War of Change | Book 3

14: A Spark

Art: Kilauea Volcano by Jules Tavernier

On their way back from the session with Kida, Sokka spotted Chit Sang and pulled him aside to discuss their escape plan. However, Suki was more reluctant to go along with it now. Her promise to Natsumi kept ringing in her ears. She'd already left her Kyoshi Warriors behind. She would not do it again, not if she could help it.

Any other time, Sokka might have agreed with her, but he knew this was a lost cause. He told her what he'd seen after their last session with Kida. Jasper had been taken off the island almost immediately. It seemed there was no time to waste for whatever Kida and Ozai had planned for these people. If Natsumi and Katsu were not already gone, then they were on their way off the island as they spoke.

Surprisingly, it was less challenging to convince Zuko. Kida had done most of the convincing for herself. It would be a lie to say that part of his heart didn't still burn. It begged him to put everything aside and risk everything they had to scoop her up and take her away from this place.

However, the part of himself he'd given over to her siblings with the promise he made himself when he thought he'd never see her again. It still existed. That part told him to protect them at all costs because that's what she would do, and right now, it told him to get Sokka out of here the first chance he got.

He loved Kida, and he'd protect her memory at all costs, even at the cost of losing whatever was left of her.

The plan would go on.

***

"Have the new recruits been transferred?" Kida and her soldiers spoke quietly, finding an empty corridor away from prying ears.

One of the men nodded before answering, "The last we heard, they were already being put on a ship out."

Kida nodded. "Good, those two will need a lot of time to break."

"We've also got word that new arrivals are coming in tomorrow," the other man informed.

She nodded once more as the gears began to turn in her head. "Tell the warden I want to meet with them. They need to know the rules..."

Boots clunked against the metal floors, echoing through the hallway and drawing their attention. Silence fell across the trio. Soon two guards came into sight with a prisoner restrained between them. He had a scar.

Without forethought, Kida cut their path, blocking the way. "Commander Aoshi," the two guards echoed each other's sudden realization. Their heads instantly bent forward in respect.

Zuko's chest clenched. By some chance, he hoped it wasn't actually her. The name didn't match, after all. Maybe this all was a horrible misunderstanding, and Aoshi was some other monstrous woman who didn't look like Kida.

He picked his head up, and there she stood, the imposter wearing the love of his life. He had to separate the two women in his mind because the Kida he knew wouldn't do what she was doing now. It was still her body, though, the only other body he knew almost as well as his own, and that itself seemed blasphemous.