ATLA Shorts

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“Why should I?”

“Well if you want to get burned...” He twisted until he’d freed an arm, and lifted it as high as he could before lighting a flame above his palm. The sudden illumination caused Katara to blink and shake her head, and the strands of her hair whipped across his face. Despite the stinging, Zuko caught himself thinking that her hair smelled great.

Wait, what? Great, now I’m losing my mind. Maybe this is all a crazy dream.

“Katara, pinch me.”

“I’d love to, but I’m a little stuck!” Her blue eyes glared fire at him, and Zuko sighed. He’d almost forgotten that she hated him. “Any ideas about what just happened?”

“You mean about the earth just opening up and swallowing us? Yeah, I’ve got one or two.”

“You gonna share them?”

“Why should I, so you can use them against me?”

Zuko sighed again, rolling his eyes. “Katara, how many times do I have to tell you I’ve changed before you’re going to believe me?”

“You could repeat it forever and it wouldn’t be--” she stopped talking, and her glinting eyes narrowed. “What did you say?”

“Uh... that I’ve changed?” 

“No, before that. Before we got sucked down here. You said something about my mother.”

“Oh, yeah. That. Sokka told me what happened, and I know who killed her.” 

Katara stared at him, blinking as if she didn't believe it. Then she started struggling again. “We need to get out of here! AANG! SOKKA!” Zuko flinched and tried to cover his ears, shaking his head. “Stop yelling! Are you trying to make me deaf?!”

“Do you have any better ideas, genius?”

“Uh... we could... try to talk out our differences?”

“Not a chance.”

“I thought you might say that.” His arm was falling asleep, and holding it up was becoming more and more difficult. And it was obvious that there was no way out, so they didn’t need the light anyway. Zuko let the flame go out, and dropped his hand, resting it against the wall and Katara’s shoulder. “Didn’t you say you had some ideas about what happened to us just now?”

She was quiet for so long that Zuko thought she might not answer, but finally she sighed and spoke. “It has to be Toph, who else could it be?”

“Why would Toph trap us down here? That doesn’t make sense.”

“Do you have any better ideas?”

“.... no.”

“I didn’t think so.” 

Zuko ignored the smug tone in her voice and moved on. “So what do we do now?”

“Tell me who killed my mother.”

“The Southern Raiders. Sokka said there were sea ravens on the flags of the lead ship, and they’re the symbol of the SR. If we can find where their fleet is, we can find the man who took your mom.”

“How do we find their fleet?”

“We’ll need to find a Fire Navy communication tower. All the Navy’s movements are coordinated by messenger hawk, and every tower has to be up to date on where everyone is deployed.”

“So once we find a communication tower, we bust in and take the information we need.” 

“Not exactly. We need to be stealthy and make sure no one spots us. Otherwise, they’ll warn the Southern Raiders, long before we reach them. But first, we have to get out of here.”