The Fire Within - an atla fanfic (Zuko x OC)

(Let Him Go) Bismillah!

I needed to shove my conversation with Azula to the back of my mind. I had other things to think about right now. I tightened the tourniquet around my thigh and flinched. It was hurting. I lrt out a wimper of pain and continued to run towards the balloons. A few guards were in front of the balloon I had my eye on. They noticed my approaching them, and I got into a shaky stance. I wasn't sure how I was planning on doing this.

"Hey! Didn't you hear theres a curfew! What are you doing here?" One of the guards said to me, getting in a fighting stance.

"I need one of the balloons." I stated plainly. "Let me take one, and I'll be on my way."

"Doesn't seem like you have room to bargain." One of the other guards replied. "So you might as well just hand yourself in."

I found that I was usually better at talking than fighting, but I was too mentally exhuasted to think of something to say. So, I sent a wave of fire at all of them. I guess I forgot I was physically exhuasted too. Zuko would be there soon, it would be fine.

The three guards exchanged a glance, and then started firing back at me.

I ducked down and spun around to dodge their attacks. As I spun, I kicked a stream of fire, knocking one of the guards over. Thankfully, they didn't seem too skilled. At least I thought. One of the guards snapped fire right at me, and I had to use my hands to spread the fire away from my face. I stepped back as the second guard blasted some fire towards me. I narrowly missed it. It wasn't long until the first guard I knocked over got back up, and they were following me as I uneasily tried to retreat.

I took my father's watch out of my pocket and glanced at it in worry. The eclipse ended 10 minutes prior. Why wasn't Zuko here yet? As I glanced down, one of the guards shot at me, and I dropped the watch on the ground in pain as my arm got burnt. Ironically, it was the same place I had been burnt at Ember Island. And it was almost done healing too.

I really wasn't sure what do to at this point, so I just started wildly throwing fire at them. At least this way they couldn't hit me again.

I relaxed in relief when I heard Zuko's voice calling me in between the blasts of fire. I fixed my stance and focused on one of the guards, punching several flames at him. Zuko ran next to me and started attacking the other two. Within a minute, we had taken all of them out.

"Thank God you're here." I said shakily. "I was worried you weren't gonna show up."

Zuko grabbed my hand and we jogged over to the balloons. Zuko didn't speak until we had stolen the balloon and were rising off the ground.

"I talked to him." He spoke. I could tell from his voice that he had gone through something.

I fell onto the seat in the balloon and watched as we rose up. "What happened?"

"I told him how messed up the Fire Nation is, and he didn't seem to like it too much. So he shot lightning at me." He stated.

I attempted to stand up to comfort him, but my leg said otherwise. "Well, you're safe. And we are leaving now." I reassured. I didn't even want to go into what I did.

I watched as Zuko threw fire into the balloon to keep it flying.

Zuko finished after a few minutes and turned to me. "Did you see.." He started before looking at my leg. "Ash, you're bleeding." He stated quickly.

I glanced down and saw my bandages were red. "That's probably why it hurts so bad."

"Yeah, probably." Zuko replied with sarcasm.

"I can fix it, I can fix it." I said quietly. "The guards at the prison wouldn't give me anything for it, that's why it's still messed up." I undid my tourniquet and cringed. My flesh looked like something from a horror movie.