Prisoner of War

A Choice of Morals

Rhea sat on the grassy knoll overlooking the beach. The others were messing around below. She knew they were trying to relax. They'd decided Aang was nowhere near ready to face Ozai, which meant they wouldn't hit the Sozin's Comet deadline. She understood why, but she couldn't help thinking about everyone that would suffer from the Fire Nations strengthened bending. It didn't matter what happened. People were going to die.

Out of nowhere, Zuko leapt onto the beach, blasting a stream of fire at Aang. The beach erupted in chaos and the others raced after Zuko as he chased Aang back up to the house.

When they finally caught up and managed to surround Zuko, he stood down. "Sozin's Comet is only a few days away."

The others shared a look and explained their plan to wait.

The explanation didn't seem to relieve his stress, if anything it increased it. "I was invited to one of my father's war meetings. He plans to use the power of Sozin's Comet to burn the Earth Kingdom to the ground." He met Aang's gaze. "If you wait, there won't be a world left to save."
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Rhea watched as Aang brought down his glider towards Ozai's dummy's head. He froze inches from impact.

"I... I can't do it." Aang lowered his glider. "I can't take a life."

Sokka walked over and sliced the melon head in half. "See. It's easy."

Rhea could tell Aang was getting frustrated. She jogged over, but, by the time she reached the others, Aang was already stalking away.

She sighed and watched him soar away on his glider. "I've got it." She started after him, following as best she could from the ground.
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She finally found him sitting on a cliff side, staring at the sunset. She took a deep breath and walked over. "This is becoming a pattern with us."

He looked up as she sat down.

"You okay?" She met his gaze. "Things got a little heated out there."

He sighed, his whole body sagging, and turned back to the water. "I can't do it, Rhea. He's still a person."

She followed his gaze out across the waves. "I get it. There's no one else in this entire world that I want dead more than him." She wrapped her arms around one leg, hugging it tight to her chest. "But I don't know if I could let myself be the one to do it. I have hunted down, imprisoned, killed so many people for him. He deserves to have my sword through his chest." She tightened her grip on her leg. "But it feels wrong, like... if I kill him, it'll prove that I haven't changed - that I'm still the monster he tried to turn me into."

Aang looked at her. "You're not."

She met his gaze. "I know... and you're not one for wanting to stay true to who you are."
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"He's not in the house." Rhea reported as she joined back up with the others outside.

"Where could he have gone?" Katara tried to hide the worry creeping into her voice.

"I don't know, but we need to find him." Rhea scanned the horizon, expecting Aang to appear, walking up the path.

"We should split up." Sokka proposed.

"I'm going with Zuko." Toph exclaimed, grabbing the firebender by the arm. "What? You've all had a life changing trip with Zuko, now it's my turn."

"I'll take the East side of the island." Rhea offered.
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Rhea eyed the scraggly men filling the room as Zuko pushed through the crowd towards a dark-haired woman arm-wrestling a big man. It took Rhea a moment to recognize the Bounty Hunter from the Abbey - the one with the Shirshu.

Rhea stayed close to Zuko as he tried to convince her to help them, eyes roving the rough crowd.

Eventually, the woman led them outside and asked for something with Aang's scent on it. Her Shirshu sniffed the object then walked aimlessly around them, nose to the ground. It wove in a messy circle and laid down, whimpering.

"What does that mean?" Sokka asked.

"You're friend's gone." The bounty hunter replied.

"You mean... dead?" Katara's voice shook over the word.

"No." The woman studied her pet, almost looking concerned. "We could find him if he was dead. I mean gone gone. He doesn't exist."

"How is that possible?" Rhea watched the Shirshu rub it's nose with its forepaws.

She just shrugged.

Zuko stared at the ground in thought. "There's only one other person that might be able to defeat my father." He met Rhea's gaze meaningfully.

Her chest tightened. "Are you sure?"

He nodded. "My uncle." He pulled one of Iroh's sandals out of his bag.

"You kept you're uncle's smelly sandal?" Toph voiced everyone's thoughts.

The Shirshu took a whiff of the shoe and took off through the trees. They leapt onto Appa and took off to keep up.
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Appa landed near the crumbled ruins of a wall. Rhea jumped down, scanning the area for any clues. This is where the bounty hunter had stopped, but she didn't see any signs of Iroh or anyone else.

As she moved closer to the pile of rubble, she froze. They were being watched. She glanced at the others with a wary look, but, they weren't looking at her, they were staring up at the rubble pile. She lifted her gaze to find a group of old men in blue and white robes standing over them.

Sokka and Katara recognized them immediately. Rhea watched as they reunited with their old friends. She could see Zuko almost relax when Iroh didn't make an appearance.

They followed the band of old men to their camp, where more people in blue and white robes, roamed between the tents.

"You're Uncle is in there." One of the men told Zuko, pointing to one of the tents.

Zuko looked at Rhea and she nodded. He needed to see him more than she did. She could wait. She kind of wanted to. She didn't know what to say to him. So much had happened. For all he knew, she was dead. Now she just had to decide if it was better to let him believe that.

A/N:
I'M BACK!!!!! I'm so sorry this took so long to get out. I got stuck in the middle and didn't know where to go with it. 😮‍💨
Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter. Only a couple more left. I'll try to get them out soon.
Thanks for the support guys. ❤️
-Cheshire