The Pirate Empress

14

"Come on, come on, wake up!" someone whispered in my ear. "Don't be dead!"

"Who the hell -" a hand was clamped over my mouth.

"It's Izumi, your daughter, remember?" She hugged me.

"Good," I whisper. "Who else is up?"

"Everyone except -"

"Get off me!" Someone said a few yards to my right, only to be cut off by whispers.

"Well, Sokka's up too, I guess."

"Is your sister here?" I shifted into a sitting position.

"Azula is fine."

"Aanshi?"

A beat. "We .. we still don't know, Mom," my second daughter told me.

"We'll find her," I said, more to myself than them. "We'll find her."

"Damn straight," Zari said.

"I'm gonna kill 'em if they touched her," my oldest child and only son mumbled.

"Sokka Wen," I scolded.

"I'd help, you know," Izumi said, "so would you."

"Izumi Lin, you.. you're probably right," my cousin-in-law whispered.

"But," Bumi said, "We can't kill anyone because it'd ruin the Fire Royal Family name."

"To hell with the honour in our name," Azula said. "If it didn't mean I'd be thrown in prison again, I'd take them out myself! But first, we have to -"

The door opened a bit, and a small figure entered. We all slumped down immediately, acting as if we were asleep. The door closed, and a lamp was lit. "It's okay. I know you're awake. I'm here to help you."

I was the first to sit up. "Where the hell is she?"

"She's alive and well. You raised a wonderful firelord."

"She's Firelord? Aanshi's only ten!" Thi Na exclaimed.

The girl blinked. "Ten?" she asked in amazement.

"What, did her half-birthday pass or something?" Sokka asked.

"Princess Aanshi Mai is thirteen today."

"My daughter is thirteen?" Zari asked.

She nodded. I looked around at everyone - the other adults hadn't changed, but I did see it in the kids - Thi Na was five now, Sokka was eighteen, Izumi was sixteen, Toph was fourteen. All of my kids had grown three years older and I hadn't even known. This whole thing had cost three of my children to loose three years, and my baby to be forced into being a ruler for that time.

"I'm going to murder them," I said. Zari nodded in agreement.

"How have we been out this whole time?" Mai asked.

"Some chemical, I don't know what it's called but it wipes you out for a week straight if you're lucky."

"Why did they keep us alive?" Zuko wondered.

"There's supposed to be this big show of killing you next Thursday night, but -" A banging on the door.

"You almost done in there, kid?"

"Yeah! Making sure the bitch tyrants are all out!" She yelled back. "Thought the ugly prince was awake for a minute, but he's done cold!"

To us, she said, "I'll have to go soon, so listen. Tomorrow morning, they're throwing two of you into the back of each carriage and hauling you out to some mountain, nobody knows where it is. Not even the drivers, their directions are going to be radioed in. I have a friend who's good at tech stuff and she's going to tap into the radio frequency, then get our crew in the vans. You'll be in a holding room, acting passed out, when we get there. I don't know who will find you first, but they're going to say "I serve Firelord Zuko," and you'll know they can be trusted. They'll unlock your cuffs and we'll all break out."

She paused, looking into everyone's eyes, before continuing.

"I'm going to be a guard for one of the drivers tomorrow, so I'll be there for sure. I probably don't need to tell you this, but they're not weak, and they have some neat little weapons, but I know you can beat them. You're a scary mix of earth, fire, water, swords, explosives, and knives. All of which, by the way, will be available to you."

"I get to blow them up?" Bumi asked.

"So long as you don't blow any of us up, yes," Izumi said. "I'd allow that."

"Tomorrow I'm coming in to drug you, but with water. Act like you're having a Princess Suyin blowout until I fake drug you."

"Oh, wow," I said.

"You did put up quite the struggle, love," Zari reminded me.

As she opened the door, the man said, "you braiding the princess' hair or something?"

"Nah, just kicking 'em around for fun," the girl said. "Bitch tyrants deserve it!"