The Protectors: A Hero's Heart (Book 1: Growth; An A:TLA Fanfiction)

Chapter 20: Response, Redemption and Reconciliation

Somewhere near the battle...

Zuko, Ty Lee, Mai, Ryoske and Shang-Yo finally found one of the vacant houses. This vacant house was meant for Ryoske, Shang-Yo and Kugo to eat dinner and sleep for the night. They had placed the canoe and the paddles beside the house. Now, they took a look at the house.

This Ember Island house had beige walls with a brown door and two windows. The roof was golden yellow.

"Whoa," Shang-Yo reacted. You could see Ty Lee moving her right hand above her eyes. Its side was close to getting in contact with her eyebrows. "That sure is a simple house, but that's okay," Shang-Yo continued. Then, he turned to Ryoske with a friendly smile. "I'm sure it will fit all three of us."

Ryoske turned to Shang-Yo with a friendly smile. "Yeah. Maybe so. We'll see if this house can fit us when we get inside."

Just as Zuko, Mai, Ty Lee, Ryoske and Shang-Yo were about to step inside the house, an explosion occurred in a far distance behind them. They turned to see smoke erupting in the area far from them.

Once they saw it, Zuko's eyebrows furrowed. "Azula. What is she doing with Kugo?"

"I dunno, but I know there's something between Azula and Kugo," Shang-Yo said. "We better check it out."

Ryoske and Zuko nodded. "Right," they said in unison.

With that, Zuko, Ryoske and Shang-Yo ran to where the explosion came from. As they disappeared in sight, Ty Lee called out to them. "Mai and I will just stay here and guard this place!"

"This is going to be a long night," Mai said as she pulled out one of her throwing knives and played around with it.

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Later on...

Zuko, Ryoske and Shang-Yo finally made it to where the explosion came from. Their faces were held with extreme shock as they were face-to-face with Azula and Kugo fighting each other.

Zuko, Ryoske and Shang-Yo saw Kugo and Azula blasting at each other with their firebending. When one was taken down, he or she would always get back up and continue to fight.

"What's going on?" Zuko asked.

"I don't know..." Ryoske said as an image of Kugo igniting his flames before he left with Shang-Yo, Zuko, Mai and Ty Lee ran through his head. "...but I bet it has something to do with Kugo igniting his flames before we left." He turned to Zuko and Shang-Yo. "We need to find a way to stop this fight and figure out what's going on."

"I agree. Fighting needlessly is not good. If things go too far, we'll stop this fight at all costs," Shang-Yo said.

Zuko nodded. "Yeah, but we have to be careful. I don't know about Kugo, but Azula is much stronger and smarter than you think. She could burn you without realizing it."

"In that case, we'll just have to convince them to stop this fight," Shang-Yo said.

"Yeah, I agree," Ryoske said.

"Same as you, Ryoske," Zuko said, turning to Ryoske. Then, he turned back to the fighting scene.

As Kugo kept blasting his flames at Azula, a question popped into his head. One that he'd been wanting to ask since the moment he knew Zuko and Azula captured Iroh.

"Why, Azula?"

Kugo blasted streams of flames from both his hands and launched them towards Azula. She dodged them and sent a stream of flame from her left hand. Kugo rolled over his body, dodging it.