822 Chapter 51
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NICKELODEON'S AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER OR ITS CHARACTERS. I just hope that we can find out what happened to Sokka before "The Legend of Korra" ends!
Lan looked at the parchment in front of her and frowned. How could she do this? How could she write a good-bye letter to Ming and Fai? How could she explain her actions to them - how could she explain treachery?
But she would explain. She must. She had to make them understand why she had done what she had done - why she had betrayed her country. Why she had betrayed them.
They deserved an explanation.
She could almost see Fai's face when he read the letter - sad and disappointed.
She could picture Ming as well - kind, fierce Ming who had taken her in - she, a lonely, discarded child - and had given Lan everything.
Lan could almost see the sorrow on her aunt's face as clearly as she could see the parchment before her. Sorrow that Lan Chi had chosen such a path. Sorrow that Lan had willingly given herself up.
Oh, how could she explain to Ming the circumstances and the reasons that had led her to sacrifice herself for Zuko and Iroh? Ming would never understand - or forgive - Lan for throwing her life away.
She sighed, and wearily rubbed her head. How could she even begin to write such a letter, knowing that it would be the last thing that she ever wrote to her aunt?
A sudden banging at her door spared her further thoughts.
"Lan! Open up!" Zuko's voice, although muffled, came through the panels, and Lan Chi startled, pushing the table away from her.
"Open the door, Lan Chi!" She could hear his fist pounding on the door, and she wondered, for a very brief moment, if she could ignore him. "Open it, or I swear that I'll break it down! I mean it!"
She stood and stared at the door. She did not want to see him - not now. She could not bear his anger and contempt. She simply - could not.
The panels of the door began to shudder, and she remembered, suddenly, Zuko kicking in her door when he had thought that a spirit had come in through her window. Although he had broken the door down in an effort to protect her then, it was anger fueling him now, not concern.
Still, she did not want the inevitable scandalous scene that would accompany explaining the door's destruction to the crew, so she opened it, albeit reluctantly.
As the sight of his face, mottled red with rage and twisted in displeasure, she lifted a hand. "If you are here to chastise me again, Prince Zuko, do not. I am well aware of your opinion of me."
He pushed past her and slammed the door behind him. "You stupid, stupid, stupid girl!" He folded his arms across his chest.
A glare settled on her face. "Yes, Zuko, believe me, I know how you feel, so please be kind enough to leave - now. I have other things to do, and little time to do them." She turned from him deliberately, but he grabbed her upper arm and spun her back around.
"Uncle told me your - your -" he struggled for the correct word, "asinine idea."
Her eyes opened wider. "H - he did?" Her face reddened. "He had no right!"
"No right?! Have your wits gone begging?! You're planning to turn yourself into the Fire Nation and give me credit for capturing you, and you say that Uncle has no right to tell me?! Are you insane?!" His voice was tight with emotion.
She blinked. "I - I..." She pulled her arm from him. "I can do what I want." She said lamely.
"They'll put you to death!" He shrieked. "Do you understand that?!"
