Fire Heart

Chapter 56

Zuko and I walk side by side as we make our way to my mother's house. It's been a few days since she told me about Ozai's followers wanting Zuko off of the throne. There was a break in yesterday while we were having dinner. But Suki, Ty Lee, and Mai took care of it. Zuko has become more protective of Masumi and moved her into our room just to make sure she's safe. So now we're going to visit my mother to ease our minds for a bit.

"Ivy! Zuko!" Mother exclaims as she opens the door. We smile at her before giving her a hug. She lets us into her house and we go to the living room.

"Mother, I need to ask you something." I say. She nods and sits across from Zuko and I.

"Go ahead my daughter." She replies before going to pour each of us a cup of tea.

"Do you know what happened to Father?" I ask. She freezes.

"I'm afraid not...I haven't heard anything about him in years. If he was well, he would've tried to get in contact with you." Mother points out. I nod and look at my lap sadly as Mother hands me a cup of tea. Zuko places a hand on my knee.

"Why haven't you said anything about him to me? I would've sent out a search party and looked into it myself if you had told me sooner." Zuko says. I look up at him.

"I really hadn't thought about him until now. I hardly remember anything about him. We don't need to worry about him right now. Let's focus on other things. Like keeping our family safe." I say. He nods as Mother gives him a cup of tea. But we all put our cups down when we hear a loud crash from down the street. We run outside and gasp when we see a group of people in black body suits run towards us.

"Mother, go back inside and don't come out." I tell her. She nods and does as I say immediately. I look at Zuko.

"Run back to the palace." I say. He looks back at me, his good eye wide in fear.

"What? No! I'm not going to leave you here." Zuko argues. I give him a pleading look.

"Zuko, if you don't go...I'll have to use something on those people that I swore to Katara that I'd never use again." I say. He bites his lip before hugging me.

"I'll send help right away." Zuko says before running off. I turn to the group of people running towards me and get ready to fight them. Once they get close enough, I jump up and kick a large blast of fire at them. The leader redirects it at me and I put a rock pillar up in front of me to block it. I start hitting the pillar, sending rock discs at them. The discs take out three of the people. I then make a circular ramp around me and the remaining four people. I create a ball of air and jump on top of it, riding it around the circular ramp while throwing ice daggers at the black clothed people. Once I take care of them, I put the ramp down and hop off the ball of air. But my heart drops into my stomach when a huge crowd of people dressed in all black come running towards me.

"You want my husband? You'll have to kill me first." I growl before creating lightning and running towards them as well. I let out a yell of anger as I shoot the lightning at the leader of the crowd. Two of them swing chains around my ankles and try to knock me off of my feet. But I turn and shoot fire out of my mouth, making them release me. One of them goes to throw fire balls at me, but I put ice over their hands and kick them in the stomach. I airbend myself into the air and back flip out of the crowd. But I end up landing on someone. I look down and see it's one of the disguised people. I growl and cartwheel away. But that's when something hard hits me in the head. I collapse onto the ground and groan as my vision fades in and out.

"Ivy!" I hear a voice cry. But then everything goes black.

-Time Lapse-

I jump up and get into a fighting stance as soon as I wake up. Where am I? There's a thin mat in the floor and the cage I'm in is made of wood.

"Hey! Let me out of here!" I yell angrily. There's a low cackle from outside my cell.

"I'm not stupid. Who in their right mind would release the Avatar's Guardian? If your family wants you back, they'll have to give us something in return." A raspy male voice tells me. I cross my arms.

"And what is it that you want from them?" I ask. There's another cackle.

"Fire Lord Zuko." The voice says. My eyes widen and I put a hand over my mouth. No! I can't let them have Zuko! But what is there that I can do? How can I tell anyone not to give them what they want? Then it clicks...the only person I can contact is my brother. I sit on the mat and cross my legs. I close my eyes and begin to meditate, hoping that I can get through to Aang.