nothing to lose | zuko x oc

09

"so this is the surpent's pass?" sokka inquired, "I thought it would be more windy, you know, like a surpent."

vada was slightly behind the rest of the group, walking with koa and suki.

"maybe they misnamed it." the white-haired waterbender stated.

"oh, look it this writing," ying stated, pointing at the carved writing on a pillar. "how terrible."

"what does it say?" toph quizzed, and katara read it aloud, "abandon hope."

vada frowned. hope is what gotten her this far over the past two years. it's what kept her going. she wouldn't abandon it now. not when it had made her who she was.

"the monks always told me that hope is just a distraction. so maybe we do need to abandon it." aang said.

when did he get so edgy?

vada stepped forward with koa, "we have nothing to lose." she said.

the rest followed her lead and walked along the narrow pass.

koa, vada and aang were in front and at the back, walked sokka and toph.

they had a pretty good protective formation, keeping the fighters both at the front and back, and the three refugees were in the middle, the safest spot.

"the fire nation controls the western lake," suki said, looking at the fire navy ship. "rumour has it that they're working on something big on the other side and they don't want anyone to know."

vada shivered. what could it be? killer shrimp? a super spy base?

ying's husband tripped and fell down, luckily to be caught by toph. she bent him up onto the pathway again, but some rocks fell into the sea.

" they spotted us!" sokka yelled, ushering everyone to run while aang used his airbending to send the fire ball the threw back at them.

vada rushed everyone to go in front of her as anotther fireball hit the mountain causing a rock slide right above suki.

sokka jumped under the rocked and pushed suki out of the way, bracing himself to get hit.

toph calmly bended a ramp so that the rocks wouldn't hit sokka.

as they stopped, sokka ran over to the kyoshi warrior, "suki! are you okay? you have to be more careful!" he said loudly. then, he took her hand in his and walked away as vada watched them go.

"thanks for saving my life, toph," toph said in a deeper voice, "hey, no problem, sokka." she said in her regular voice.

"katara really wasn't lying about him being paranoid." vada stated before running off to follow the others.

~

night quickly fell and everyone set up camp.

vada used some of her bending water to work on koa's wing while suki was about to place her sleeping mat near the ledge.

sokka was quick to grab it. "suki, you shouldn't sleep there. who knows how stable this ledge is? it could collapse at any moment."

vada looked at sokka and then across the campsite at katara. they met eyes and both made a deadpan face at each other.

koa whined as she got to a certain spot on his wing. "sorry, boy. " she mumbled.

koa spread his wing further as she continued healing him. she could only feel a tiny bit more bruising from the wound. the break had likely healed exponentially, he just shouldn't strain his wing too much and stay off of it for a few days.

when vada finished her healing session, she just sat on the ledge, thinking.

she didn't just think of one thing initially, but when 'lee' crossed her mind, she saddened.

she sort of missed the boy, especially now that suki and sokka were reunited.

but then again, she and 'lee' were just travel buddies. they didn't have feelings for each other like the two warriors did.

koa whined, laying his large her in vada's lap. "yeah, I miss him, too." she told the canine.

"miss who?" katara questioned, sitting down next to her.

"oh, just some guy." she said, "we traveled together for a few days before I met you guys."

"wow, what's he like?" katara questioned, curious about her white-haired friend's taste in men.

the older girl hummed, "stoic, quiet, moody." she listed, "he has an almost permanent scowl on his face. and he's a bit abrasive, sometimes."

katara raised and eyebrow as her friend continued. "but he has a killer smile when it decides to come out. and he doesn't complain about my constant yapping."

katara almost swooned, it was cute to see someone else crushing on someone. "oh, and he's actually a sweetheart underneath that rigid shell."

"does this boy have a name?" katara questioned and vada smiled. "his name's Lee."

~

the next day, they kept moving through the pass calmly. but something stopped them.

a chunk of land was missing, so they couldn't cross on foot.

vada and katara seemed to share a thought with this one and beckoned everyone to stand single file.

katara was in the front while vada was in the back, with koa just in front of her.

the two waterbenders bent a bubble around them as they walked under the ocean.

it was difficult so, vada called out to aang. "aang, mind lending a hand?"

the boy handed his staff to toph and gave some support from the middle of the line, keeping it up.

after a minute of walking a shadow casted over the group and koa behan growling at it.

"that can't be good." the white haired girl said.

the shadow suddenly passed through their little waterbubble, causing it to begin collapsing.

vada panicked and shot her hands out to the top, basically boring a hole through the water so that toph could bend them up safely.

as they stood on their little island, a long, green serpent swam around them in circles.

"i guess now we know why it's called 'the serpent's pass'" vada deadpanned looking at the animal.

the serpent emerged from the water and let out a deafening screech. vada stepped into the water, bending a surfboard made of ice. "aang and I will distract it. katara, get everyone across." she said, using her bending to propel her forward.

instead if using tradtional forms, like she had started doing since the library, vada reverted back to her fire and earth based bending.

she sent massive jets and gushes of water towards the surpent with as much force as she could.

the serpent screeched again and began swimming towards the others.

vada bent up a huge ice glacier, freezing it inside momentarily, as it broke apart just seconds later.

aang, katara and vada all created a giant whirlpool that spun the serpent around and sent it straight into some rocks nearby.

as they returned back to the group, vada looked around. "where's koa?"

the people looked around and sokka pointed out to sea where koa was sparling around in the water.

"spirits! why didn't any of you keep an eye on him! he's afraid of water!" she hollered angrily before bending a big canoe of ice and jumping in it.

everyone seemed surprised by the usually calm and happy girl's sudden anger. she bended the canoe to koa and used her bending to get him out of the water.

the canine let out a happy bark upon seeing her and licked her face as she bent them back to the group.