Life Happens Wherever You Are (Zuko x OC)

Chapter 23

**Mara's POV**

            After a while of the Dai Li agents holding me in some sort of underground base they had, Azula came waltzing in.

"It's almost time, get her ready," she said to the men. Then she looked to me.

I glared at her and fought as they pulled me up to my feet.

"Such fire you have in you, I'd think you were fire nation. Don't worry, you are the perfect persuasion my pitiful brother needs to rejoin my side. That is, if he truly cares about you."

"You think that you can do whatever you want. But trust me when I say that all the evil you have been doing will catch up with you sooner or later and there will be nowhere to run," I said through gritted teeth. I wasn't afraid of her, and she needed to know that.

She narrowed her eyes at me and then turned and started to walk out, "We'll see about that, bring her."

The men started to push me forward, making me stumble. One of them kept their hand on my arm the entire time, probably because he saw what went down between Azula and I. They brought me into a bigger area that seemed to be a cavern. It had greenish-blue crystals coming out of the rock, a waterfall on one of the walls, and streams of water running through the entire place.

I heard footsteps coming down a tunnel to the right, and then all of a sudden more hands grabbed me.

"Let go of me!" I yelled, "Ugh!" I grunted as they forced me down onto the ground. "Let go!" I yelled again, squirming as they attached my bound hands to the ground with rock behind me. I was on my knees, now with my hands behind me in between my legs.

"Shut up!" one of the men growled at me, and sent a rock into my stomach.

I cried out in pain, and leaned forward, breathing heavily. When I looked back up, they were gone. I looked around, they had erected more of that crystal in front of me so that whoever came out of the tunnel didn't immediately see me. I could see through the crystal though, why was that?

I struggled against the rock binding my hands together, when all of a sudden it tightened, causing me to cry out in pain once more.

I heard footsteps coming out from the tunnel, and then two people emerged, running. It was the avatar! I struggled more against the bindings and was about to say something, call out for help, when a blue fire went rushing towards them. The avatar heard it coming and brought up a short wall of rocks to block it.

I looked back to the opening of the tunnel, it was Azula.

The other person that was with the Avatar came running out from around the charred rock, and drug water up with her from a part of the stream. It was the water tribe girl from the abandoned village. Where were the other ones? I watched in awe as Azula blocked the first blow of the water, but then the girl swirled the water immediately back around at her.

All of a sudden, the crystal in front of me disappeared, pulling my attention from the fight. When I looked back, Azula was jumping high out of a cloud of smoke, and punching fire blasts at the avatar and his friend. They both brought out a large stream of water from beside them to block the blue fire. Azula landed on a large column of rock that reached from the ceiling to the floor. With two sharp movements, the avatar brought the column crumbling down, which made Azula jump off and land in between them. She held up her hands both in either direction towards them.

I took a breath, when movement in front of me caught my eye. I looked quickly to what it was. I gasped silently to see Zuko emerge from the tunnel. He looked at me, and I could see in his eyes that something was wrong. He looked away, and sent a large blast of fire towards the group, and it landed in between Azula and the avatar. He kept his arms up in the same position, and walked forward, closing the distance to the group.