Aang create an Earth igloo to protect us from them.

Earth showers down on us and the structure shakes from the impact of the hit. Katara races out using the dust kicked up by the statues as cover and takes out the rest of the guards. We go across the bridge and Aang jumps over, freezing the guards in the water below. We finally reach the bottom of the stairs only for more rocks to rain down from the top as even more guards come racing down them.

Does this ever end! I watch as Toph changes the stairs into a ramp, causing all the guards to fall. "Impressive," I say and gather my hair up into a ponytail as they use the new ramp to bend us up. "Seriously, we're actually on your guys' side!" Sokka calls to the guards tumbling past us. "Sorry."

We finally reach the top and rush forward as guards come at us from both sides. Aang and Toph easily push them away with their bending. "In there!" We race into the palace and come to an area with three doors. More guards appear and Toph easily defeats them all.

"Toph, which way to the Earth King?" Sokka asks. "How should I know? I'm still voting we leave Ba Sing Se." As we fight our way through the palace Sokka begins checking each door as we go, looking for the Earth King. Finally when it seems like the endless horde of guards ceases we're left surrounded by rubble.

Sokka climbs atop it and we follow him seeing the largest door I've ever laid eyes on. Seriously, no one needs a door that big! It's taller than two Appa's stacked atop each other. "Now that's an impressive door."