The Heat that Drives the Light

Chapter 8

*two months later*

I was jolted awake by a shout, turning over to see Zuko scrambling out of the bed. My hand shot out to try and pull him back, but he wrenched out of reach, rushing towards the door. Sitting up I sighed to myself.

Ever since the last assassination attempt, he had been like this. We had tried everything to calm his nerves, but the paranoia always returned.

Zuko pushed open the door and yelled at the guards. I quickly pulled on my robe, covering my somewhat light pajamas, and followed him.

"But there have already been five-" he argued with the guards.

"Zuko," I said to him, placing a hand on his shoulder, "It's just a bad dream."

The firebender turned to look at me, his slightly manic expression betraying him. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, a guard was hit in the head by a flying object. The man crumpled to the ground like a doll in a sickening way that reminded me of the last guard.

Zuko spun around, shooting a flame towards where the flying abject had come from. I pulled out my fans, which I had decided to keep in the pockets of my robe after the last attempt (we all have some level of paranoia, just not always ZUKO'S level of paranoia).

"Show yourself!" Zuko commanded into the darkness of the hallway, his voice ringing out into the night. There was a second of hesitation before another object came flying towards us, followed by a person.

I managed to dodge the weapon, and Zuko sent another blast of fire at the rapidly approaching figure. I noticed that the weapon was some sort of heavy metal ball on a chain, used to fling around and create harm.

It was a crude fire nation invention, something that I had heard earth nation people call 'a disgrace'. I

Understood why, it was clumsy and heavy, it took someone truly skilled to actually use the weapon in an effective way.

The attacker demonstrated this, seeing as how after only a few minutes of fighting Zuko and I they were backed into a corner. I pulled the mask off of them, revealing a girl about my age.

"Convince me not to take your life," Zuko said from behind me. She glared at us, a true hatred burning in her eyes.

"Go ahead," she scoffed, "my family has been loyal to yours for generations! By getting rid of me, you would simply complete the betrayal."

"Your family?" I asked, looking up at Zuko who seemed to be just as confused.

"My father is the mayor of Yu Dao," she said. I recognized the name, realizing it was one of the fire nation colonies in the earth kingdom.

"Yu Dao, the first of the fire nation colonies," Zuko said from above.

"Yes, my home! And you are trying to destroy it with the avatar to promote your little 'peace project'!" she spat at him. I looked back at Zuko whose face was contorted into something between frustration and contemplation.

"Take her away," he finally said to the still awake guard who was cradling the head of the other less conscious one, "and we'll be paying a trip to her father tomorrow morning."

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Yu Dao was a bustling city. I saw people from fire nation and earth kingdom working together and living in harmony. I would be lying if I said I wasn't shocked. I had no idea that the Earth kingdom and Fire nation could coexist peacefully, even though the fire nation had tried to colonize this place. What really shocked me was that the earth kingdom people weren't trying to force the fienation out.