The Seconded Waterbender(Avatar FF)

Book Two: Earth[Nightmares]

Zuko wakes to Marius' groaning in his sleep. The older male is muttering and calling out his sister's name, Zuko can visibly see water in the bins and vases around the room quaking at Marius' distress. Not wanting to see what would happen if this continued, Zuko tried to wake Marius up. "Marius? Wake up," Zuko called shaking the older male's shoulder. Marius clutching the sheets mumbled incoherently and flinched in on himself a bit,

In his dream, Marius stood in the Fire Nation's port, it was dark, possibly a few hours after midnight, he stood near the water's edge waiting for someone when shadows and shapes surrounded him, crouching into a defensive position, he bent water to circle him and protect him, but when he turned to the ringleader of the attack, he couldn't see who it was but his dream-self knew who it was,

Which caused him to falter and allow shadow figures to grab him and restrain him. Struggling he heard the person speak and he spoke back but he couldn't hear either, but whatever he said made the leader angry enough to run him through with a small sword. It pierced right through him and it woke him with a jolt, which coincided with Zuko shaking him awake, panting and breathless, Marius struggled to catch his breath. "Marius?" Zuko called to him again,

Calming down enough to look at Zuko, he felt bad. His nightmare was troubling but it seemed like nothing when he saw how worried Zuko looked, reaching over to Zuko, Marius pulled him in for a kiss, keeping it sweet and calm to reassure Zuko that he was fine and that it was all just a dream, 

Marius knew Zuko would want to know what had happened, but he couldn't bear telling Zuko because of what was going on, so he lay back down pulling Zuko with him and told him something else instead, having Zuko lay on his chest while his arm curled across his back. "sorry for worrying you, my sister's kinda mad at me," Marius said, which confused Zuko. "She's not exactly dead, she's literally the moon so she watches over me and our family," Marius said,

"She's also the other half of me, we were bonded through the Moon and Ocean spirits, while I'm still bonded to the Ocean Spirit, she's got a lot of sway over me," Marius said, "So because I'm not helping the Avatar she's yelling at me in my dreams to help, but I'm fighting against it, reasons varying," he added. Zuko felt bad, if he hadn't listened to Azula when she said their father wanted him home, they wouldn't be on the run.

Marius wouldn't have felt the need to leave in the first place, Marius feeling Zuko's thoughts, squeezed him tighter, "Stop it," he said, "I could have decided not to leave Aang and the others just as much as I could have stayed, but I chose you," he said, "And I'll never regret that." he added while snuggling closer to Zuko. Nala feeling left out, wiggled closer to their bed, dropped her heavy head on the two of them, making them groan and laugh lightly. 

Settling the heavy mood that had been on them.

*** 

Marius has guided Zuko and Iroh to another Earth Kingdom village. Marius looks around for what he's brought them there for and when he finds it he smirks, "Wait here, I'll be right back." he then leaves Nala with Zuko and Iroh. Marius blends in with the people carrying backpacks and other loads walk back and forth over the bridge, either entering or departing the small village. But Zuko is still able to see Marius thanks to his Water-Tribe clothing and his height.

Zuko spent the next little while keeping his eyes open for Marius. It felt wrong to him to have Marius away from his side for too long, making him wonder why he ever let Marius get away from him for so long without going crazy, it didn't help that every night Marius was plagued with nightmares which ended in him not sleeping enough, which worried Zuko, Nala sensing Zuko's unease wiggled closer and set her head under his arm for attention,

Which he gave her to also appease his own need for attention.  A cart with masks for sale passes by in front of them; One of the masks is seen to be the Blue Spirit mask. As the cart passes, another pedestrian walks in front of Iroh. Iroh holds his hat out to the pedestrian and begins to talk to him. Iroh smiles somewhat enthusiastically. "Spare coins for weary travellers?" The pedestrian tosses a couple of copper pieces into Iroh's hat as Zuko turns to Iroh in anger. 

"Why are you doing that? Marius said to wait for him, not beg for spare change." Zuko said angrily, with his arms folded. "Did you really want Marius to take care of everything?" Iroh asked and Zuko frowned and blushed embarrassingly. "No I didn't but this isn't how I planned on repaying him," Zuko argued back. A peasant woman strolls past; somewhat dramatically. "Spare change for a hungry old man?" Iroh says and the Peasant girl withdraws a coin from her sleeve. 

"Aw, here you go." she cooed, "The coin is appreciated, but not as much as your smile!" Iroh flirts, Zuko slaps his forehead in frustration as the young girl giggles lightly and walks away. As soon as she walks away, a man with dual broadswords on his back wanders up to Iroh and Zuko. The man smiles, "How about some entertainment in exchange for ... a gold piece?" He says as he pulls the piece from his pocket with a flourish. 

Zuko annoyed now says. "We're not performers." Iroh stands up. "Not professional anyway." He says putting his hat down and stands up, swaying slightly as he begins to sing. "It's a long, long way to Ba Sing Se, but the girls in the city, they look so pretty!" The man annoyed with the quality of the entertainment growls, "Come on, we're talking a gold piece here! Let's see some action!" Zuko glances up sharply as the man withdraws his swords. 

Nala jumps up and starts to growl and snarl at the armed man, she puts her body between her Master's lover and his uncle, quickly drawing the man's attention from them and to her, "A Polarbear Dog, where did you get such a fine beast," the man says, "She's not a--" Zuko starts trying to defend her as she's not a beast but a lady, but the man cuts him off, "I'll give you ten gold pieces for it," he batters, which angers Zuko,

Marius coming back as the man is trying to buy Nala, who is trying to protect Zuko and Iroh, it's gotten to the point where Zuko and Iroh are refusing to even acknowledge him and he's drawn his weapons again to get them to hand over Nala, or he'll kill them and just take her, Marius is even more irritable because of his lack of sleep so this attempt on his loved ones is making him very angry. 

Coming up behind the man, just as he's about to swing his swords, Marius grabs his wrists and holds them tight. "Leave before I give you a reason to draw your weapons," he snarled, the man shivered in fear as he looked back at Marius and saw what his actions would get him. Jumping away from Marius the man had a look of pure anger on his face, it was more like a wounded pride anger than anything else. 

Holding his swords up to insinuate that he wanted to fight Marius. Marius rolled his eyes and Zuko smirked, Marius is not someone that is easy to beat, giving the man a certain look set him off and he lunged to attack, but Marius easily countered by using the training moves he'd been working on with Zuko and Iroh, when the man's arms fell limply at his side, Marius picked up the swords. 

"These are horribly unbalanced." then like a strike of lightning he snapped them both over his knee, the man gasped and sobbed over the broken swords, "The Polarber dog isn't for sale, she'd eat you first before letting you take her anywhere," and to prove his point Nala opened her mouth and showed off all her pretty sharp white teeth, "Try investing it in better quality weapons," Marius said as he walked by the man and over to Zuko, Nala and Iroh, 

"You three okay?" he asked a hand, set on both their shoulders, while Nala stood up and set her massive paws on Marius' shoulders, her head resting against his as her tail wagged happily, Zuko could feel Marius' hands shaking with anger. "We're fine, let's get going," Zuko said, not wanting to draw more attention to themselves. "Yes lets," Marius said and helped Iroh onto Nala's back after she got down off of Marius, while he and Zuko would walk beside her.