Kissed By Fire

Part 54: The Spy

To make up for not updating for so long, I've written a super long chapter!! Thank's so much to everyone who's still reading this story and double thank you if you've also started reading my other ATLA fanfic. Hope you enjoy!!!!

Zuko's arms kept Anut warm while she was awake, but as soon as she drifted off to sleep, they disappeared, and the young girl was once again plunged into her dreamworld.

Anut was on a ship- not a mighty oceanic vessel, but rather a small lake boat. Fire Nation soldiers swarmed the deck, but she also saw the pirates who double-crossed Zuko. Captain Shir Nu's iguana parrot flew down from one of the smokestacks and landed in front of Anut, where she knelt on the floor, hands tied behind her back, his beady black eyes boring deep into hers.

"Commander Zhao." The captain shoved past the redhead's bound body, meeting the side-burned man as he exited his personal cabin. "We've brought your runaway bride, just as you requested."

Zhao sneered, his face warping unnaturally, the wrinkles deepening in his weathered skin. Anut never found him remotely attractive, but she knew no human looked this... disturbing.

"Our negotiated price is 50,000 gold pieces."

"First, I'll need to examine the merchandise."

He walked towards her, slow as syrup, boots echoing off the metal deck. As he drew closer and closer, her head began to split agonizingly, tears streaming down her cheeks. No, when the drops hit her bare thighs, she saw they were bright red: blood.

The commander grabbed her by the chin, forcing her to look at him, the pain in her head quadrupling, practically blinding her.

"Everything seems in order. Except for one thing."

His hands slid down Anut's chest and to her stomach, resting there. She looked down and saw her belly was round, pregnant. Her eyes nearly bulged out of her sockets, mouth falling open, the ship's deck starting to list leftwards, the sky overheard turning tinged red.

How could this have happened? When could this have happened? Is it Zuko's?

Anut didn't know how she knew this, but it wasn't the prince's. For some reason, she knew this baby wasn't even human.

"Can't have that, now can we?" Zhao said through clenched teeth, though he remained smiling.

The riverboat tilted even farther left, never returning rightwards, and the young girl knew this was not the result of choppy waters, but of an unstable world. The pirates and soldiers stayed upright, but only the commander's hand on Anut's arm kept her from sliding off the deck.

Zhao drew his dagger from its sheath- a seax, she realized- slicing her belly clean in half, blood spurting from the wound. It hurt, but not like a deadly wound should, more like a dull, throbbing ache. The sky turned bright red, casting the world in a haunted glow. Looking up, Anut thought she saw a crimson sun darker than everything around it, but then she realized it was an eye, the bloody eye of Morrighana.

As the boat listed further and further to the left, Anut could no longer keep from tumbling off, careening across the smooth, metal deck, the soldiers making no attempt to save her as she slid through the bars of the railing, splashing into the river. As the water flooded her mouth and nose, she realized it wasn't water at all, but blood, thick and metallic, nearly impossible to stay afloat in.

On the side of the river, Anut saw a woman in blue clothing standing with her arms wide, her dark hair flying out at the sides in an unseen and unfelt torrential wind.