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"What do you want from me?" I asked, still struggling in the chains that bound me to the wall. With every shake, they made a clinking sound against the brown worn-out brick wall.
"Nothing from you, I just want the Avatar to do my bidding," Zhao said nonchalantly, his smirk only growing while he paced from left to right. "And the Avatar will gladly trade himself out for you."
"You know that will never happen, right? Aang would never do that," I had confidence in my words, even though it was starting to falter. I had been here, trapped, for almost 2 days. It was hard to tell the time when you can't see whether its night or day.
"But I can make him," Zhao added, leaning over through the bars and grinned. His eyes were wide and he was intently staring at me.
"W-what do you mean?" I asked, jerking my head away from Zhao's grip. I was truly scared. If he could do something to get the most powerful being to turn evil, nothing could stop him. I knew that. I had tried to escape this prison, there's no water and I can't Bloodbend even if I tried because of the lack of moonlight.
"What are you doing telling the little girl our plans, Zhao?" A menacing, quite familiar voice rang out.
"Azula?"
"Yes, 10 points for guessing correctly," she confirmed sarcastically, clapping her hands slowly as she crept closer to where I was. I was completely at her mercy. There was nothing I could do. Azula could kill me with one strike of her lightning, and I had no water to heal or defend myself.
"How did you get out?" I asked, trying to scoot away from her, but her grip on my arm was as strong as her lightning.
"Zhao here helped me and told me some of his plans for the Avatar," Azula smirked, her eyes glistened a powerful shade of gold with red specks swimming inside. Her lips were curved up slightly higher on her right and her knuckles were turning white from her grip. She squeezed my wrist further and I tried to refrain from wincing at her cold touch. "But the questions are for me to ask, Katara." Azula spat out my name so venomously, I almost staggered from my position. She returned her facial expression to cold and neutral, whispered something to Zhao, and closed the large steel door, and left.
She let go of my hand, and it hit the cool air, building up water on the edge of my wrist. I brought it up to my eye level and tried to waterbend it of my arm. The water shifted a bit but eventually sunk into my skin.
"Don't even try to waterbend, it won't work," Zhao cackled, making me shift uncomfortably and feel the rough ground below. The rocks and pebbles poked at my skin and created rough cuts that stung like bees.
"Is it ready, Long Feng?" Azula's voice echoed through the hallways, still keeping the menacing edge to her tone. I could tell she was smirking, but, really, she didn't do anything else. "I need it when the Avatar arrives."
"It will be ready, no need to worry," Long Feng's much quieter voice echoed through, making it harder for me to interpret the last part, "Then, the world will have a new cycle of Avatar, the Dark Avatar."
Oh god.
We were in trouble. Big, deep, trouble. If they could turn Aang bad, the world would fall into complete chaos and there would be no such thing as hope. With the Avatar on their side, they could dominate all the kingdoms. Which is probably what they're trying to do. But how?
The whispers started up again and I shifted myself as far as I could without making a sound.
"... Vaatu... merge... ready?" It was Azula's voice and it was coming closer. I could only hear one pair of footsteps and they eventually faded and stopped in front of the door. The large worn-out block of steel jiggled for a moment and then was pounded on. And finally, broken down in a series of blue flames. Anger issues.
"When will the Avatar arrive?" Azula's impatient voice echoed through the large room. She pointed to me in disgust and turned back to Zhao for an answer.
"We sent a letter to the Southern Water Tribe, they should've received it yesterday," Zhao told her, keeping a straight face with no emotion. The corner of Azula's lips turned up into a nasty grin and the look in her eyes was pure evil.
"Have they returned it yet?" Azula sighed, pulling herself onto the dust-covered table. Zhao remained silent and Azula took that as a no. "Didn't I tell you to give the messenger bird both locations! They won't know where to send it back!"
"I did, they might be figuring out what to write back," Zhao shrugged. Wrong move.
"Might be?" Azula continued exasperated. The look on her face was not good. Zhao seemed to catch that and turned completely to Azula.
"I think the-" Just as Zhao was speaking, a Fire Nation officer, not more than twenty, marched to where Azula was perched on the table, still breathing heavily. Azula raised an eyebrow at him, telling him to open the piece or wrinkled parchment in his hand.
"It is a letter from the Southern Water Tribe," the guard confirmed, ripping open the navy blue seal on the paper, causing it to make a ripping sound.
Azula,
Please give me the location I have to come to. I shall be waiting.
Avatar Aang
Two days earlier [Aang's POV] ...
"She's gone," I said to the officials sitting on the round table, trying to keep my calm and not snap at one of the elderly people sitting on the table. "I am certain the Red Lotus took her."
"But why?" one of the older-looking officials with a long grey beard asked.
"To lure me," I told him coldly. My normally grey eyes had whipped up a storm, "Which villain doesn't want the Avatar out of their path?"
"I have a proposition," Hakoda said, pulling his chair back with a creak and standing up, towering over the others. "We can send all the contestants to save her. That way, we can kill two birds with one stone."
"It's a good idea."
"Makes sense."
"No harm trying."
Murmurs of agreement erupted across the Council Room. Just as they were about to conclude there was an abrupt knock on the giant door of the room. A short-looking man came in with a scroll in hand that he handed to me.
I unraveled the silky red string and began reading the letter:
Dear Avatar,
I bet you want to see your sweet girlfriend again. There will be a messenger hawk coming with a letter with the information for finding her. I hope you cooperate, or we'll have to do this the hard way. I bet you don't want to see the precious little girl hurt.
Azula
Tell me if that chapter was a bit boring. I rushed it. I was up till midnight writing, and I published. But, it didn't publish. Oops. Comment and Vote, byeee.
