Fuel To My Fire - Book Three (ATLA Zuko Fanfiction)

Chapter Fifteen

Sakari's POV

We had landed somewhere, that I had deduced was the middle of nowhere, because Appa had gotten tired, and were walking the rest of the way to the Western Air Temple. Aang's lemur, that I now know is named Momo, was hanging over my shoulder because he seemed to like me a lot.

"This is humiliating." Katara sighed.

"Do you mean getting our asses kicked by the Fire Nation?" I asked.

"Or having to walk all the way to the Western Air Temple?" Sokka added.

"Both." Katara replied.

"Sorry, guys, Appa gets tired carrying all these people." Aang apologised.

"I wonder how the rest of the troops are." The boy in the wheelchair, Teo, stated.

"They're probably on their way to a prison." The guy with the moustache, Haru, suggested. "Seems like my dad just got out, and now he's going back in."

Haru was a handsome guy, when he introduced himself to me, I found it a little hard to form words properly, and Katara had laughed at me for it.

"I miss Pipsqueak." The small boy, The Duke, stated from next to me and Sokka.

"I miss not having blisters on my feet." Sokka complained.

"I miss not being covered in sweat." I added.

Katara, Haru and Teo gave us annoyed looks, when Toph suddenly stopped walking.

"Hey, we're here!" She announced. "I can feel it."

"Um, no we're not Toph." I told her, looking out into a canyon.

"Yeah, I think your feet need their eyes checked." Katara stated.

"No, she's right, we are here." Aang said, sounding as crazy as Toph.

I watched Sokka look around and then turn back to Aang with an extremely confused look on his face, I gave Sokka a look that said, "are they feeling ok" and he shrugged at me.

"It's amazing." Toph announced, making us all even more confused.

Aang signaled for us all to climb onto Appa and we flew down into the canyon, revealing the Western Air Temple that had been built into the side of the cliff. It really was amazing!

"It's so different from the Northern Air Temple." Teo observed. "I wonder if there's any secret rooms!"

"Let's go check it out." Haru suggested, running off with Teo and The Duke right behind him.

Aang started to run after them when Katara blocked his path with his staff, stopping him in his tracks.

"You guys go." Katara told them. "I think we need to talk about some things."

"Why can't I go?" Aang asked, watching the other three run off.

"We need to decide what we're gonna do now." She explained. "And since you're the Avatar, you should probably be a part of this."

"Fair enough." Aang said sadly, sitting on the edge of the fountain next to me. "So, what's the new plan?"

"Well, if you ask me, the new plan is the old plan." Sokka stated. "You just need to master all four elements and confront the Fire Lord before the comet comes."

"Oh, yeah, that's a great idea, I'll just do that." Aang said sarcastically.

"Aang, no one said it'll be easy." Katara told him.

"It's not even gonna be possible. Where am I supposed to find a Firebending teacher?" Aang asked.

"We could look for Jeong Jeong." Katara suggested.

"Who?" I asked, feeling like I didn't belong in this conversation.

"Like we'll ever run into Jeong Jeong again." Aang stated.

"Who?" Toph asked the same question as me, before crossing her arms. "Oh, never mind. If it's important, I'll find out."

"Oh well." Aang said, getting to his feet. "Guess we can't come up with anyone. Why don't we just take a nice tour around the temple?"

Aang took out his glider and jumped off the edge of the temple, Momo followed him, leaving us sitting by the fountain.

"What's up with him?" Toph asked.

"There's gotta be someone who can teach him Firebending." Sokka said, bringing his hand to his chin in deep thought.

"Sokka, can I talk to you for a minute?" I asked, walking away from the group.

"Sure, what's up?" He asked as he caught up to me.

"I think I know someone that can teach Aang Firebending." I told him. "But no one is gonna like it."

"Well, great! Who?" He asked, looking extremely hopeful.

"Zuko." I stated, watching his expression go from happy to angry in a second.

"What?!" He yelled, making Katara and Toph look over to us.

"Sokka, shush." I told him, pulling him further away from the girls.

"What are you talking about, Sakari?" Sokka asked. "Zuko's in the Fire Nation with his psycho family."

"No. He's not." I informed him. "Before the invasion began, he told me that he wanted to leave the Fire Nation."

"Why would he do that?" Sokka asked confused.

"Because he wants to join us. He wants to teach Aang Firebending." I explained. "Sokka, the reason I'm telling you and not Katara or Toph this is because you actually listen to me. You trust me more than anyone else does."

"So, what?" He asked, raising his eyebrow and crossing his arms the way I always did.

"So, I need you to trust me when I tell you that Zuko is a good guy. Yes, he's done some bad things, and I hated him after Ba Sing Se. But he genuinely wants to help us, Sokka." I told him, pleading with him to believe me.

"Sakari, I don't know..." Sokka said, he was unconvinced.

"Just promise me that you won't completely shut him down if he comes to us." I pleaded, staring him dead in the eyes.

"Alright." He sighed. "But if he attacks us, I won't hold back."

"I wouldn't expect anything less." I told him, hugging Sokka as a thank you.

"Hey! Sokka! Sakari! Coming for a ride?" We heard Toph shout.

We turned and saw Toph and Katara sitting on Appa, waiting for us to finish our conversation. We ran to Appa and climbed into his saddle, floating up into the air and cruising around the temple. We spotted Aang and Momo ahead of us and flew in closer to him; Katara and Sokka were trying to get him to come down, while Toph and I chilled quietly in the saddle.

"Aang, can we talk about you learning Firebending now?" Katara asked.

"What?" Aang asked, faking that he couldn't hear her. "I can't hear you; the wind is too loud in my ears. Check out this loop!"

We watched Aang as he happily did a small loop in the air, gliding around above us.

"Aang! I really think we should be making some plans for the future." Sokka told him.

"Ok, we can do that while I show you the giant Pai Sho table." Aang stated, landing back next to the fountain. "And you're gonna love the all-day echo chamber."

"I think that will have to wait." Toph stated, sounding serious all of a sudden.

Toph pointed behind us, and Appa moved out of the way to reveal someone standing there. It was Zuko. I looked at everyone's expressions and they were all furious, but I gave him a small smile and nodded for him to speak, hoping that he was here for the right reasons.

"Hello, Zuko here." He greeted us, making me internally facepalm.