Balance | Old Version

Chapter 82 (The Crossroad Of Destiny)

Elua's POV.

We had been flying for while now, the sun had just begun to rise into the sky and it felt as if the journey back to Ba Sing Sa was taking forever.
"So, what kind of trouble is Katara in?" Sokka asks us.
"I don't know. In my vision, I just knew she needed help," Aang says in confusion.
"It would be nice if your Avatar powers could be just a little more specific from time to time," Sokka says, worrying for his little sister.
"What did you see Elua?" Aang asks as they both turn to me.
"I don't know, everything felt peaceful and then suddenly I felt panicked," I tell them. "I was running and then I was falling. It was as if I was Katara for a moment," I explain as I look down in confusion. Sokka looks at me worriedly as he puts an arm around my waist in a comforting way.

"What is that?!" Sokka suddenly asks as we look down to where he's looking and see a dust cloud. Appa flies down to get a closer look and we see it's Toph bending the earth so she moves faster.
"Need a ride?" Sokka asks her, scaring her and making her fall.
"Ahhh!" She shouts as she falls to the ground with a thud. We land for a moment and she gets on Appa as we take off again. I look over to Aang, he seemed to be out of it.
"Aang, are you ok?" I ask him worriedly.
"I'm great. It went great with the Guru. I completely mastered the Avatar State," Aang says in an almost panicked voice. "Heh heh...heh. Yeah," He says nervously as he looks away from me. I can tell he's lying but, I don't question it.

Appa lands near the palace and we run into the throne room, the King looks at us in surprise.
"Sir, where is Katara? Is she okay?" I ask the King in concern.
"Katara's fine. You have nothing to worry about," The King answers simply.
"But, in my vision. I felt so sure that she was in trouble," Aang says.
"Well, she met with the Council of Generals to plan the invasion. And since then she's been off with your friends, the Kyoshi Warriors," The King tells us.
"See Aang? She's with Suki. They're probably back at our apartment right now, talking about makeup or something," Sokka says. I frown, this doesn't make any sense.
"Ok, maybe you're right," Aang says, starting to relax.

"Believe me, if there was any danger at all, Bosco's animal instinct would sense it," The King says petting Bosco. Aang and Sokka decide to go back to the house, but I decide to go find the Kyoshi warriors. I walk outside and look around, so far I had found no one. After a few minutes, I think I see Suki near the entrance of the palace.
"Suki!" I shout. She turns around and I see...Azula. I glare at her. "You're not Suki," I say as I take a bending stance.
"No, I'm not," Azula says smirking as she starts to throw her flames at me, but I dodge them and fight back. I send a gust of air at her knocking her down, but she gets right back up. She sends a blast of fire at me, but I quickly dissipate it.

We keep fighting, but after a while, I realize that she had probably taken Katara somewhere and the only chance of finding her, was to be taken there myself. I start to act as though I'm getting tired and she knocks me to the ground.
"You're not as good as you think you are," Azula says with a smirk as Dai Lee agents cuff me and start to take me somewhere. We walk for a while until they open a hatch in the ground, I frown in confusion.
"We found you two a friend," They say as they throw me down the hatch. I fall into some kind of cave, crystals all over the walls.
"Elua!" I hear Katara shout, I look behind me and see her run over to me.
"Katara! You're okay," I say as she helps me up and we hug each other.

"We were so worried about you! Now Sokka and Aang will worry about both of us now," I tell her.
"We have a bigger problem than that," Katara tells me as she moves aside and I see...Zuko?
"Why is he here?" I whisper to her.
"I don't know, they threw him in a few minutes before you," She tells me.
"Should start asking questions?" I ask her, she nods and we turn to him.
"Why did they throw you in here?" I ask Zuko, trying not to raise my voice.
"It's a trap, isn't it? So when Aang shows up to rescue us, you can finally have him in your little Fire Nation clutches," Katara says glaring at him. "You're a terrible person, you know that? Always following us, hunting the Avatar, trying to capture the world's last hope for peace!" She exclaims in anger.

"But, what do you care? You're the Fire Lord's son. Spreading war and violence and hatred is in your blood," Katara spits.
"You don't know what you're talking about," Zuko tells her as he turns away from us.
"I don't?! How dare you! You have no idea what this war has put me through. Me personally," Katara says as she glares at him. "The Fire Nation took my mother away from me," She says sadly as she touches her mother's necklace, tears rolling down her cheeks.
"I'm sorry. That's something we have in common," He tells her sorrowfully. We sit in silence for a while, until Katara calms down.
"I'm sorry I yelled at you before," Katara says softly.
"It doesn't matter," Zuko states.

"It's just that for so long now, whenever I would imagine the face of the enemy, it was your face," Katara tells him.
"My face. I see," Zuko says, touching his scar.
"No, no, that's not what I meant," Katara says, not meaning to insult him.
"It's ok. I used to think this scar marked me. The mark of the banished prince cursed to chase the Avatar forever. But lately, I've realized I'm free to determine my own destiny, even if I'll never be free of my mark," Zuko explains, he seemed to have changed for the better.
"Maybe you could be free of it," I tell him as I look over tp Katara.

"What?" Zuko asks in confusion.
"Elua is right! We have healing abilities," Katara says as she stands up.
"It's a scar. It can't be healed," Zuko states. Katara holds up the necklace with the water from the Spirit Oasis that Pakku had given to her.
"This is water from the Spirit Oasis at the North Pole. It has special properties, so I have been saving it for something important," Katara tells him. "I don't know if it would work, but..." She trails off as she steps over to him. But before she can to anything, someone breaks through the wall of the cave. We all turn around in surprise, getting ready for a fight. But, we see Aang and Iroh.

"Aang!"