The Half of Me | Zuko

Chapter Thirteen: Bato and the Water Tribe [P1]

It wasn't long before Ryoko felt more comfortable around the three. She never said she would stay with them on their team yet she felt as though she belonged. When she would laugh with them, she felt guilty. Every night she barely got any sleep still, dreams haunting her, except more dreams to remind her of her guilt for leaving the ship. Ryoko knew she eventually had to leave the team they made. She made excuses each time that she wouldn't be able to find the ship, but she knew deep down that she wanted to find more time around the teens she started to consider her friends.

Ryoko wasn't quite ready yet to face her destiny. As she stared at the back of the Avatar's head she got lost in thought. Could she truly abandon everyone for this?

"Have you thought about it more?" Ryoko turns her head to look at Katara who walked beside her. Ryoko knew what she was talking about and sighed.

As the days went by with Ryoko, the three wanted her to stay longer. Besides her obvious spiritual connection to the Avatar, it felt like she always belonged. She laughed with them, enjoyed time together and bonded. The siblings from the water tribe never thought they'd see the day where they'd be closer to the firebender.

"It's all I can think about."

If staying meant not leaving behind her friends and family to fight against all of them she would have stayed already. But that wasn't the case, Ryoko knew the consequences of her actions. It would mean she would have to fight against Zuko who had been chasing Aang all along. The thought of fighting Zuko made her stomach turn. There was training and sparring, and then there was fighting until someone couldn't get back up. She still had to think of her decision, before it was too late.

Katara pats her arm comfortingly and smiles. "I know you'll make the right choice." Katara enjoyed having another girl besides her brother and Aang. She wanted to trust Ryoko to make the right decision, with a little push from all of them possibly. She just didn't know if they really could trust her when the moment came and she had to face their enemies.

The two girls walked quicker when they notice the boys disappeared down the hill, making their way down to see Aang and Sokka looking through bushes. "Did someone lose something?" Katara asks them.

"No, we found something," Aang answers excitedly. Ryoko enjoyed how the three of them always were upbeat in their travels, discovering something along the way.

They continued down the hill as Sokka picks up an arrow. "It's burnt." Ryoko scrunches her brows together, standing over Sokka who knelt down. Sokka gets up past her and finds a tree, brushing his hands over it. "There was a battle. Water tribe warriors ambushed a group of firebenders," Sokka explains, but Ryoko could tell the story too. It didn't look like a normal attack from firebenders, they had to be taken by surprise from the warriors. "The firebenders fought back, but the warriors drove them down this hill." The four of them run down the trail and land on sandy beaches.

"So then what happened?" Aang asks Sokka.

"I don't know. The trail ends here." Sokka looks down, disappointed but perks up when Katara yells out. At the edge of the beach was one of the boats of the water tribe.

"It's one of our boats!" Ryoko didn't know how to feel as she saw the large boat on the shore, knowing they might be around and firebenders were attacked. For so long she conditioned herself to be on one side and now she stood with them like she had been there since the beginning.

"Is this dad's boat?" Katara asks Sokka who stood with her at the boat already. Ryoko and Aang run over to catch up behind them.

"No," Sokka answers while feeling the boat from home, "but it's from his fleet. Dad was here." If the boat was still here and undamaged, it meant they might have succeeded against the firebenders. Ryoko's face was expressionless, her lips set in a straight line. How could she feel when soldiers from her home were attacked?