White Hot Flames (ZukoxOC)

33

        Early the next morning, the girls all make their way to town, Katara and Toph to pull their scheme and Rezalia to watch and make sure things didn't get too out of hand. Climbing onto the rooftops, Rezalia calmly watches as Katara mutters something to Toph, who nods and walks a little ways off. Katara makes her way over to a nearby guard and holds up the poster, pointing to Toph with her free hand.

The guard instantly calls over a few nearby coworkers and they begin to walk toward Toph quickly. Unbeknownst to them, she could sense them coming and broke out into a run when they had gotten close enough. The earthbender lead them around in a small chase, ending in the center of town, where Katara waited. Rezalia moved silently from rooftop to rooftop, following Toph on her journey and settling down when she had rejoined the waterbender.

Once she had sensed Katara, Toph allows one of the guard's nets to encompass her. Looking up, she calls out loudly, "How could you do this to me? You betrayed me!"

"You brought this on yourself. I had no choice," Katara responds coldly in a surprising show of acting skill before turning away from her friend. Toph gets dragged away and Katara is taken aside to collect her reward. As she walks back to camp, Rezalia notices someone trailing her and stops.

"Did you need something?" she snaps, head turned just slightly in the direction of her shadow.

Tierson steps out from behind a nearby tree, a sheepish grin on his face. "Sorry, Rezalia."

Rezalia whips around. "Tierson?!"

"Yeah," he says, smiling brightly at the girl. "I didn't mean to freak you out or anything, I was just...worried."

Rezalia crosses her arms and raises a single eyebrow. "Worried?" she echoes. "What for? I can take care of myself, you know."

"No, I know!" The former crew member rushes to explain. "It's just...well, there's a huge bounty on your head right now. When Prince Zuko returned, the reward for your capture, dead or alive, went up by a lot."

Rezalia leans against a tree, tilting her head to the side. "You gonna turn me in, Tierson?" she asks teasingly, knowing damn well that he would never.

Tierson didn't seem to understand that she was messing with him. "Of course not!" he practically shouts. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay!"

"Relax, Tier," Rezalia laughs a bit, not commenting on the red that colored the boy's cheeks upon the nickname slipping her lips. "I know. Say, you'd be down for a revolution, yeah?"

Tierson blinks, taken aback. "Like...against the Fire Lord? I mean, as long as I don't die or anything, yeah. He's kind of a huge dick."

His words startle a lough out of Rezalia. "Who knew you had it in you," she muses. "In that case, follow me. Again."

Tierson flushes once more at her teasing but silently trails after her as she sets off toward camp once more. Sokka didn't notice Tierson at first, far too focused on trying to get his hawk to fly somewhere. Anywhere. When he does eventually look up, he practically shrieks. "Who are you?!"

"This is Tierson," Rezalia introduces as she sits down. "He was a member of the crew for the ship I was on way back when."

"And you brought him here?!" Sokka hisses, though Tierson most definitely heard him.

Rezalia nods and pats the ground for her friend to take a seat. "Yup. He's down for kicking Ozai's ass." Sokka looked close to passing out. If this was how Sokka reacted, Rezalia couldn't wait for Katara to find out. "Oh, relax. He's cool. I wouldn't have brought him if he was a spy."

"Oh, 'cause you just know when people are spies," Sokka scoffs.

"I mean, obviously," Rezalia scoffs playfully, a grin playing at the corners of her lips. "It's a gift really."

Sokka wasn't impressed. "I hate you, I hope you know that. I hope Katara beats your ass."

"She can try," Rezalia says offhandedly as she looks around. "Where's Aang?"

Aang was frowning and didn't even comment on Tierson's presence. "Do you think this scam of theirs should be taking this long?"

"I was just wondering the same thing. We'd better check it out," Sokka says, getting to his feet. "You stay here. Appa's in charge."

Rezalia snorts and shrugs at Tierson. "Guess we're leaving you here. Try not to chew anything up, yeah?" Tierson snorts and nods.

After walking through the town for a while, Rezalia lets out an annoyed sound. "Where the hell are they?!"

"Where do you think anyone is?" Aang replies. His words are meet with the sudden appearance of Combustion Man. "Sokka, watch out! It's 'Sparky-Sparky Boom Man'!"

Rezalia curses and ducks out of the way. "You know," Sokka calls. "I'm starting to think that name doesn't fit."

"Not the time!" Rezalia snaps.

"Right, sorry!"

The three of them continue to duck and weave but the mercenary continues his attack without pause. It was beginning to piss Rezalia off. Sokka loudly whines about how low their chances are, which thank you Sokka, that's very helpful. Aang screams at Rezalia to turn around. She does so, coming faced to face with an incoming fire ball.

Instinctually, Rezalia braces one foot behind her and raises her hands, the blast stopping as if it had hit a wall and travelling upward. The fire disapates, hot air rustling Rezalia's hair and clothes. The assasian makes eye contact with the girl and takes a step back. He hadn't known she would be here. The prince hadn't mentioned anything about her. He hesitated. His job was to kill the avatar and those he travelled with. Did that extend to the Devil of the Fire Nation? Everyone knew that Prince Zuko and the girl were practically attached at the hip. Or rather, had been.

During the man's hesitation, Katara and Toph swoop down on Appa and gather the others before flying off. The man doesn't pursue. Rezalia watches warily as he grows smaller in the distance. "Why didn't he come after us?" Toph asks, not hearing the tell tale blasts of their attacker.

"I can't be certain," Rezalia mutters. "But I don't think he knew I was travelling with you guys."

The others frown a bit, thinking it over. "Oh, hey," Aang says suddenly. "That move you did back there, to block the blast, it looked like an earth bending move."

"It was," Rezalia nods. Upon seeing the confusion of the others, she elaborates. "I'm proficent in bending techniques from all the nations and apply them to my fire. Makes fighting easier."

Katara decides not to comment on the fact that the girl rarely used her bending in battle. The rest of the flight was fairly peacful as Rezalia leaned over the edge of Appa's sadle and let her mind numb, refusing to think of anything but the way the wind felt as it ran through her hair.